Customer service (also known as Client Service) is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.
According to Turban et al, 2002 “Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation”
Its importance varies by product, industry and customer. As an example, an expert customer might require less pre-purchase service (i.e., advice) than a novice. In many cases, customer service is more important if the purchase relates to a “service” as opposed to a “product".
Customer service may be provided by a person (e.g., sales and service representative), or by automated means called self-service. Examples of self service are Internet sites.
Customer service is normally an integral part of a company’s customer value proposition.
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Implementation of customer service
Customer service may be employed to generate such competitive advantage as a particular service proposition can be harder to copy for competitors.
The implementation of a particular customer service proposition must consider several elements of the organization.
Customer service means always going beyond the expectation of the customers
Competitive advantage
A company may attempt to differentiate itself from its competition through the provision of better customer service. The consistent delivery of superior service requires the careful design and execution of a whole system of activities that includes people, technology, and processes; although, the rewards will include improved revenue from customers that are impressed with the service provided.The relation should not be only a buyer seller relation but beyond.
Role of technology
Technology has made available a wide range of customer service tools. They range from support websites and the ability to have live chats with technical staff to databases tracking individual customers' preferences, pattern of buying, payment methods etc., and tailoring products and service responses based on this advanced data. Specialist software that is designed for the tracking of service levels and for helping recognize areas for improvement are often integrated into other enterprise operational software tools such as ERP software.
Many companies have started to use new channels to capture customer feedback. With record number of people now communicating through mobile phone and sending texts, many argue that the next wave of customer feedback will primarily be captured through channels familiar to most consumers, such as mobile email and SMS. This will enable companies to track the opinions of their customers much more easily and gain valuable insight into how to improve service quality and enhance the customer experience.
Accountability
Customers tend to be more forgiving of organizations who acknowledge and apologize for their mistakes rather than denying them. Taking responsibility for mistakes and correcting them is considered an important aspect of good customer service. When a customer experiences poor service and is ignored, the customer is less likely to return to that company again.
Customer Perception
In the United States, Customer Service provided over the telephone varies widely in quality and particularly in the wait times experienced by customers. The extremely long wait times experienced when attempting to reach large companies is a common experience shared by many Americans, and often the subject of jokes and frustration. For example, the calm, cool analysis of customer service provided in this article would be scoffed at by many who have actually attempted to obtain such service.
Instant feedback
Recently, many organizations have implemented feedback loops that allow them to capture feedback at the point of experience. For example, one of the UK's leading coach companies invites passengers to send text messages whilst riding the bus. This has been shown to be useful as it allows companes to improve their customer service before the customer defects, thus making it far more likely that the customer will return next time.
Definition:
Customer service is an organization's ability to supply their customers' wants and needs.
Customers and business managers alike like to talk about what good customer service is (and isn't), but I think this definition by ACA Group sums up what excellent customer service is beautifully: "excellent customer service (is) the ability of an organization to constantly and consistently exceed the customer's expectations."
Accepting this definition means expanding our thinking about customer service; if we're going to consistently exceed customers' expectations, we have to recognize that every aspect of our business has an impact on customer service, not just those aspects of our business that involve face-to-face customer contact.
Improving customer service involves making a commitment to learning what our customers' needs and wants are, and developing action plans that implement customer friendly processes.
Good Customer Service Made Simple
Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business. You can offer promotions and slash prices to bring in as many new customers as you want, but unless you can get some of those customers to come back, your business won’t be profitable for long.
Good customer service is all about bringing customers back. And about sending them away happy – happy enough to pass positive feedback about your business along to others, who may then try the product or service you offer for themselves and in their turn become repeat customers.
If you’re a good salesperson, you can sell anything to anyone once. But it will be your approach to customer service that determines whether or not you’ll ever be able to sell that person anything else. The essence of good customer service is forming a relationship with customers – a relationship that that individual customer feels that he would like to pursue.
How do you go about forming such a relationship? By remembering the one true secret of good customer service and acting accordingly; “You will be judged by what you do, not what you say.”
I know this verges on the kind of statement that’s often seen on a sampler, but providing good customer service IS a simple thing. If you truly want to have good customer service, all you have to do is ensure that your business consistently does these things:
1) Answer your phone.
Get call forwarding. Or an answering service. Hire staff if you need to. But make sure that someone is picking up the phone when someone calls your business. (Notice I say “someone”. People who call want to talk to a live person, not a “fake recorded robot”.) For more on answering the phone, see Phone Answering Tips to Win Business.
2) Don’t make promises unless you WILL keep them.
Not plan to keep them. Will keep them. Reliability is one of the keys to any good relationship, and good customer service is no exception. If you say, “Your new bedroom furniture will be delivered on Tuesday”, make sure it is delivered on Tuesday. Otherwise, don’t say it. The same rule applies to client appointments, deadlines, etc.. Think before you give any promise – because nothing annoys customers more than a broken one.
3) Listen to your customers.
Is there anything more exasperating than telling someone what you want or what your problem is and then discovering that that person hasn’t been paying attention and needs to have it explained again? From a customer’s point of view, I doubt it. Can the sales pitches and the product babble. Let your customer talk and show him that you are listening by making the appropriate responses, such as suggesting how to solve the problem.
4) Deal with complaints.
No one likes hearing complaints, and many of us have developed a reflex shrug, saying, “You can’t please all the people all the time”. Maybe not, but if you give the complaint your attention, you may be able to please this one person this one time - and position your business to reap the benefits of good customer service.
5) Be helpful - even if there’s no immediate profit in it.
The other day I popped into a local watch shop because I had lost the small piece that clips the pieces of my watch band together. When I explained the problem, the proprietor said that he thought he might have one lying around. He found it, attached it to my watch band – and charged me nothing! Where do you think I’ll go when I need a new watch band or even a new watch? And how many people do you think I’ve told this story to?
6) Train your staff (if you have any) to be ALWAYS helpful, courteous, and knowledgeable.
Do it yourself or hire someone to train them. Talk to them about good customer service and what it is (and isn’t) regularly. Most importantly, give every member of your staff enough information and power to make those small customer-pleasing decisions, so he never has to say, “I don’t know, but so-and-so will be back at...”
7) Take the extra step.
For instance, if someone walks into your store and asks you to help them find something, don’t just say, “It’s in Aisle 3.” Lead the customer to the item. Better yet, wait and see if he has questions about it, or further needs. Whatever the extra step may be, if you want to provide good customer service, take it. They may not say so to you, but people notice when people make an extra effort and will tell other people.
8) Throw in something extra.
Whether it’s a coupon for a future discount, additional information on how to use the product, or a genuine smile, people love to get more than they thought they were getting. And don’t think that a gesture has to be large to be effective. The local art framer that we use attaches a package of picture hangers to every picture he frames. A small thing, but so appreciated.
If you apply these eight simple rules consistently, your business will become known for its good customer service. And the best part? The irony of good customer
Customer Service Skills
One of the most important customer service skills you can develop is the ability to understand and effectively respond to the customer’s needs and concerns. For a long time, sales has been perceived to be mostly about trying to convince the customer that he needs the product. Excellent customer service starts by first taking the time to get to know the customer, his situation, his vision, his frustrations and his goals. Our Customer Service Skills seminar will guide you in how to get a grasp of these key issues. Once you have a good handle on what is on his heart and mind, then you will know how to offer the customer helpful solutions that are attractive to him because they have value to him.
Is Customer Service Outdated
Tom Peters tells us that 70% of customers hit the road not because of price or product quality issues, but because they did not like the human side of doing business with the provider of the product or service. Research conducted by The Forum Corporation supports this fact and indicates that 45% of these customers said they switched to another company because the attention they did receive was poor in quality.
Customers today are often treated like a nuisance, instead of the reason that a company is in business at all. Products and services continue to increase in cost. Customer service, on the other hand, continues to decline. Dealing with surly cashiers who seem to have more important things to do than ring up your sale are the rule rather than the exception. Having a product delivered to your home means giving up hours out of your day to wait. It seems that businesses today have forgotten how valuable customers actually are. Without customers, no one earns a paycheck.
In the Pursuit of Wow, author, Tom Peters, talks about two things that companies known for outstanding service do better than anyone else - they step out and they stand out. Delivering WOW service is a commitment to do whatever it takes to serve the customer, and that commitment must be imprinted on the hearts and minds of every single employee. Only then can any organization stand apart from their competition.
Thousands of books and articles are written on the topic of customer service. Executives constantly tout the importance of providing superior service, and everyone seems to agree that it is essential to long-term business success, especially in today’s competitive marketplace. Why then don’t more company’s deliver?
Most of us have come to believe that outstanding customer service is just a thing of the past. Mediocre service (or worse) is the norm. When a company actually delivers great service, it is almost too good to be true.
Providing great customer service is not that difficult, is it? IBM founder Thomas Watson is attributed with saying, “if you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work. Words to live by! Customers want to work with those businesses who demonstrate a sincere desire to help them with anything they need, and they are willing to pay for it. Yes, they want products to work and services that meet their needs. More importantly though, they want someone to care when something goes wrong.
During my 20-year corporate career, I have watched more than one employer overcomplicate the issue. Consistently, corporations today are more internally than externally focused. Time is wasted producing study after study trying to determine if customers are satisfied, and if not, why not. Then, months may go by while fancy customer service program is designed, which is supposed to measurably improve customer satisfaction. In the meantime, nothing changes.
Mediocre service is delivered because corporations today do not hold every employee accountable for delivering world-class service. Everyone’s job is deliver service that knocks people over, and research suggests that the winning, customer focused companies treat their employees well. They motivate and reward employees who deliver outstanding service. Bonuses and raises can certainly be tied to customer service performance. Or, employees can be rewarded and publicly acknowledged when they put service about all else. Both approaches make it crystal clear that service to the customer is the organization’s number one priority.
Corporations can also empower employees - through action, not words - to do whatever it takes to keep customers coming back. The Ritz-Carlton, winner of the 1992 Malcolm Baldridge National Quaility award gives every employee the autonomy to serve customers in any way they deem appropriate, which includes giving hotel housekeepers the ability to spend up to $2,000 to solve a customer problem. That is what I call empowerment.
Based on my own professional experience, I have defined four rules crucial to delivering winning customer service:
Rule #1: Listen! When customers complain there is a reason. More importantly, it is an opportunity to learn something, so hear them out without interrupting or arguing.
Rule #2: Don’t take it personally. Customer complaints are about products or service that did not live up to their expectations or the marketing hype. Taking it personally, getting defensive, or getting angry only makes the situation worse.
Rule #3: Offer a sincere apology for the inconvenience. Put yourself in your customer's shoes. Remember what it feels like when something you have purchased did not do the job it was supposed too, or caused an even bigger problem than the one it was supposed to solve.
Rule #4: Never say, “It’s not my job or my department or my responsibility.” If you work at the company that made the product or sold the service - it is your job! Make a personal commitment to do whatever it takes to fix the problem even if it is not in your job description.
In the end, only those companies with an ongoing commitment to listen and serve can consistently keep their customers delighted.
IBM Global Services > Business issues >
Improving customer relationships
Intro | Services | Case studies | Literature | Related items
Companies in virtually every industry face an almost insolvable problem: how to reduce operating costs and maintain profitability in the face of soaring customer expectations.
In an atmosphere of extreme price sensitivity, customers are demanding more service, more convenience and more personalised communications. Businesses must maximise every interaction with their customers to make positive impressions and drive loyalty and preference.
At IBM, we regard Customer Service and Loyalty as a journey, not a destination. It involves shifting your focus from your products and channels to your customer. It means streamlining and integrating your sales, marketing and customer service.
Done right, the results can be extremely powerful:
• Lower contact centre costs
• Increased customer satisfaction and sales conversion rates
• Improved sales performance across all channels (direct, indirect and partner)
• Reduced field service operations costs
A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us – we are dependent on him.
Unknown
A sale is not something you pursue, it is something that happens to you while you are immersed in serving your customer.
Unknown
As far as customers are concerned you are the company. This is not a burden, but the core of your job. You hold in your hands the power to keep customers coming back – perhaps even to make or break the company.
Unknown
Be everywhere, do everything, and never fail to astonish the customer.
Macy's Motto
Being on par in terms of price and quality only gets you into the game. Service wins the game.
Tony Alessandra
Biggest question: Isn’t it really ‘customer helping’ rather than customer service? And wouldn’t you deliver better service if you thought of it that way?
Jeffrey Gitomer
Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.
Henry Ford
Common sense if of paramount importance in business and customer service.
Unknown
Customer complaints are the schoolbooks from which we learn.
Unknown
Customer service is awareness of needs, problems, fears and aspirations.
Unknown
Although your customers won’t love you if you give bad service, your competitors will.
Kate Zabriskie
Customer service is training people how to serve clients in an outstanding fashion.
Unknown
Customers are an investment. Maximize your return.
PeopleSoft Ad
Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.
Donald Porter V.P., British Airways
Customers who don't get support become someone else's customers.
Brigade Ad
Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.
Walt Disney
Don’t try to tell the customer what he wants. If you want to be smart, be smart in the shower. Then get out, go to work and serve the customer!
Gene Buckley, Sikorsky Aircraft
Every great business is built on friendship.
JC Penney
Forget about the sales you hope to make and concentrate on the service you want to render.
Harry Bullis
Good leaders must first become good servants.
Robert Greenleaf
Good service is good business.
Siebel ad
Here is a simple but powerful rule: always give people more than what they expect to get.
Nelson Boswell
I don't think companies will ever be really done with being as focused on their customers as they could be.
Adam Klaber
I won't complain. I just won't come back.
Brown & Williamson Tobacco Ad
If Franz Kafka were alive today he'd be writing about customer service.
Jonathan Alter
If the shopper feels like it was poor service, then it was poor service. We are in the customer perception business.
Mark Perrault, Rally Stores
If we don’t take care of our customers, someone else will.
Unknown
If you don’t genuinely like your customers, chances are they won’t buy.
Tom Watson
If you don’t understand that you work for your mislabeled subordinates, then you know nothing of leadership. You know only tyranny.
Dee Hock, CEO Emertus Visa Int’l
If you get everybody in the company involved in customer service, not only are they 'feeling the customer' but they're also getting a feeling for what's not working. That's the key -listening to make sure that you understand the customers and that you make them feel that you understand. When a customer calls up with a complaint, we obviously can't change the past. But we have to deal with the problem.
Penny Handscomb
If you want to be creative in your company, your career, your life, all it takes is one easy step… the extra one. When you encounter a familiar plan, you just ask one question: What ELSE could we do?
Dale Dauten
In business you get what you want by giving other people what they want.
Alice MacDougall
In the world of Internet Customer Service, it's important to remember your competitor is only one mouse click away.
Doug Warner
It starts with respect. If you respect the customer as a human being, and truly honor their right to be treated fairly and honestly, everything else is much easier.
Doug Smith
Let me pass, I have to follow them, I am their leader.
Alexandra Ledru-Rollin
Maybe 'Customer Service' should be more than one department.
SAP Ad
Never underestimate the power of the irate customer.
Joel Ross
Organizations have more to fear from lack of quality internal customer service than from any level of external customer service.
Ron Tillotson
People don’t want to communicate with an organization or a computer. They want to talk to a real, live, responsive, responsible person who will listen and help them get satisfaction.
Theo Michelson, State Farm Insurance
People expect good service but few are willing to give it.
Robert Gately
People perform best and deliver the best customer service when they like what they do.
Unknown
Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it. It is what the client or customer gets out of it.
Peter Drucker
Quality, is job one.
Ford Company
Service standards keep rising. As competitors render better and better service, customers become more demanding. Their expectations grow. When every company's service is shoddy, doing a few things well can earn you a reputation as the customer's savior. But when a competitor emerges from the pack as a service leader, you have to do a lot of things right. Suddenly achieving service leadership costs more and takes longer. It may even be impossible if the competition has too much of a head start. The longer you wait, the harder it is to produce outstanding service.
William H. Davidow
The customer’s perception is your reality.
Kate Zabriskie
The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.
Max DePree
The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitude of mind.
William James, Psychologist
The longer you wait, the harder it is to produce outstanding customer service.
William H. Davidow
The purpose of a business is to create a mutually beneficial relationship between itself and those that it serves. When it does that well, it will be around tomorrow to do it some more.
John Woods
The quality of our work depends on the quality of our people.
Unknown
The single most important thing to remember about any enterprise is that there are no results inside its walls. The result of a business is a satisfied customer.
Peter Drucker
The true leader serves. Serves people. Serves their best interests, and in doing so will not always be popular, may not always impress. But because true leaders are motivated by loving concern rather than a desire for personal glory, they are willing to pay the price.
Eugene B. Habecker
The way to a customer’s heart and wallet lies in how well we initially serve our customers and recover from poor service.
Unknown
There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.
Roger Staubach
There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.
Sam Walton
There's a place in the world for any business that takes care of its customers--after the sale.
Harvey MacKay
To begin with, that use of automation on the phone lines is a bad move. Call centers are designed to get 'em on the line, get 'em off the line. But what companies forget is that customers know when they're being treated badly. And when you're not treated well, you're going to go somewhere else or make the company pay. You're going to call back, madder, and go for management -maybe with lawsuits.
Ann Humphries
To my customer. I may not have the answer, but I’ll find it. I may not have the time, but I’ll make it.
Unknown
Treat every customer as if they sign your paycheck … because they do.
Unknown
Unless you have 100% customer satisfaction … you must improve.
Horst Schulz
Washrooms will always tell if your company cares about its customers.
Unknown
We make our money out of our friends. Our enemies will not do business with us.
Elbert Hubbard
Well done is better than well said.
Benjamin Franklin
What we are doing is satisfying the American public. That is our job. I always say we have to give most of the people what they want most of the time. That is what is expected of us.
William Paley
Whatever your business is, talk to your customers and provide them with what they want. It makes sense.
Robert Bowman, CEO Major League Baseball Advanced Media
When you serve the customer better, there's always a return on your investment.
Kara Parlin
When you start viewing your customers as interruptions, you're going to have problems.
Kate Zabriskie
Without great employees you can never have great customer service.
Richard F. Gerson
You are serving a customer, not a life sentence. Learn how to enjoy your work.
Laurie McIntosh
You cannot always control circumstances, but you can control your own thoughts.
Charles Popplestown
You have to perform at a consistently higher level than others. That’s the mark of a true professional. Professionalism has nothing to do with getting paid for your services.
Joe Paterno
You’ll never have a product or price advantage again. They can be easily duplicated, but a strong customer service culture can’t be copied.
Jerry Fritz
Your best customers leave quite an impression. Do the same, and they won't leave at all.
SAP Ad
Your customers expect your entire operation to revolve around them.
SAP Ad
Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.
Bill Gates
What's New On Workhelp.org
The Art Of Cooperative Language
Written by Robert Bacal
The language we use can make us appear confrontational or cooperative. Discover the different messages that each language type can send to the customer.
Confrontational language sends the following messages:
• you are absolutely certain you are right
• you are unwilling to consider the other person's position
• challenges the other person to back up what they say
• has a harsh, confrontational tone
• the other person has no choices
• tends to blame the customer
• doesn't leave the customer an out
When you use confrontational language you will tend to encourage the customer to also use confrontational language. This generally causes the situation to escalate, as each of you increases the force and energy used in the conversation.
Cooperative language sends the following messages:
• you are willing to consider the other person's position
• you recognize you COULD be wrong (but not likely)
• invites person to discuss rather than challenges
• has a milder, cooperative tone
• leaves room for choice
• tends to blame nobody
• helps customer save face
Using cooperative language helps the customer to realize that you are not the stereotypical bureaucrat, who never admits to beging wrong, and is uninterested and uncaring. The customer also realizes you are trying to work WITH them, on the same side, to help deal with the problem, or make the best of a bad situation. .... While we recommend that you use as much cooperative language as possible, there may be occasions where stronger and more challenging language is appropriate. The key is being able to assess the situation, and your customer.......The general rule is to stick with cooperative language until it is clear that stronger statements are needed.
What's New On Workhelp.org
Defusing Tactic # 29 - Empathy Statements
Written by Robert Bacal
Learn how to apply Tactic # 29– Empathy Statements - in order to acknowledge the feelings and situation of the angry or hostile customer.
Empathy statements PROVE to the person that you understand their emotional state.....and are most effective when you demonstrate that you also understand WHY the individual is upset....empathy statements do not involve AGREEING with the client, or condoning his or her abusive behavior. Empathy statements just convey that you are interested and concerned, and that you understand. Nothing more, and nothing less.
Defuing Tactic# 21: Use Surprise
Written by Robert Bacal
Learn how to apply Tactic # 21 in order to gain and maintain control over hostile interactions.
If you want to confuse the verbal attacker long enough to use other techniques, and get the attacker to start responding to you use, unexpected, surprising and novel statements and questions. When you do this, it causes the attacker to stop and think......they stop talking or ranting long enough for you to gain control.
As an example the customer suggested the employee could "take his forms and stick them where the sun don't shine". The employee responded with "I would love to oblige you on that, but unfortunately, I have five file folders, six other forms and a large filing cabinet up there, and quite honestly, I dont' think that there is room for much more". The customer was surprised, paused, and then begain laughing. The employee was able to regain control.......in this real life example, this humor/surprise tactic worked effectively. However, it could have easily escalated the situation if it hadn't been said in an appropriate tone of voice.
What's New On Workhelp.org
Starting A Customer Conversation Successfully
Written by Robert Bacal
Whether you deal with customers in person or on the phone, the way yuo begin a conversation or interaction will affect how the customer treats you. You know what they say -- first impressions are hard to change. Compare the way that you begin customer interactions with our suggested inclusions.
• An affective greeting includes:
o appropriate nonverbal behavior
eye contact posture
that indicates interest
o appropriate tone of voice
friendly
calm
• Generating Rapport - When a client approaches you, your greeting should be short and to the point. But sometimes, it is more appropriate to spend a bit of time in conversation before getting down to business. .....spend a minute or two asking questions or talking on subjects other than the reason you are there. The purpose is to establish a form of relationship with the individual, or to recognize that a relationship already exists.
• Using Names - People like to hear their own names. Likewise, they like to know your name. The use of names helps both parties see each other as real people, and as unique individuals. When possible you want to use the person's name as early as you can. You probably want to give your name, if that is appropriate.
The Art Of Self-Control In A Hostile Situation
Written by Robert Bacal
You can't take control of a hostile situation unless you can control yourself. Review some tactics and strategies that may, or may not be new to you.
One of the most difficult parts of the defusing hostility process is maintaining control over oneself. After all, hostile clients often say things that are personally demeaning or insulting...........If you allow yourself to get angry, and convey that anger to the customer, the situation is more likely to get worse rather than better. Some useful tactics to employ follow, remember you need to find out what works for you:
• Identify your triggers
• Slow down your responses
• Take a time-out
• I'm better than that
• I'm not getting suckered
• I won't pay the price
• Put on their shoes
• Observing
• Preparing
• Humor
• Venting/not venting
Defusing Tactic # 16: Use Of We
Written by Robert Bacal
Something you want to do is give the impression that you are working WITH the client, not against them. You may find that replacing the words "you" and "I" with WE can give the impression you are on the same side as the client. Read about some basic rules for the use of we.
Be careful not to use We in a conversation. Pick your spots so the use of We makes sense. For example, it is nonsensical to say to someone "well, Sir, we need to fill out our forms before they can be processed". This sounds patronizing, and sounds like we are speaking to a child. But if a customer calls, or comes in complaining that you have incorrect information about them, it may be appropriate to say: "I guess we'd better take a look at that" or "Let's see what we can do about that".
Solving The Government Customer Issue
In our work in training government staff to deal with abusive or hostile members of the public, we often refer to those members of the public as "customers". Occasionally, we will be asked to do seminars on this topic but to eliminate the word "customer" from the title because many government staff reject the idea that government customers are the same as, let's say customers of Wal-Mart of any other retail or service establishment.
The difficulty with this resistance is that if we don't consider the public our "customers" that we run the risk of acting in bureaucratic, non-responsive ways, fulfilling exactly the negative expectations of taxpayers and users of government services. Resistance to the use of the word "customer" is generally based on an inaccurate notion of what the word customer means, in retail, service or public sectors. Let's clarify this.
The major confusion about the word customer lies in the old saying: The customer is always right. Clearly, if this accurately describes customers, then it does not apply to government situations, simply because government has
obligations above and beyond providing a direct beneficial service to the public.
Frequently, government regulates, or requires things that are NOT beneficial to an individual. Governments collect taxes, apply regulations and so on that are sometimes distasteful to those at the other end. If the customer is always right, then we have a problem. We need to collect taxes even if the "customer" doesn't want to pay them. We need to regulate even if the customer doesn't want to be regulated.
The problem is the saying. The customer is always right has never, ever been accurate in any sector. No business follows that rule. Period. I cannot go into Wal-Mart and steal something just because I am a customer of Wal-Mart. I cannot get lasagna from a restaurant that specializes in chinese food just because I am the customer. In the exact same way, I cannot get everything I want from government, just because I am the customer. There is simply no difference. What we need to do is define what we mean by the word customer much more clearly, to eliminate this silly myth.
The Word: Customer
We need a way of thinking about customers that allows us to think about the customer as important, but not tyrannical. We need a way of thinking about customers that is realistic across sectors, and reflects what we all know: the customer is not always right.
The customer (be it in private or public sector) is someone with whom we interact with for a specific purpose. We conduct transactions with the customer within a set of rules or constraints that exist, again regardless of sector. For example, while I may be a customer of Wal-Mart, I must conduct myself in accordance with a set of "rules" or expectations that are part of the relationship.
I cannot steal, I cannot destroy their property, and I cannot abuse their staff. I cannot order Chinese food from them. In turn, Wal-Mart has some obligations to me as a customer. I expect that I will be treated with respect by Wal-Mart staff...that I will not be yelled at; that if I have a complaint or concern, that I will be heard and listened to (but not necessarily obeyed). As a customer I expect to be provided with appropriate information and explanations. I expect to be helped even if I can't get what I want.
This is no different than members of the public who serve as "government customers". When I walk in to renew my licence, I expect to be treated politely and efficiently. I expect that I will be provided with appropriate explanations and I expect that if I have a complaint or concern, that I will be listened to even if I can't get my own way. However, as a customer, I cannot order Chinese food from the Motor Vehicle branch, any more than I can order Chinese food from Wal-Mart. Whether we are talking about a government office or a retail establishment the customer operates within the constraints and rules.
Government Customers
The ultimate issue for government with respect to customers is this: Regardless of whether we provide services, products or regulate and apply laws, how can we HELP customers? This is easier with services and products and not so easy for regulation and law application. What we need is a mind-set shift. Where are we and where do we need to go?
The traditional approach to regulation and enforcement is that the mandate is to ensure that people comply with the relevant regulation and enforcement. That is a reality, but it isn't the entire reality. If we focus only on that we reduce those that we regulate to adversaries, non-customers who we must control or manipulate.
There is a different way. In regulation contexts, we can reconceptualize our role within the context of customer. Our role is to HELP customers comply with the regulations or laws so that they are inconvenienced as little as possible. That doesn't mean they won't be inconvenienced at all..what it does mean is that we try, as public sector staff, to make it as easy as possible for customers to understand the why's, how's, etc. It doesn't mean the customer can choose not to be regulated, anymore than a Wal-Mart customer can choose to walk out with a stolen television. It does mean that we help the customer comply with the rules and laws, just like the retail establishment help the customer purchase a television legally, and with the least inconvenience.
Conclusion
Even in government we can use and benefit by a shift to customer focus, provided we understand that using the word customer does not give license to be "right" all the time. By considering our government role as a "helping" role within the context of our jobs, we can keep the customer in a central position without feeling tyrannized by the customer. Let's close with a specific example.
Recently I had the opportunity to speak at a government conference in Reno, for a substantial speaking fee. That meant crossing the border. At the airport I was interviewed by a U.S. immigration official who was loathe to allow me to enter without, minimally, an offer letter, and a copy of my graduate degree (which I don't routinely carry around). So, I didn't, through ignorance, have what I needed to have.
Now there are two ways the immigration official could think of me. He could consider me an adversary; someone he needed to do something to (keep me out), because the law is the law. That's a defensible reasonable position. The problem with it is that it IS adversarial, and would give him licence to play the hard- nosed government regulator; the bureaucrat who need not give me any additional information or help. He could simply say no, and send me back home. That would be his right.
A different mindset, placing me in the position of customer who could be helped would lead to something slightly different. If the immigration official were to help me, what would it look like? Simple. He would attempt to make sure that in future, I would be prepared properly. He would give me information that would help me comply with the immigration rules. He would work with me to see if there was any way that I could be legally admitted, rather than dismiss me out of hand. Note that that doesn't mean shirking his obligation, to apply the immigration lies. But note also that it means working with me to help. That's what customer means in the context of government.
What happened? Actually I got in...he found some way of allowing that. He wasn't so good at the explanation part, or the helping part, but heck, he'd probably been an immigration control officer for decades, rather than a customer service person. Still, he helped.
We all have to deal with difficult, angry or even manipulative customers. The process is usually infuriating, frustrating and time consuming. While it often seems we are at the mercy of unpleasant customers (or people in general), that's not really true. By learning defusing skills, and keeping a mindset that helps you become immune to the insults, barbs and attacks difficult customers make, you can reduce the frustration caused by these situations, while offering better customer service. In this series of articles we'll help you with both the skills and mindset to deal with difficult customer situations. This week, we'll talk about maintaining a mindset that will provide the foundation for coping with them.
What's the best way to think about difficult customers? First, a common reaction people have to nasty or abusive people is to feel out of control or manipulated. Unfortunately, if you feel manipulated, you are more likely to react defensively or aggressively, both of which make the situations much worse. So, here's a first thing to remember. It's so important you should memorize it.
I will not allow the difficult, unpleasant person to make me upset, angry, or frustrated. I will not allow this person (who I hardly even know) to ruin my day, or make me unhappy, because in the scheme of things this person is not important enough to control my life (is anybody, really?).
Second, you need to be clear about your goals when you face a nasty customer. Is it to get even? To humiliate? Often your initial gut reaction to such people is to show them up...to fight back. While that's a normal reaction, guess what happens if you try? The interaction goes on much longer than it would otherwise. And as the situation goes on longer, it's likely to get worse, more upsetting, particularly if the customer decides to go over your head.
You need to be practical and realistic here. Put aside the getting even part (remember, you aren't going to let the customer get your goat), unless you want more unpleasantness. Here's a simple set of goals you can work towards.
• I want to deal with this person professionally.
• I want to end this nasty interaction as quickly as possible (which means NOT throwing gasoline on the fire).
By working towards these simple goals, you will do your job more effectively, and act in ways you can be proud of. Let's make no mistake here. You don't have to like the nasty person, or even wish them well. But what you should be doing (for your own benefit) is to continue to act professionally and calmly, and to avoid doing anything that will prolong the visit to hell the customer is trying to inflict upon you. It's to your benefit to do so.
Is there more to this defusing mindset? Yes. In my work with thousands of employees stuck dealing with angry, difficult or hostile customers, one thing sticks out about how the successful employees think. They take a fundamental position that goes like this.
When this customer is gone, I want to look back at the way I acted (regardless of how it turned out), and say, with pride, that I acted professionally, and constructively, and did not stoop to the childish (aggressive, nasty, etc.) level of the unpleasant customer. I never ever want to feel that I acted badly.
Conclusion
You might notice something about what's written above...something that's different than what others focus on. I don't focus on how it's "good" to be nice to unpleasant people. I don't tell you to smile when you are having your butt kicked verbally. And, I don't hammer on the usual value of customer service. That's because I know that the reason you should work to learn how to defuse angry people is FOR YOU. The benefits and advantages of doing so are overwhelming in terms of reducing stress, enjoying the job and feeling a sense of job satisfaction. Remember that. It's for YOU. And by serving the "better part of yourself, you will, coincidentally, be offering better customer service and become a more effective contributor to your organization.
'But Wait, You Promised ...'
The new economy was built on a promise: The customer would finally be in charge. Why do so many customers feel betrayed?
From: Issue 45 | March 2001 | Page 110 | By: Charles Fishman
I am in the belly of the beast. I have risen early, traveled far, and overcome lines, rudeness, and indifference. Now, heedless of my chances of coming back without serious psychological or physical injury, I am journeying into a swamp that has become a source of boundless irritation, frustration, confusion -- even fury -- for tens of millions of Americans. I open the door and step into a customer-service call center. And not just any call center either -- one that is exclusively devoted to handling problems with cell-phones. It's cool inside and fairly well lit, for a swamp.
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I am carrying the very tool itself: a Sprint PCS cell-phone. I love my Sprint PCS cell-phone. But God help me when I have to call Sprint PCS. I have sometimes called this very building in Fort Worth, Texas. Often, I'm not even sure that the customer-care advocate I finally speak with after I've been waiting on hold for 17 minutes even knows what a cell-phone is.
I have come here at the beginning of a long journey -- really, a quest of the sort that was common in antiquity -- during which I will cross the continent several times and seek out both oracles and common folk. I am determined to unravel a central mystery of life in modern America: Why is customer service so terrible?
At the Sprint PCS call center, I am soon teamed up with customer-care advocate Chad Ehrlich, a gracious 29-year-old with years of experience delivering service by phone. Chad takes a call from a businessman in Lubbock, Texas. The man is upset about his bill: It was running $60 to $100 a month. Suddenly, it has shot up to $1,600. "I'm not going to pay it!" the man declares.
Chad is reserved. "Let me take a look at that bill," he says. Chad whirls through screens of information. "Hold on a moment for me, sir, I'm going to get a representative from the fraud department on the line." Chad puts Lubbock on hold and dials Sprint PCS's fraud department, where he reaches a familiar recorded message and is put on hold. Lubbock is on hold for customer-service rep Chad, and customer-service rep Chad is on hold for more customer service.
A female fraud rep takes Chad's call. She can see from Lubbock's history that he's complained about this problem before. The conversation between Chad and his colleague in fraud is frisky.
Fraud: "He thought he was cloned, but he wasn't."
Chad: "His bills did go from almost nothing to sky-high ..."
Fraud: "We can send him to a cloning specialist and make it 'official' if you want ... "
Chad: "He's denying that he made or received the calls."
The impatient woman from fraud dials the Sprint PCS cloning customer-care department and ... is put on hold.
Do you ever wonder what's going on while you're waiting on hold for customer service? Really, you couldn't even imagine.
Chad, Lubbock's customer-care advocate, is talking to a woman who is Chad's customer-care advocate. She has called her customer-care advocate, who is busy on another call. So now we have two customer-care advocates on hold waiting for a third customer-care advocate. Meanwhile, a fuming customer from Lubbock (who may or may not be trying to rip Sprint off for $1,600) waits. On hold.
That, right there, is customer service in the new economy. It has become a slow, dissatisfying tangle of telephones, computers, Web sites, email, and people that wastes time at a prodigious rate, produces far more aggravation than service, and, most often, leaves you feeling impotent. What's even worse is that this situation is a kind of betrayal. It wasn't supposed to be this way. One of the promises of the new economy was that the customer would finally be in charge. We weren't supposed to need to call customer care -- but if we did, then someone would take our call quickly. (Why not? No one else would be calling.) A customer-service rep would understand our problem practically before we mentioned it, and all would be made right. Everyone believes in delighting the customer.
Don't you spend most of your day delighted? Here's a puzzler. Why do we hear this sentence so often: "We are experiencing higher-than-usual call volumes... . " If you're experiencing higher-than-usual call volumes, then why aren't you experiencing higher-than-usual staffing volumes? How hard is that? What the new economy has done to customer service is exactly the opposite of what everyone predicted would happen. And as chaotic a time as it has been to be a customer, it has been a truly weird time to be delivering customer service. Consider just one example: Five years ago, discount broker Charles Schwab had 1,450 customer-service reps in call centers, and 85% of those reps' time was spent providing real-time quotes and basic company information, and executing trades. Those 1,450 people, sensing the Internet roaring down on them, were worried about their jobs. Rightfully so. At the end of this past year, Charles Schwab's customers did 81% of all of those activities without human assistance. So you would imagine that Schwab could have trimmed its costly battalion of customer-service reps to 1,000, even to 500.
In fact, the number of Schwab reps has tripled to 4,800. But they're not doing what they used to do. Customers have demanded new vistas of service. No one was more surprised than Schwab.
In short, the new economy was supposed to make service better, quicker, and more effective for customers -- and easier and cheaper for companies. None of that has come to pass. What happened? I went on a journey to find out.
Bold Promises, Bad Results
AT&T is running television commercials for its Worldnet Internet service. One ad features a series of stand-up comics who are making jokes about the bad customer service of their Internet providers ("My online service is like my husband: I stare at it for hours, hoping it will move").
Cisco is running a TV commercial that opens with a regular guy on a cordless phone who hears, "Your call will be answered by the next available operator." Halfway through the commercial, the man has fallen asleep, phone to his ear.
Mockery is a great cultural barometer. Bad customer service is one of the universal -- and unifying -- experiences of being an American in the 21st century. You get it at Wal-Mart. You get it at Lord & Taylor. But is customer service really worse than it used to be? A panel of customer-service experts that I assembled couldn't agree.
Don Peppers, 50, of the Peppers and Rogers Group, proponent of "customer-relationship management" and coauthor of the famous One to One Future: "I don't think that customer service sucks. I think it's bad. But I think it's better than it was five years ago."
Len Schlesinger, 48, an expert in customer service, previously senior associate dean and a professor at Harvard Business School, and now executive vice president of The Limited Inc.: "Let's see, we've gone from 'meeting customer expectations,' to 'exceeding customer expectations,' to 'delighting customers,' to 'customer ecstasy.' I hate to see what comes next."
Patricia Seybold, 51, CEO of an e-business consulting company and author of the optimistic book The Customer Revolution: How to Thrive When Customers Are in Control, which is due out this month: "I agree that customer service hasn't gotten better since the Internet came along. It has gotten worse. But companies are beginning to realize that we're very angry at them. Companies that don't wake up and pay attention to this are going to be out of business."
Well, we can only hope.
Customer service is a notoriously slippery concept -- hard to define, apparently impossible to quantify. But there is one guy who knows for sure what's happening to customer service, because he measures it in 65,000 interviews a year with American customers.
Claes Fornell, 53, is a professor at the University of Michigan Business School and an expert on "the economics of customer satisfaction." Fornell is creator and director of the American Customer Satisfaction Index. The ACSI measures how content Americans are with the goods and services that they consume -- in the aggregate, and industry by industry, company by company.
Fornell names names! His online data is a carnival for cranky consumers: You can click through and take glee in the lame scores of all of the companies that you love to hate.
First Union, my bank, is down 10.5% in satisfaction ratings since the index started in 1994.
Wal-Mart, my source for diapers, paper towels, and Tide, is down 10% since the index started and down 4% in just the past year alone.
Fornell conceived this herculean undertaking -- scores are measured quarterly -- because he thought that the U.S. economy was being severely mismeasured. "Eighty percent of GDP is service now," he says. "We have to behave as though we live in a service economy."
The ACSI measures the perceived quality of U.S. economic output -- the experience of being a consumer in the United States. In the past five years, the ACSI is down from 73.7 to 72.9. But that number includes everything from Whirlpool appliances to the experience of shopping on Amazon.com.
Here's the amazing thing: Every measured company in the appliance, beer, car, clothing, food, personal-care, shoe, and soft-drink industries is above the national average. Even the cigarette companies have above-average customer-satisfaction ratings.
Not so for airlines, banks, department stores, fast-food outlets, hospitals, hotels, and phone companies.
It's the service that's bad.
"Oh, I think we can say that for sure," says Fornell.
The Hard Truth(s) About Customer Service
I didn't begin my journey through the service jungle at Sprint PCS by accident, or because I think that the company would be a good target for mockery. Sprint PCS is a pure new-economy company. It offers nothing but service -- and it's digital wireless service to boot. The company's only product is moving voices through the air. The first time that you could have made a Sprint PCS call was December 1996. From a standing start, in four years, the company has grown to 28,328 employees (10,000 in customer care), 9.8 million customers, and annual revenues of roughly $6 billion. Sprint PCS signs up 10,000 new customers each day.
The company has access to every conceivable technological helper: the Net, automated phone services, and the most-sophisticated call centers. And yet, my own experience dealing with Sprint PCS has been consistently aggravating. In eight years of having BellSouth provide our home phone service, I've only had occasion to talk to them three or four times. I've talked to Sprint PCS more than that since Halloween -- always with unhappy results.
Sprint PCS knows the right thing to do. It just can't do it. Faerie Kizzire, 51, senior vice president for Sprint PCS, is in charge of customer service for the company. She's a veteran: She spent nine years at Sprint managing customer service for the long-distance business, then managed customer service for a health-insurance company, and was wooed back to Sprint to create customer care for wireless.
I tell her the story of a call I have just listened to with Chad: Marlene in Ohio has had to call three times just to get a credit for charges that shouldn't have been on her bill in the first place. Before Chad, two customer-care advocates dealt with Marlene by simply telling her that she was wrong. As Chad discovers, Marlene was in fact improperly charged. So why did that happen? Why did two customer-service reps argue with Marlene, rather than credit her? Why does Marlene know more about her calling plan than customer care does?
Kizzire is disappointed. "The complexity of the product and the variations in the product can make that kind of problem very difficult," she says. "We do see some of our people falling on the side of 'I'm right' versus 'I'm going to make it right.' "
Sprint PCS looks as if it's doing all of the right things. The company's training program for reps is 6 to 10 weeks long. Across the call center are exhortations to good service: "Did you dazzle your customers today?" Says Kizzire: "It is true that people who have a little bit of knowledge can be dangerous. We always say, Don't try to dazzle the customer with what you know. These days, many customers have years of experience."
And therein lies a clue to what's really happening to customer service -- and why. The secret about customer service in the new economy isn't that it's bad -- everyone knows it's bad. The secret is that it's harder to deliver good customer service than ever before. Why? Technology, especially in its early days, is always hard. No surprise there. Why would we expect companies that can't figure out how to run a phone center -- talking to real people about problems in their own business -- to be really good at using advanced technology to automate the process of taking care of us?
And customers are more demanding. We want good service, quickly. We don't wait at gas pumps, we're antsy in ATM lines, and we pay to FedEx things to avoid standing in line at the post office. Companies have created, nursed, and benefited from this impatience. We are victims of it in our own lives. They are victims of it too. It makes providing customer service brutally unforgiving.
Technology has, in fact, made some things quicker and easier, and it has allowed us to take care of ourselves. I can plunge through the details of my online bank statement more thoroughly in 50 seconds than any automated voice-mail system could permit in 50 minutes, or than even the most patient phone operator would tolerate. This means that when we talk to someone in person, either things are really screwed up, or we are really angry and want to share that anger with a person. Or both. Technology has made the actual person-to-person customer service of big companies much more complicated and demanding.
Despite all of the consultants, gurus, and outsource providers, customer service is hard to deliver in a mass economy. I wasn't on the phones at Sprint PCS for more than a couple of hours, and I can see that the real problem isn't customer service or even culture. No, the real problem is more fundamental: Sprint PCS offers a simple service that is really very complicated. Best tip-off? It takes someone 15 minutes to sell me a phone and a calling plan in a Sprint PCS store. It takes Faerie Kizzire 6 weeks -- 240 hours -- to teach a phone rep to handle any problems that I might have with that phone.
Some Good News: What's the 411?
My favorite example of new-economy meltdown is directory assistance. Directory assistance should be the perfect new-economy product: It's just information -- and simple information at that. There is an existing way to bill customers, and, given the swift accumulation of databases, directory assistance should be getting better and better all the time.
"It's gotten so much worse," says customer-service expert Patricia Seybold. "Now you get the wrong number all the time."
I've kept track during the past two months. Over several dozen calls, directory assistance delivered the wrong number about half of the time. Of course, you get charged for the wrong numbers, just as you do for the right numbers. If it's a long-distance number and it's wrong, you pay for that phone call too. As if that weren't enough, here's a moment of customer delight: Call directory assistance and try to get a credit for a wrong number.
"I'm sorry, sir," says the abrupt operator. "We don't give credits."
"I beg your pardon?"
"We don't give credits, sir. You have to call your local phone company. When your phone bill comes."
"At the end of the month?"
"Correct, sir. Is there a number you need?"
So now I've paid once for the wrong number and paid again to be told that I have to call some other company, some other time, to get my $2 back.
Yet one company gives delightful directory assistance -- polite, accurate, helpful. It is none other than ... Sprint PCS. The contrast between cellular directory and land-line directory is as dramatic as the contrast between Sprint PCS directory and Sprint PCS customer care. Ask Sprint PCS for a restaurant's number, and they offer to make a reservation. Ask for the number of a movie theater, and they offer to read you not just the number but also the movies that are playing at that theater, when they are playing, and who is starring in each movie.
Seybold was able to guess exactly what was going on immediately. "It's outsourced," she said.
And so it is. Metro One Telecommunications, a small company based in Beaverton, Oregon, handles directory assistance for Sprint PCS -- and also for Nextel and many regional cellular companies. The quality of Metro One's service is no accident. As Seybold predicted, that is exactly what it is selling to cellular companies: good directory assistance.
The economics are great for everyone: Even at what feels like an unhurried pace, Metro One's operators take 50 calls an hour (including breaks, slow periods, and training), which brings in $50 an hour. Half of that goes to Metro One, half is gravy to Sprint PCS. Of the $25 an hour that Metro One gets, operators start at some centers at $9 an hour in straight salary -- before incentive pay or benefits. Me, as a customer? I get the right number, for about what BellSouth's wrong numbers cost me.
Metro One has 29 deliberately small call centers: 200 operators or fewer, with 100 or fewer working at any one time. The call center in Charlotte, North Carolina is lean -- spartan compared to Sprint PCS's Fort Worth center. But you can understand the entire place in a single glance. Directory assistance, of course, is child's play compared to helping people with their cell-phones. But remember: Standard directory assistance is abysmal.
Heather McCuen, 23, started at Metro One in March 1999, and after nine months, she makes $12 an hour. Calls cascade in on her like a waterfall. "Leith Mercedes." "Larry's Plant Farm." "Start-to-Finish Tattoo Shop." "Just What the Doctor Ordered Restaurant."
"I'm amazed at what people name their businesses," Heather says.
In 11 minutes, she takes 17 calls -- 38.8 seconds a call. Heather's style is efficient but deliberate. She reads the number slowly to avoid having to repeat it.
What is striking is how little it takes to make people happy, how little it takes to get it right, and how long 40 seconds really is. But what is also striking is how hard it would be to automate this process. To do it right doesn't require much, but it does require a spark of human intelligence on both ends of the transaction.
Even in these brief encounters, the full range of human character is on display. "I'm looking for Shannon Pickering," says a man over a characteristically crackly connection. The Charlotte center serves mainly North Carolina and South Carolina, so the operators are familiar with local geography, but Heather and her colleagues can provide numbers nationwide. Heather patiently searches a couple of the towns that the man mentions, without luck.
"I found someone's day planner in the middle of the road," the man says. "I'm just trying to return it to her." Heather ups her intensity a notch. She broadens her search to all of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. She tries a variety of spellings for the names. Heather tells the man what she is trying. She is regretful. The man is regretful. The call spills past two minutes. No luck.
Metro One's databases are updated with fresh numbers in real time, all the time. Operators can send along complaints about wrong numbers. All kinds of searches are available. I saw one operator find a particularly elusive residential number by reading through a list of every person who lived on a street.
The Baby Bells shoot for directory calls lasting 17 to 20 seconds, total, compared to Metro One's 33-second standard. That, of course, is the difference. And as trivial as it may sound -- what's 15 seconds? -- companies know how to do the multiplication. At least, they know how to do it when it's their 15 seconds.
Metro One's Charlotte center handles roughly 275,000 calls a week. The math is easy. If each call lasts 33 seconds, as it does at Metro One, then 275,000 calls require 2,520 hours of operator time. If each call lasts 20 seconds, as it does at BellSouth, then 275,000 calls require only 1,528 hours of operator time.
It takes 50% more people to do it the Metro One way. To do it right.
Secrets of the Amazon: Customer Service as R&D
For all of its struggles -- with its balance sheet, its stock, the union drive, and layoffs -- amazon.com has done one thing brilliantly: customer service. I placed my first order with amazon in 1997 and have been a steady customer since. In four years of making purchases for myself and for others, I've found what I needed, ordered it, received a flurry of emails about my orders, and then gotten either thank-you notes or what I ordered. I've never had to contact amazon about any matter. I have had, in essence, no customer service from amazon. Put another way, I have had such perfect customer service, the service itself has been transparent. That is exactly what amazon wants. The goal is perfect customer service through no customer service.
In a very short time, amazon has set a new standard for customer service, and I went to Seattle to see how. What I discovered is a place that regards customer service as an R&D lab -- a way not to help customers, but to help the company.
"We want to make it easier and easier for our customers to do business with us," says Bill Price, 50, vice president of global customer service for amazon. "We want to have everything go so right, you never have to contact us. To do that, we have to stay tuned up. We have to keep asking, What are the problems?"
Of course, every customer-service VP in america, every customer- service VP in history, would agree with those sentiments. Two things make all the difference at amazon: the view the company takes of customer service and customers, and the way the company is organized to drive home that view.
Amazon doesn't consider customer service to be the complaint department, or even the quality-control and customer-satisfaction department. amazon considers Bill Price's outfit to be a research lab for discovering how to adjust and improve customer service. And amazon considers customer service to be its core business. The company really offers nothing but customer service.
So every single encounter with a customer -- by phone, by email, even by clicking on Web pages -- is considered to be the source of potentially vital information about the course of the entire company.
How does that work?
Well, to start with, the company tracks the reason for every customer contact. It keeps a list of the top-ten reasons why customers contact the company -- monitoring the list daily, weekly, monthly -- and it is constantly working on ways to eliminate those reasons. For years, the number-one question that people asked amazon was, Where's my stuff? Now, on every page, starting with the welcome page, there's a box labeled, "Where's my stuff?"
Amazon's operations are so interwoven with customer-driven changes that employees are briefly baffled when you ask for examples.
"Two years ago," says Price, "one common problem was, 'I want to buy five books, and ship them to my five brothers, each at a separate address.' Our system was originally set up so that one order had to go to one address, forcing the customer, in a case like that, to place five separate orders. Now we have a 'ship-to-multiple-addresses' function. And you don't need to get in touch with us to figure it out."
Shortly after its consumer-electronics store debuted, amazon was deluged with requests for a simple chart that would compare the features and prices of similar products, such as mp3 players and digital cameras. As a result, amazon has developed a product-by-product "comparison engine" that does exactly that.
Just last year, a customer sent an email pointing out something that had bugged him for years: On the main ordering page, customers are instructed to enter their email address and their amazon password. Next come two options: "Forgot your password? Click here" and "Sign in using our secure server."
Originally, the options were in that order. If someone simply tabbed from option to option, he would click, "Forgot your password?" -- even when what he wanted to do was sign in. Because of that single, irritated email, the ordering page was changed.
Again, though, the head of customer service at any big company could tick off customer suggestions that have drifted up and changed products and operations.
But at amazon, the notion of customer service as R&D isn't a slogan, it's a structure -- an unavoidable force to be reckoned with. Price's division includes a group that does nothing but analyze and anticipate problems and cook up solutions. Indeed, representatives from customer-service project management sit on all launch teams as "the voice of the customer."
The ethic cuts deeper than it would first appear. "You can have a great overall culture," says Price, "with real empathy for the customer and passion for fixing the problems. You can have individual reps who say, 'This customer is really upset, and I have to deal with it.' I think we do that.
"What's missing almost everywhere else is, even if you have the empathy and the passion and you address the customer's problem, you haven't really given good customer service in total. You haven't done that until you have eliminated the problem that caused her to call in the first place." Exactly.
It is, frankly, easy to be skeptical of all of this. For such a strategy to work, the entire company has to bend to it. One incident (of many that I encountered) shows how deeply ingrained the attitude is.
The problem materialized during the 1999 Christmas season, the first Christmas that amazon sold toys. Almost as soon as the selling season began, the company received complaints that were notable more for the level of outrage than for the actual number of problems.
Some toys were big enough to be shipped in their original packing boxes. "They were arriving on people's doorsteps, and the people called and said, 'Hey, we weren't expecting this to look like a Big Wheel. My kid came home from school and found his present! Now I gotta buy another one!' " says Janet Savage, 31, who was a customer-service manager that Christmas. This quickly became known as the Big Wheel problem, and it was Savage's job to resolve it.
It was an interesting moment. One possible response -- a perfectly reasonable response -- would be to start warning customers about items shipped in original cartons. After all, if you buy something at Toys 'R' Us, you don't complain that it comes wrapped as what it is.
That response was never considered at amazon. Savage simply started looking for durable, inexpensive wrapping material that would be available immediately and in large quantities. "Our customers were not happy," says Savage. "It was not acceptable to tell parents, Oh well, too bad."
She found rolls of plastic material like the type used in big garbage bags, and amazon started overwrapping every large toy and a selection of electronics items that were likely to be Christmas gifts. How urgent was it? "I bugged people about it on an hourly basis until we got it resolved," says Savage. "You're either Santa Claus or you're not."
Great Service: Back to the Future
I have a running argument with customer-service experts that may be mostly an argument on my side. It is neatly summed up by One to One guru Don Peppers. He offers two key points about service. First, "Service is bad because it's hard to do." Second, "The secret to good service, really, is to treat your customer like you'd like to be treated yourself." Somewhere between point one and point two, I missed the hard part.
The hard part is not the service. The hard part is everything but the service. The hard part is how companies think about what they are doing and how they behave as a result. Why is the service of airlines so bad? Simple: Airlines don't think of themselves as service organizations. Airlines think of themselves as factories that manufacture revenue-seat miles. Airlines have been tuned in to the efficiency of their manufacturing operations, not to the quality of the journey that they provide.
When you spend weeks talking to people about customer service, when you visit people who do it as their livelihood, it is easy to become consumed with the challenges, the technology, and the measurements that obsess the world of customer service.
How much cheaper is it to deliver balances by automated phone menu than through a service rep? How much cheaper is it to deliver balances on the Web than over the telephone? What do people want to talk to a person about? What do they want to do themselves?
How do you create customer satisfaction, customer delight, and customer ecstasy? Most of those questions miss the larger point.
Dan Leemon, 47, chief strategy officer for Charles Schwab, understands this dilemma clearly. Charles Schwab is a brokerage firm, of course. It keeps money for people, has custody of stock certificates, and functions as a bank in many ways. But like Sprint PCs or directory assistance, Schwab is really a pure customer-service organization. Its specialty is financial-services customer service -- but it's service all the same. Everything else is record keeping.
"A lot of companies fall into the trap," says Leemon, "of believing that some new customer-service technology will take cost and management burden away and will eliminate the need to have very talented people on the phones and in their retail outlets.
"That has actually never been true," he says. Indeed, the complex demands of customers have increased the length of the typical call to Schwab by 75% during the past five years.
One old-economy sector that is justifiably famous for service is the cruise industry. The high-end cruise lines achieve this by offering training, incentives, and quality facilities. One thing that they do particularly well is suck up customer feedback.
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCCL), for instance, has 22 ships. When a ship docks at home port at 7 AM, before it clears customs, someone from RCCL has boarded to retrieve the customer-comment cards distributed to every cabin. The ratings are tabulated, the written comments are transcribed, and the results are returned to the ship's managers before the ship sails again at 5 PM.
So before the next cruise begins, RCCL's captains, dining-room managers, housekeepers, and entertainers know how the previous cruise went -- from praise to serious problems. Imagine what flying the big airlines would be like if you got a comment card at the end of each flight -- and the company acted on what it learned.
Call Center Service: Looking For A Handle To Reduce 'on Hold'
Institutions like Provident Bank are using call routing and data mining technology to reduce inbound call duration and to improve overall service for customers
By John Adams
The combination of consumers waiting on hold for a customer service rep, redialing when they get the wrong department, sifting through an endless series of IVR options and then hanging up in frustration can be a toxic mix when it comes to customer retention.
Some banks, such as Provident Bank, are combining the latest in call routing engines with data mining capabilities culled from CRM systems to dramatically reduce call duration while working to make sure the time customers do spend on the phone is fruitful. The New Jersey-based bank, which would not make an executive available for an interview, recently deployed hosted call center services that aim to get consumers to their proper location within the bank-and to do that as quickly as possible by quickly getting an array of customer data to the reps' desktop.
"The agents can do more, the customer can get higher satisfaction, and we've found that our agents do not have to add staff even if they're growing because they're able to squeeze out more efficiency if the call center is a better-tuned machine," says Bruce Dresser, chief strategy and marketing officer for Echopass, which provides call center technology for Provident and other financial and non-financial clients.
Dresser says that by using his firm's system, Provident is able to answer 80 percent of calls inside of 20 seconds, with inbound call duration cut by about 40 percent. The bank, which handles about 350,000 calls per month, was also able to scrap a planned hire of 10 extra call center reps because the tech deployment allows more calls to be handled in less time.
Echopass' call center platform, EchoSystem, integrates Genesis call routing technology with CRM technology. That allows the bank to quickly move callers to the right department, such as mortgages, cards, auto loans, general customer service, Spanish-speaking reps, etc.
And when the customers get to the right place, a complete picture of that consumer's financial relationship and transaction history are at the bank representative's disposal for a quick and detailed session. "The customer data is there when they call in. If they are dealing with IVR, the customer's information is going to get to the live agent's desktop when the customer gets to that agent," Dresser says. The system also attempts to reduce expenses by lowering the infrastructure necessary for deployment. "We manage the whole infrastructure. The agent just needs a PC and an IP phone," Dresser says.
Provident's approach to call center improvement-marrying call time reduction with new routing technology-mirrors the efforts of a number of other financial institutions that find themselves with the same challenge of keeping customers from hanging up and spreading bad word of mouth because of a bad IVR experience.
Christine Pratt, research director for consumer banking and credit at Financial Insights, says that since quality service is a pillar of customer retention, the push is to understand who the customer is before a call even takes place. "It's a differentiating service to speed the answering of call and directing the calls as they come in."
Don Edman, vp in charge of operations for Fiserv Lending Solutions-which is an outsourcer of contact center services for large financial institutions-says it's important to provide consistently positive experiences for consumers because word of bad experiences travels fast. "One bad experience will be shared with others, and you don't want to lose people because of that," Edman says.
Fiserv's unit incorporates segmenting, with the goal of getting the consumer to the agent best suited to handle a specific call. He also says it's helpful to make the "hold" time less painful by determining the expected hold time for a call, then adding about 10 seconds when announcing it to the customer who's on hold. "We do that so we always exceed your expectations," he says. "The other thing we do is we make an announcement saying you can press 'zero' or 'one' to go to voicemail, or you can opt out and send us an e-mail. That helps the customers feel like they're still in control."
Edman says workforce management is also an important part of the equation. By determining peak days and times, staffing can be adjusted accordingly. "We're constantly analyzing volume to adjust the schedules of our workers, so we have the right amount of people at the right time. We also have the ability to route calls to home agents, who get the spill over volumes at their home centers over their VoIP."
Jerry Silva, research director for TowerGroup, says it's important to remember the profiling part of the equation, the idea of getting the customer to the right person, since trimming call and wait time isn't the ultimate goal. "IP is lowering communication costs, so it doesn't make sense to focus just on time," Silva says. (c) 2006 Bank Technology News and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Customer Service Representatives
• Nature of the Work
• Working Conditions
• Training, Other Qualifications, and Advancement
• Employment
• Job Outlook
• Earnings
• Related Occupations
• Sources of Additional Information
Significant Points
• Job prospects are expected to be excellent.
• Most jobs require only a high school diploma but educational requirements are rising.
• Strong verbal communication and listening skills are important.
Nature of the Work
Customer service representatives are employed by many different types of companies throughout the country to serve as a direct point of contact for customers. They are responsible for ensuring that their company’s customers receive an adequate level of service or help with their questions and concerns. These customers may be individual consumers or other companies, and the nature of their service needs can vary considerably.
All customer service representatives interact with customers to provide information in response to inquiries about products or services and to handle and resolve complaints. They communicate with customers through a variety of means—by telephone; by e-mail, fax, or regular mail correspondence; or in person. Some customer service representatives handle general questions and complaints, whereas others specialize in a particular area.
Many customer inquiries involve routine questions and requests. For example, customer service representatives may be asked to provide a customer with their credit card balance, or to check on the status of an order that has been placed. Obtaining the answers to such questions usually requires simply looking up information on their computer. Other questions are more involved, and may call for additional research or further explanation on the part of the customer service representative. In handling customers’ complaints, customer service representatives must attempt to resolve the problem according to guidelines established by the company. These procedures may involve asking questions to determine the validity of a complaint; offering possible solutions; or providing customers with refunds, exchanges, or other offers, such as discounts or coupons. In some cases, customer service representatives are required to follow up with an individual customer until a question is answered or an issue is resolved.
Some customer service representatives help people decide what types of products or services would best suit their needs. They may even aid customers in completing purchases or transactions. Although the primary function of customer service representatives is not sales, some may spend a part of their time with customers encouraging them to purchase additional products or services. (For information on workers whose primary function is sales, see the statements on sales and related occupations elsewhere in the Handbook.) Customer service representatives also may make changes or updates to a customer’s profile or account information. They may keep records of transactions and update and maintain databases of information.
Most customer service representatives use computers and telephones extensively in their work. Customer service representatives frequently enter information into a computer as they are speaking to customers. Often, companies have large amounts of data, such as account information, that can be pulled up on a computer screen while the representative is talking to a customer so that he or she can answer specific questions relating to the account. Customer service representatives also may have access to information such as answers to the most common customer questions, or guidelines for dealing with complaints. In the event that they encounter a question or situation to which they do not know how to respond, workers consult with a supervisor to determine the best course of action. Customer service representatives use multiline telephones systems, which often route calls directly to the most appropriate representative. However, at times, the customer service representative must transfer a call to someone who may be better able to respond to the customer’s needs.
In some organizations, customer service representatives spend their entire day on the telephone. In others, they may spend part of their day answering e-mails and the remainder of the day taking calls. For some, most of their contact with the customer is face to face. Customer service representatives need to remain aware of the amount of time spent with each customer so that they can fairly distribute their time among the people who require their assistance. This is particularly important for customer service representatives whose primary activities are answering telephone calls and whose conversations often are required to be kept within set time limits. For customer service representatives working in call centers, there usually is very little time between telephone calls; as soon as representatives have finished with one call, they must move on to another. When working in call centers, customer service representatives are likely to be under close supervision. Telephone calls may be taped and reviewed by supervisors to ensure that company policies and procedures are being followed, or a supervisor may listen in on conversations.
Job responsibilities can differ, depending on the industry in which a customer service representative is employed. For example, a customer service representative working in the branch office of a bank may assume the responsibilities of other workers, such as teller or new account clerk, as needed. In insurance agencies, a customer service representative interacts with agents, insurance companies, and policyholders. These workers handle much of the paperwork related to insurance policies, such as policy applications and changes and renewals to existing policies. They answer questions regarding policy coverage, help with reporting claims, and do anything else that may need to be done. Although they must know as much as insurance agents about insurance products, and usually must have credentials equal to those of an agent in order to sell products and make changes to policies, the duties of a customer service representative differ from those of an agent in that customer service representatives are not responsible for actively seeking potential customers. Customer service representatives employed by utilities and communications companies assist individuals interested in opening accounts for various utilities such as electricity and gas, or for communication services such as cable television and telephone. They explain various options and receive orders for services to be installed, turned on, turned off, or changed. They also may look into and resolve complaints about billing and service provided by utility, telephone, and cable television companies.
Working Conditions
Although customer service representatives can work in a variety of settings, most work in areas that are clean and well lit. Many work in call or customer contact centers. In this type of environment, workers generally have their own workstation or cubicle space equipped with a telephone, headset, and computer. Because many call centers are open extended hours, beyond the traditional work day, or are staffed around the clock, these positions may require workers to take on early morning, evening, or late night shifts. Weekend or holiday work also may be necessary. As a result, the occupation is well suited to flexible work schedules. Nearly 1 out of 5 customer service representatives work part time. The occupation also offers the opportunity for seasonal work in certain industries, often through temporary help agencies.
Call centers may be crowded and noisy, and work may be repetitious and stressful, with little time between calls. Workers usually must attempt to minimize the length of each call, while still providing excellent service. To ensure that these procedures are followed, conversations may be monitored by supervisors, something that can be stressful. Also, long periods spent sitting, typing, or looking at a computer screen may cause eye and muscle strain, backaches, headaches, and repetitive motion injuries.
Customer service representatives working outside of a call center environment may interact with customers through several different means. For example, workers employed by an insurance agency or in a grocery store may have customers approach them in person or contact them by telephone, computer, mail, or fax. Many of these customer service representatives work a standard 40-hour week; however, their hours generally depend on the hours of operation of the establishment in which they are employed. Work environments outside of a call center also vary accordingly. Most customer service representatives work either in an office or at a service or help desk.
For virtually all types of customer service representatives, dealing with difficult or irate customers can be a trying task; however, the ability to resolve customers’ problems has the potential to be very rewarding.
Training, Other Qualifications, and Advancement
Most customer service representative jobs require only a high school diploma. However, due to employers demanding a higher skilled workforce, many customer service jobs now require an associate or bachelor’s degree. Basic to intermediate computer knowledge and good interpersonal skills also are important qualities for people who wish to be successful in the field. Because customer service representatives constantly interact with the public, good communication and problem-solving skills are a must. Verbal communication and listening skills are especially important. Additionally, for workers who communicate through e-mail, good typing, spelling, and written communication skills are necessary. High school courses in computers, English, or business are helpful in preparing for a job in customer service.
Customer service representatives play a critical role in providing an interface between customer and company, and for this reason employers seek out people who come across in a friendly and professional manner. The ability to deal patiently with problems and complaints and to remain courteous when faced with difficult or angry people is very important. Also, a customer service representative needs to be able to work independently within specified time constraints. Workers should have a clear and pleasant speaking voice and be fluent in English. However, the ability to speak a foreign language is becoming increasingly necessary, and bilingual skills are considered a plus.
Training requirements vary by industry. Almost all customer service representatives are provided with some training prior to beginning work, and training continues once on the job. This training generally covers customer service and phone skills, products and services and common customer problems with them, the use or operation of the telephone and/or computer systems, and company policies and regulations. Length of training varies, but it usually lasts at least several weeks. Because of a constant need to update skills and knowledge, most customer service representatives continue to receive instruction and training throughout their career. This is particularly true of workers in industries such as banking, in which regulations and products are continually changing.
Although some positions may require previous industry, office, or customer service experience, many customer service jobs are entry level. Customer service jobs are often good introductory positions into a company or an industry. In some cases, experienced workers can move up within the company into supervisory or managerial positions or they may move into areas such as product development, in which they can use their knowledge to improve products and services.
Within insurance agencies and brokerages, however, a customer service representative job usually is not an entry-level position. Workers must have previous experience in insurance and are often required by State regulations to be licensed like insurance sales agents. A variety of designations are available to demonstrate that a candidate has sufficient knowledge and skill, and continuing education and training are often offered through the employer. As they gain more knowledge of industry products and services, customer service representatives in insurance may advance to other, higher level positions, such as insurance sales agent.
Employment
Customer service representatives held about 2.1 million jobs in 2004. Although they were found in a variety of industries, about 1 in 4 customer service representatives worked in finance and insurance. The largest numbers were employed by insurance carriers, insurance agencies and brokerages, and banks and credit unions.
About 1 in 8 customer service representatives were employed in administrative and support services. These workers were concentrated in the business support services industry (which includes telephone call centers) and employment services (which includes temporary help services and employment placement agencies). Another 1in 8 customer service representatives were employed in retail trade establishments such as general merchandise stores, food and beverage stores, or nonstore retailers. Other industries that employ significant numbers of customer service representatives include information, particularly the telecommunications industry; manufacturing, such as printing and related support activities; and wholesale trade.
Although they are found in all States, customer service representatives who work in call centers tend to be concentrated geographically. Four States—California, Texas, Florida, and New York—employ 30 percent of customer service representatives. Delaware, Arizona, South Dakota, and Utah, have the highest concentration of workers in this occupation, with customer service representatives comprising over 2 percent of total employment in these States.
Job Outlook
Prospects for obtaining a job in this field are expected to be excellent, with more job openings than jobseekers. Bilingual jobseekers, in particular, may enjoy favorable job prospects. In addition to many new openings occurring as businesses and organizations expand, numerous job openings will result from the need to replace experienced customer service representatives who transfer to other occupations or leave the labor force. Replacement needs are expected to be significant in this large occupation because many young people work as customer service representatives before switching to other jobs. This occupation is well suited to flexible work schedules, and many opportunities for part-time work will continue to be available, particularly as organizations attempt to cut labor costs by hiring more temporary workers.
Employment of customer service representatives is expected to increase faster than the average for all occupations through the year 2014. Beyond growth stemming from expansion of the industries in which customer service representatives are employed, a need for additional customer service representatives is likely to result from heightened reliance on these workers. Customer service is critical to the success of any organization that deals with customers, and strong customer service can build sales and visibility as companies try to distinguish themselves from competitors. In many industries, gaining a competitive edge and retaining customers will be increasingly important over the next decade. This is particularly true in industries such as financial services, communications, and utilities, which already employ numerous customer service representatives. As the trend toward consolidation in industries continues, centralized call centers will provide an effective method for delivering a high level of customer service. As a result, employment of customer service representatives may grow at a faster rate in call centers than in other areas. However, this growth may be tempered: a variety of factors, including technological improvements, make it increasingly feasible and cost-effective for call centers to be built or relocated outside of the United States.
Technology is affecting the occupation in many ways. The Internet and automated teller machines have provided customers with means of obtaining information and conducting transactions that do not entail interacting with another person. Technology also allows for a greater streamlining of processes, while at the same time increasing the productivity of workers. The use of computer software to filter e-mails, generating automatic responses or directing messages to the appropriate representative, and the use of similar systems to answer or route telephone inquiries are likely to become more prevalent in the future. Also, with rapidly improving telecommunications, some organizations have begun to position their call centers overseas.
Despite such developments, the need for customer service representatives is expected to remain strong. In many ways, technology has heightened consumers’ expectations for information and services, and availability of information online seems to have generated more need for customer service representatives, particularly to respond to e-mail. Also, technology cannot replace human skills. As more sophisticated technologies are able to resolve many customers’ questions and concerns, the nature of the inquiries to be handled by customer service representatives is likely to become increasingly complex.
Furthermore, the job responsibilities of customer service representatives are expanding. As companies downsize or take other measures to increase profitability, workers are being trained to perform additional duties such as opening bank accounts or cross-selling products. As a result, employers may increasingly prefer customer service representatives who have education beyond high school, such as some college or even a college degree.
While jobs in some industries, such as retail trade, may be affected by economic downturns, the customer service occupation is generally resistant to major fluctuations in employment.
Earnings
In May 2004, median annual earnings for wage and salary customer service representatives were $27,020. The middle 50 percent earned between $21,510 and $34,560. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $17,680, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $44,160.
Earnings for customer service representatives vary according to level of skill required, experience, training, location, and size of firm. Median annual earnings in the industries employing the largest numbers of these workers in May 2004 are shown below:
Insurance carriers $29,790
Agencies, brokerages, and other insurance related activities 28,800
Depository credit intermediation 26,140
Employment services 23,100
Business support services 21,390
In addition to receiving an hourly wage, full-time customer service representatives who work evenings, nights, weekends, or holidays may receive shift differential pay. Also, because call centers are often open during extended hours, or even 24 hours a day, some customer service representatives have the benefit of being able to work a schedule that does not conform to the traditional workweek. Other benefits can include life and health insurance, pensions, bonuses, employer-provided training, and discounts on the products and services the company offers.
