Customers – They're not just for Christmas!

By Bruce McGregor, Director PDMS

The hectic part of my evening was drawing to a close: the kids were bathed and tucked up in bed; the other half was out at her art class; a roaring fire was now glowing across the room and a suitably large glass of red was in hand - perfect! So, there I was, suitably set up for the rest of the evening for a night of non-challenging lads telly: maybe some football? Should I 'pimp my ride'? Catch '300' on box office or was it to be 'Kung-fu Panda'? The choices were there at arm's length, just a simple touch of a button or two.

It was then that I recalled a reminder from my wife as she dashed out of the door - "Could I sort out the changes to our digital TV subscription service, we don't really use their 'multi-room' service anymore, so please could I cancel it". Ah well, no peace for the wicked! Still, simple I thought, just a quick 5 minute phone call, job done and I could then get back to my plans. But, oh how very wrong I was! I won't bore you with the detail, but what followed was a complete and utter Customer Service debacle. Not one but two and half hours later, I was still trying to succeed in my simple mission! So far I hadn’t even managed to speak to the correct department let alone the right person or even for that matter to anyone who could locate or put me through to this elusive 'Pimpernellian rascal'.

I tried everything: I kept phoning; I logged on through the TV in order to manage my account from there; I logged in through my Internet account... I was breaking my gender mould and multi-tasking like there was no tomorrow, but to no avail! I could find everything I wanted 'not to do' I just could not achieve or find the simple thing I was looking for. In the end, the clock beat me and I gave up, my evening ruined along with my temper.

This morning, with the events still bubbling fresh in my mind, my calendar reminded me I had an article to write. So, I decided to look into what 'Customer Service' should really be all about. How much does it really matter?

What is Customer Service? There are many definitions, but a couple which I feel hit the spot are: "Customer Service - 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", this certainly rang true along with "Excellent customer service is the process by which your organisation delivers its services or products in a way that allows the customer to access them in the most efficient, fair, cost-effective, and humanly satisfying and pleasurable manner possible":

Efficient – correct and 'up to date' product, service information and contact details should be immediately and readily available.

Fair – the customer service process should be transparent, convincing and honest and so encourage customer loyalty. If the customer experiences your organisations service as one where they were never surprised and never felt deceived then your organisation will create a competitive edge.

Cost-Effective – your products and or services should be competitively priced for what they really are, including your Customer Service processes.

Humanly Satisfying and Pleasurable – If you get your processes right, including your Customer Services, then people will feel that dealing with your organisation or making a purchase was a satisfying and even a pleasurable experience. One quote I found in another article related to 'retail customer satisfaction’, went as far as to say "In the human pantheon of pleasures, the act of spending is close to eating and sex in its importance, and for some people, it’s a lot more important than either of the two!" I think I might know one of those...

Any organisation can have good customer service as long as they create the correct processes, environment and engender their staff to ensure that they recognise that it really is important.

There are plenty of numbers around to back this up. In a recent British Standards Survey the BSI noted that: 55% of customers are currently left unsatisfied by the handling of their complaint, 64% of those surveyed believe that customer service in the UK is getting worse and a staggering (but not altogether surprising) 72% of customers moved to a competitor after receiving poor customer service. In a nutshell then, if you have decent competitors out there then you could lose your customers very quickly indeed. On the other hand, however, even a bad experience for a customer, if dealt with correctly, does not necessarily need to be too damaging, 95% of customers who complain will remain loyal providing their complaint is handled effectively, according to the PIMS (Profit Impact of Market Strategy) Database.

Customer experience and service, whether negative or positive, really can be a competitive differentiator. In another recent survey by SAS, they noted that 81% of companies, who demonstrated high customer-experience maturity, reported out performing their competition. Companies who made the effort to understand and create increased insight into their customers and their interfaces with them, showed a resulting increase in the standards of their 'Customer Service Offering'.

Let’s also not forget where we are right now. I hate to use the ‘R-word’ so close to Christmas but as we all well know we are in the depths of a recession right now. This adds significant weight to the importance of your Customer Service offering. Customers will be far far more wary and careful as to where they spend their money, and equally where they can reduce their monthly out goings. Human nature suggests that they will be more inclined to spend it where they are treated well. As the economic climate gets worse, competitors who survive will be more and more prepared to match products and general service offerings, to be really competitive. Some people go as far as to say that Customer Service is one of the only areas where companies can currently create a serious edge.

Positive customer experience significantly increases repeat business, engenders loyalty and encourages an increase in the likelihood of the individual recommending your organisation to others. Your customers really can act as part of your sales force in this respect. While word of mouth has always been accepted as an important factor, nowadays it can be exponentially so. Gone are the days where word of mouth simply meant a person re-counting stories to friends in the pub or colleagues at work. With the phenomenal rise in the access to, and use of, our virtual world and in particular social networks (with a 35% increase in their use in the last year alone), bad customer experiences can very quickly be shared, discovered, repeated, summarised and brought to bear. Let the poor Customer Service oriented organisations beware. Suppliers can use this huge population to their advantage too, with technology firms unsurprisingly leading the way by using social networks to improve their customer services.

So, perhaps mister Murdoch should beware too. Even though he does now own one of the largest social networks in the world, 'MySpace', it may well bite back, and he could find that when he looks across at one of his other 'Media organisations' that Customer Service really does matter and that 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse'.