Providing Excellent Customer Service

Research has shown time and again that excellent customer service leads to loyal customers. A business with happy customers is poised for success. The level of service received is based on the individual perception of the customers. Some get impacted by delightful conversations, some by expressing concern and showing care and some by functional aspects of service. There are different things that make different customers happy.

In this lesson, you will learn to identify the types of customer. In addition, you will learn about the importance of customer service and how to provide excellent customer service to customers.

Obiectives:
Identify different types of customers Determine why customers leave

 Define exceptional custorncr service

If you look up the meaning of the word "customer" in the dictionary, it relates only to the business situation. A customer is someone who buys your products or your service. However , the word can be interpreted in different ways.

Father of nation , Mahatma Gandhi said "A customer is not an outsider to our business. He is a definite part of it. A customer is not an interruption of our work. He is the purpose of it. A customer is doing us a favour by letting us serve him. We are not doing him any favour. A customer is not a cold statistic; he is a flesh and blood human being with feelings and emotions like our own. A customer is not someone to argue or match wits with. He deserves courteous and attentive treatment. A customer is not dependent on us. We ore dependent on him. A customer brings us his wants. lt is our job to handle them properly and profitably - both to him and us. A customer makes it possible to pay our salary, whether we are a driver, or an office employee."

Therefore, a customer is anyone who needs you to fulfill a need that he/she has for which you are accountable. There are commercial transactions where a customer either buys a tangible product or an intangible service. Whether the transaction is successful or not can be measured by what you do and whether it matches with what the customer expects. A customer can be an individual or an organisation. For example, an individual can order a lunch from a restaurant. Similarly, an organisation can also order lunch for their staff from the same restaurant. Therefore, both the individual and the orsanisation are the customers for that restaurant.

Internal and External Customer

A customer can be classified as: Internal External

Internal Customer

lnternal customers

are typically your colleagues in the company you work in. For example, Simran is an associate and Amit is a team leader in Leaning BPO Ltd.

Therefore, they are the internal customers of Leaming BPO Ltd. and of each other.

Although, these customers do not pay you, however, they need you to get their work done. This could be in the form of giving them information, making a repot or performing a task. Their success depends on how well you do your part.

You need to take care all internal customers because without them, it is quite impossible to get anything done. Focusing on the internal customers increases the quality of an organisation and its customer service. Organisations should train their internal customers so that they can handle customers' queries and grievances. It leads to employee satisfaction. If the employees are satisfied, they will believe in the organisation and the products and services it offers.

External Customer

An external customer is the one, he comes to buy products and services provided by an organisation. For example. Anu purchases a laptop 1'rom Hexa Electronics Ltd Therefore, she is an external customer of Hexa Electronics Ltd. External customers provide the wherervithal for the company to exist. If there were no external customers, the company would cease to exist. This one fact ensures that external customers get treated much better than internal ones.

If external customers do not like what they see, they are free to take their custom elsewhere. This freedom gives external customers the power that they wield over you.

Understanding Customer Service

Customer service is providing a product or service to customers before, during and after a purchase. In most business organisations, a representative of an organisation is the contact point between the customer and organisation. This representative assists customers on questions regarding their products or processes and is referred to as the customer care executive.

The organisations should understand the importance of effective customer service. In addition, the organisations need to: Provide the customer service at right place and at right time. Provide adequate training to their employees. Understand and focus on the changing needs of the customers. Train their employees to effectively listen to customers' queries.

Importance of Customer Service

Providing good customer service is crucial for organisations in today's competitive markets. The customers should be provided with a good customer service because they help organisations earn revenue. A good service helps to retain the customers and at the same time, satisfied customers help in promoting the organisation's product and services. This helps in increasing the product share in the market without investing on

advertisements and other promotional schemes. Most of the profits of an organisation rely on repeat customers. If a customer is satisfied with the product, he/she will get back to the same organisation to purchase other products and services. For example, Mr. Subash bought a television from Image Electronics in the year 2007.He is pleased with the following services provided by the organisation during and after sales: The organisation sent their engineer for the installation within 24 hours of the

purchase. After a month of the purchase, the customer care executive verified whether Mr.

Subash was satisfied with the product or not. After six months, Mr. Subash faced a problem with the television remote. To rectify

the problem, the organisation sent their engineer to Mr. Subash's house within 24 hours of the complaint.

Because of these services, Mr. Subash referred his friends to buy products from Image Electronics. In addition, he has bought a microwave oven from the same organisation.

Understanding Service Dimensions

There are three dimensions which can help you provide excellent service to a customer. These are:

The customer service executive, who is expected to be competent in handling

customers. The infrastructure, systems and processes, interactions and transactions. The support extended by the management possible which are put in place for smooth without which the other two are not possible.

These dimensions are three corners of a triangle called service triangle. The following figure shows the different service dimension. These dimensions consist of: Supportive management Caring and competent employees Systems/processes

Each of these ends is discussed in detail.

Supportive Management Supportive management can be demonstrated in the following ways. By creating an overall vision and objective for effective customer service By providing training to efficiently handle customers By supporting the employees when they take decisions By giving feedback and coaching to employees so that they perform better

All this support extended by management gives employees the confidence,

encouragement and direction to extend a qualitative service to the customers. Since the management recognises their efforts, they continue their effort by taking on challenges like customer satisfaction and retention.

Caring and Competent Employees

Employees must have the knowledge and the skills to perform the job at hand. This competence is displayed through behaviour that leads to performance. Competence can be acquired by taking advantage of the opportunities available within the organisation or can be built by specific planning. However, employees should be willing to become more competent. ln addition to giving the organisation its due importance, they should work towards enhancing their skills to become better performers.

Syslems/Processes

Systems and processes refer to the systems that are made available within the organisation to carry out transactions effectively and successfully without much intervention. This takes care of normal transactions and allows employees time to contribute to complex issues. If the systems are sound and the processes allow them to be used efficiently, you

can achieve the output of the desired quality. Some examples of systems are the accounting system! the human resource system and the vendor management system. Some examples of processes are the process of acquiring new customers, the process of executing a new order and the process of collecting money. A process defines who does what and when. Clearly defined processes, timelines and responsibilities help everyone understand what they are supposed to do and when things do not go as planned, it is easy to find where they went wrong and take corrective actions.

If any of the ends of the triangle fails, the triangle does not remain stable and output gets affected. Therefore, it is essential that management, employees and system work well in tandem.

Why Customers Leave?

A majority of customers leave because of the bad service provided by organisations. Organisations develop systems to track how many customers do they acquire and loose in a set period. While they are able to track numbers they may not be able to get to the precise reasons for which the customers are moving away from them.

According to Technical Assistance Research Program (TARP), consumer complaint handling in US, there are five reasons of loosing customers. These are: Die: Death is a fact of life as it is a fact of business. Customers will die from time to time. Move away: Factors beyond control cause customers to move away. These factors include new jobs. promotions and marriage. Prefer the competition: If you have competitors in the same market where you are, it is considered good for customers since they gain a lot of focus and attention for higher market share. Their preferences are assessed and are used as inputs for product innovation, prices and benefits. Customers prefer competing companies, products if it suits them better. The competition also makes promotional efforts to attract customers.

Dissatisfied with product: Something somewhere always goes wrong and even if you try very hard, not everyone will like your product. It could be the design, the colour, the smell and the size; you cannot predict what everyone will like.

Leave because they were treated with indifference: Till now, the reasons of customer loss are those that are not in your control. However, there is something that is completely in your control and serves as the single largest reason that contributes to why customers do not come back. This is the attitude that customers come up against, when they come in contact with your product or service. If a customer experiences involvement, enthusiasm and a willingness to serve, a customer will return. However, when he/she comes up against an uncaring attitude or indifference, he/she leaves and does not come back.

Customer's Expectation
In todays competitive world, meeting the customers' expectations is a major- challenge. The expectations of customers change according to time and needs.

The customer expects: Reliability: It represents the ability to deliver the promised service/product so that

he customers are able to trust you. For example, a pizza restaurant chain promises to deliver pizza in 30 minutes. If they fail. they offer the pizza free of charge to the customers. Responsiveness: It represents the willingness to help customers and provide prompt

service. For example, Vinod, a customer, went to a s-hopping mall to purchase a shirt. Mohit, a customer care executive, works in the ethnic wear section. Vinod asked Mohit to get him a formal shirt. Mohit. in spite of handling the ethnic wear section, helped Vinod by taking him to the formal wear section.

Assurance: It represents the knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability

to convey trust and confidence. For example, Tina, a customer, went to a mall to purchase a heater. She asked Rohit, a customer care executive, about the same. Rohit

showed her different brands. Tina asks Rohit if I do not like it, will you exchange. Rohit provides assistance by saying ,,Sure madam, if you do not like we will exchange. ^Please _ensure that you do not remove the brand tag.,, After getting assurance from Rohit, Tina purchases the heater.

Empathy: It means responsive and individualised attention to the customers. For

example, a customer may complain that a new monitor stopped working the day after it was purchased, and he/she was very annoyed. As a customer care executive your response should show that you are in -control and can help by saying that .,Im sorry to hear that, let's see what we can do about it. . ..,,

Tangibles: lt represents the appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel,

and other communication materials. For example, to facilitate the customers, the billing section uses various equipments for billing such as a bar code reader to read the prices and the same is displayed on the machine so that the customer can also view the price.

Understanding Customer Requirement

Understanding the customers requirements is a major challenge for business organisations these days. You have to elicit the requirements from the customers.

Some of the techniques that can be followed to identify the requirements of the customer

Pay attention to what the customer says. you have to listen consciously and actively to what the customer is saying. Ask clarifications from the customer, if you have any doubt. For example, a customer wants to recharge his/her mobile connection for a higher amount and the customer care executive clarifies the amount that would be a higher amount for him such as Rs 500, 1000 or 1500. Confirm the requirements from the customer to avoid any misunderstanding. For example, the waiter always confirm the order to avoid any misunderstanding.

The customer expectations and the delivery of the product or service should be in synchronisation with each other. If they do not match, the customer feels disappointed and might look for other options such as trying the competitor's products. Therefore, ensure your services or products match the customers' expectations.

Initially, you need to understand the customers' requirements. Then, check if will be able to fulfil the requirement, and commit only what is feasible. If your capability is to deliver

x, you should not commit x+1. It is then left to the customer to decide whether he/she wants to purchase your product/ service or not.

Exceptional Customer Service

Exceptional customer service involves exceeding customer expectations. This means that the standards and the level of service received by a customer exceeds than what the customer expected.

From the preceding definition, one can make out that exceptional customer service is difficult to measure. This is because once an exceptional level has been achieved, the next time the standard changes. At the same time, customer's expectation changes and the benchmark also changes.

The concept of exceptional customer service is an idea that is easy to understand but not very easy to implement. Once an exceptional experience becomes a process. it ceases to be exceptional and becomes the standard. Therefore, exceptional customer service ii: visible only in an attitude. lt can be achieved when employees work hard to achieve their targets or deadlines. They should be organised and have a positive attitude and right frame

of mind while working to achieve the goals. They should take precautionary measures it avoid any mishaps. They should take care of small things and put in a collective effort as a team to make things happen in a better and successful way.

Organisations that achieve exceptional service treat it as a culture that pervades an organisation at every level and every opportunity.

Customer Service Phrases

Appropriate usage of language skills has an impact on most individuals especially upset customers. While interacting with someone, there are times when you focus only on the functional aspects and intentionally or unintentionally do not acknowledge and appreciate feelings, attitudes and experiences. For example, if a customer asks for a statement of account and keeps looking at the watch, it clearly indicates that he is in a hurry but also needs his statement. If the customer service executive gives the statement without acknowledging his situation of being in a hurry, the customer is likely to say, this bank does not care. On the contrary, acknowledging the feeling by saying "Thanks for your

patience", the customer will think this bank cares. Functionally, in both cases, the statement will be given to the customer.

For situations when a customer is unhappy, you need to use phrases that can knock down the anger and unhappiness in customers.

Some useful phrases can be: "I can see why youd be annoyed' "You have a right to be concerned about"

Summary
A customer buys services and products and uses them. A customer can be classified as: o Internal c External Customer service is: o A service that provides customers' with quality products or services, at the right time and at the right place. o An understanding of what our customers' value. Service triangle consists of: o Supportive management o Caring and competent employees o Systems/Processes

Customers are mainly lost because of indifference towards them and you can retain customers by making each one feel special and important.

The customer expects: o Reliability o Responsiveness o Assurance o Empathy o Tangibles

Some of the techniques that can be followed to identify the requirements of the customer are: o Pay attention to what the customer says. o Ask clarifications from the customer. o Confirm the requirements.

Exceptional customer service involves exceeding customer expectations. Appropriate use of language skills has an impact on most individuals especially upset customers.