Customer service is in the eye of the beholder

Beauty has long been recognised to be in the eye of the beholder. Could the same be said about customer service? The ideal customer service standards have been established for many different services across all sectors but do we give customers enough choice? Do they have the ability to put emphasis on certain element of the service and totally ignore others. Technological developments enable more and more refined analysis of customers, encouraging them at best and, directing them in the worst cases, towards purchases that they did not want to make in the first place. Could a totally reverse approached be engineered, the blank canvass. Or will it prove too difficult for customers to decide what they want? After all, the canon of beauty is often determined by the media so why shouldn't the canon of customer service be determined by business executives?

Fishy customer service

 What is the link between a fish and customer service? Better hope that there are none. Unless you operate in the fish industry, it is better to avoid fishy customer service practices. There are no clear universal pointers as to what 'fishy' means but it could include known sub-standard operations, unfair practices, insufficient documentation, misleading advertising and many more horrible items that we can not quote in a blog dedicated to good customer service. Next time you review your customer service, someone should explicitly be tasked with the  objective to ensure that there is nothing fishy going on.

Customer service guide

Customer service guide: customer service executives could usefully draw parallels between customers finding their way in the market place and sailors navigating across unknown waters.  More often than not, difficulties can be avoided by learning from the experience of others who have just followed the same path. The key to success is to capture that experience and make judicious use of all modern technologies and tools to guide customers through the buying process. Sailors made use of lighthouses and hand-drawn maps, what customer service guide and tools are you making available to your customers?

Customer watch

At all times, it is crucial that your customer watch is in place. If your customers are in need of simple advice or find themselves in serious difficulty, you should be at hand, ready to provide immediate assistance. This will prevent a situation from deteriorating and causing irreparable damage. If successful, a rapid intervention will contribute to the establishment of a real bond which could last a lifetime. So, who is watching over your customers right now?

Customer service innovation

Customer service innovation has become increasingly valuable as a way to differentiate from the competition and avoid an all-out price war. But, which is the best way to innovate? The challenge for companies is to determine to what extent the service innovations should be radical and if they are not a re-hatched copy of what someone has done before, are they achievable? To succeed management needs to be daring yet make sure that every element has been perfectly assessed and calculated so that the newly built process stays in place for many years to come and delivers the best results. Are you brave enough to have a go?

Customer service: take the helicopter view

Your understanding of the environment where your company offers its business services will be crucial in determining the success of your operation. What are the constraints?

Bread and butter customer service

Is it the end of bread and butter service? The increasing sophistication of marketing tools and techniques mean that many businesses have upped their game to improve the shopping experience they offer to their customers.

Preparation for customer service

Preparation for customer service: for many companies, the next client is only a number, a customer record who happened to place an order for product xyz at a given time during the day.

Vultures are circling

Achieving the best customer service levels and maintaining them is not a simple task. There are numerous metrics available, one of them being to measure customer satisfaction.

Reach out to customers

Even when you have that horrible feeling that you are too far apart to resolve a customer service issue, you have to make an effort and build those bridges to reach out to your customers. The rewards can be long lasting even if the initial investment may seem unreasonable