|
Customer Care Corner
4th Article by Director of Customer 1st International Limited (UK).
Stephanie Edwards
Who Needs Customers? 
Service excellence is both obtrusive and elusive. We know when we have received it and, rather more frequently, we know when we have not. Both poor and outstanding service have a strong emotional impact upon us as customers, creating intense feelings about your organisations. Many organisations find service excellence elusive, hard to grasp and difficult to deliver. Organisations must face up to how service, good or bad, impacts dramatically on their reputation and business success. Everyone in business has a customer, and it is time to look after them!
Mind the Gap!
The Service Quality Rater (SQR) is a valuable self assessment tool which identifies what organisations are doing right and currently doing wrong. You need to ask management, staff and customers what they think of your service through questionnaires, focus groups, telephone surveys or mystery shops. Whatever method you use will identify the gaps in your service. The most common are:
Gap 1: The difference between customer expectations and management perceptions of customer expectations
Gap 2: The difference between customer service quality specifications and the customer service actually delivered
Gap 3: The difference between customers' expectations of the service and their perceptions of the customer service performance
Work then needs to be done to close the gaps. The first step might be to develop a customer focused culture in your organisation.
Create a Customer Service Culture
The challenge for many businesses is the inconsistency of customer service delivery that occurs within an organisation. Too often, customer service quality can fluctuate and this can create real challenges in maintaining a reputation for service excellence. These days, customer expectations are rising daily and complainants can do irretrievable damage to organisations via the internet, through channels such as Facebook.
>>Page2>>
| 
