Maintaining The Quality of Service At Its Best
Ignoring the concept of customer alignment has obvious and harmful consequences for any company or organization that wants to succeed. Too many organizations have realized this through costly omissions or ignorance. Customer-Focus Consulting has guided many organizations through both the most valuable theories and the best practices that lead to enhanced customer satisfaction and retention.
The Service Quality Department is a premier customer service consulting and training organization. Our only goal is to improve and differentiate your business through the service you provide to your customers. We can give your business the edge!
When The Service Quality Department was formed in 1990 our basic business premise was simple; provide your business with the tools and training which will allow you to deliver exceptional service at all times. That premise remains today.
Our simple, up front pricing will assure that you'll know exactly the cost of our service. No hidden fees. No extra workbooks or tapes to buy. All of our programs are tailored to each client's specific needs. Of course, all of our programs and services come with a complete satisfaction guarantee.
Your one stop for all your Customer Service Needs
Training and Development
Service Audits (Mystery Shopping)
Strategic Planning
Customer Focus Groups
Keynote Speakers
Measurement
Understanding the Service gap
The five gaps that organizations should measure, manage and minimize:
Gap 1 is the distance between what customers expect and what managers think they expect - Clearly survey research is a key way to narrow this gap.
Gap 2 is between management perception and the actual specification of the customer experience - Managers need to make sure the organization is defining the level of service they believe is needed.
Gap 3 is from the experience specification to the delivery of the experience - Managers need to audit the customer experience that their organization currently delivers in order to make sure it lives up to the spec.
Gap 4 is the gap between the delivery of the customer experience and what is communicated to customers - All too often organizations exaggerate what will be provided to customers, or discuss the best case rather than the likely case, raising customer expectations and harming customer perceptions.
Finally, Gap 5 is the gap between a customer's perception of the experience and the customer's expectation of the service - Customers' expectations have been shaped by word of mouth, their personal needs and their own past experiences. Routine transactional surveys after delivering the customer experience are important for an organization to measure customer perceptions of service
Service quality is about ensuring customers, both internal and external, get what they want. As travel and technology bring markets, people and products ever closer, it is the single most effective and sustainable means of differentiation between competing companies. Managing Service Quality is packed with case histories, insights and guidance to the latest and most insightful academic thought in the field of service quality. Senior managers and board directors share with you their ideas, experience and advice as they strive for excellence in service quality. In every edition, you will find examples to which you can relate, lessons that you can learn and conclusions about how service quality can be achieved.
Improving upon the service quality requires a lot of understanding on part of the customer service managers and the services staff to be successful at any business. An organization who can not understand or keep up with customers’ expectations can not flourish for long. Also it must be noted that not a single customer should be left out who can be valuable to your business, for ultimately it is the “word of mouth” reputation which works your way towards a growing and healthy business.
In today’s organizations, often a customer service software is installed in order to maintain customer database and to take care of the existing customers. IBM is one such hot example of good service delivery organization where the Netcool software provided by them lends quality service management and customer experience management. This kind of software enabled management help the service providers to lower the operations costs and enhance the service quality. The employees at IBM are privileged to have the service management capabilities like real-time service status management, service performance management or customer experience management.
Apart from having a software to improve the service quality, there are other strategies which should be studied and implemented.
Always ask the customers for feedback: Whenever the customers come to you, ask them about your products, whether they purchase or do not purchase your products. If they have used your products previously and are satisfied, you have an extra edge to win over your customer. You can get the feedback forms filled by them and also ask them to give their suggestions
Maintain a record of complaints and act upon them: Maintaining a record is one thing but acting upon them is very vital to get more business from them. Study each complaint carefully, talk to each customer and take adequate actions.
Discuss the ways of service improvement: The employees of any organization should actively discuss the problems accrued by any customers. Regular meetings should be conducted in order to address every particular problem. If changes to be brought about has to be effected at the top level management, the necessary elements of meeting should be conveyed to them. Occasionally, role play should be taken up by employees in orde to understand the potential problem of the customers.
Reward your service staff: The service employees who work towards building a good relationship with the customers and also fetch business from them must be rewarded. If your employees are happy, indirectly your customers will also be happy. Also these employees must be motivated to perform on a regular basis.
Hire people who are interested in services industry: Many times, you hire people who do not have a knack to excel in the services sector. Those who have an experience in this line but no liking for services will ultimately fail to deliver performance. So, it’s better to know and understand people during the time of interview
Ignoring the concept of customer alignment has obvious and harmful consequences for any company or organization that wants to succeed. Too many organizations have realized this through costly omissions or ignorance. Customer-Focus Consulting has guided many organizations through both the most valuable theories and the best practices that lead to enhanced customer satisfaction and retention.
The Service Quality Department is a premier customer service consulting and training organization. Our only goal is to improve and differentiate your business through the service you provide to your customers. We can give your business the edge!
When The Service Quality Department was formed in 1990 our basic business premise was simple; provide your business with the tools and training which will allow you to deliver exceptional service at all times. That premise remains today.
Our simple, up front pricing will assure that you'll know exactly the cost of our service. No hidden fees. No extra workbooks or tapes to buy. All of our programs are tailored to each client's specific needs. Of course, all of our programs and services come with a complete satisfaction guarantee.
Your one stop for all your Customer Service Needs
Training and Development
Service Audits (Mystery Shopping)
Strategic Planning
Customer Focus Groups
Keynote Speakers
Measurement
Understanding the Service gap
The five gaps that organizations should measure, manage and minimize:
Gap 1 is the distance between what customers expect and what managers think they expect - Clearly survey research is a key way to narrow this gap.
Gap 2 is between management perception and the actual specification of the customer experience - Managers need to make sure the organization is defining the level of service they believe is needed.
Gap 3 is from the experience specification to the delivery of the experience - Managers need to audit the customer experience that their organization currently delivers in order to make sure it lives up to the spec.
Gap 4 is the gap between the delivery of the customer experience and what is communicated to customers - All too often organizations exaggerate what will be provided to customers, or discuss the best case rather than the likely case, raising customer expectations and harming customer perceptions.
Finally, Gap 5 is the gap between a customer's perception of the experience and the customer's expectation of the service - Customers' expectations have been shaped by word of mouth, their personal needs and their own past experiences. Routine transactional surveys after delivering the customer experience are important for an organization to measure customer perceptions of service
Service quality is about ensuring customers, both internal and external, get what they want. As travel and technology bring markets, people and products ever closer, it is the single most effective and sustainable means of differentiation between competing companies. Managing Service Quality is packed with case histories, insights and guidance to the latest and most insightful academic thought in the field of service quality. Senior managers and board directors share with you their ideas, experience and advice as they strive for excellence in service quality. In every edition, you will find examples to which you can relate, lessons that you can learn and conclusions about how service quality can be achieved.
Improving upon the service quality requires a lot of understanding on part of the customer service managers and the services staff to be successful at any business. An organization who can not understand or keep up with customers’ expectations can not flourish for long. Also it must be noted that not a single customer should be left out who can be valuable to your business, for ultimately it is the “word of mouth” reputation which works your way towards a growing and healthy business.
In today’s organizations, often a customer service software is installed in order to maintain customer database and to take care of the existing customers. IBM is one such hot example of good service delivery organization where the Netcool software provided by them lends quality service management and customer experience management. This kind of software enabled management help the service providers to lower the operations costs and enhance the service quality. The employees at IBM are privileged to have the service management capabilities like real-time service status management, service performance management or customer experience management.
Apart from having a software to improve the service quality, there are other strategies which should be studied and implemented.
Always ask the customers for feedback: Whenever the customers come to you, ask them about your products, whether they purchase or do not purchase your products. If they have used your products previously and are satisfied, you have an extra edge to win over your customer. You can get the feedback forms filled by them and also ask them to give their suggestions
Maintain a record of complaints and act upon them: Maintaining a record is one thing but acting upon them is very vital to get more business from them. Study each complaint carefully, talk to each customer and take adequate actions.
Discuss the ways of service improvement: The employees of any organization should actively discuss the problems accrued by any customers. Regular meetings should be conducted in order to address every particular problem. If changes to be brought about has to be effected at the top level management, the necessary elements of meeting should be conveyed to them. Occasionally, role play should be taken up by employees in orde to understand the potential problem of the customers.
Reward your service staff: The service employees who work towards building a good relationship with the customers and also fetch business from them must be rewarded. If your employees are happy, indirectly your customers will also be happy. Also these employees must be motivated to perform on a regular basis.
Hire people who are interested in services industry: Many times, you hire people who do not have a knack to excel in the services sector. Those who have an experience in this line but no liking for services will ultimately fail to deliver performance. So, it’s better to know and understand people during the time of interview