Delivering World Class Customer Service Experience

World Class Customer Service

Nowadays, customers and consumers are highly educated. They have easy access to a plethora of information to help them make a purchase decision. They have expectations and are generally looking for the ‘Wow’ experience, be it a product or service purchase. In a survey conducted by Econsultancy for Digital Marketing Trends, 86% of buyers will pay more for a better customer experience. In fact, according to a Walker study, by the year 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator.

Hence, it is evident that customer service should be an integral part of every organisation.

Why is it important to have world class service? Having the capability to deliver world class service experience means that a company is ready to serve everyone, be it locals or foreigners. Customers and consumers will be happy to purchase and use your products and services.

However, it is a fact that companies and businesses struggle in the area of delivering their best customer service to clients due to some challenges. These challenges makes it difficult for companies to attract and retain their customers.

What are the common challenges of customer service?

1   Ignorant of Customer Service Standard

The lack of awareness on customer service standards affects an organisation’s capability to deliver and meet customer’s expectations. For example, an unfriendly service staff who does not smile while serving customer will give the customer an impression that the staff is not happy to be of service.

2   Lack of Product Knowledge

An uninformed staff will immensely affect the delivery of service. This is especially true when a staff is unable to address customers’ enquiries accurately and in a timely manner, due to the lack in knowledge to respond correctly to the customer. On the other hand, providing incorrect information would also be disastrous as it will influence the customer’s perception of the company.

3   Not Building Rapport with Customer

In most businesses, it is common to cut straight to the chase. Companies focus primarily on their products and services instead of taking the time to understand their customers. This is a terrible mistake as companies do not know their customers well enough to see how their products or services can help the customer. Building rapport is quite easy and straightforward. It could be as simple as greeting the customer and asking how their day is, followed by getting some basic information that will influence their purchase decision. This will help to tailor the sales pitch to the customer and close the deal.

4  Speed of Service

Most companies and staff primarily take this for granted. Staff either take too long to respond to customer or in the worst case scenario, do not even come back to the customer on the question being asked. This will result in an unpleasant customer experience that will tarnish the company’s image.

5   After Sales Service

One important question companies need to ask themselves after selling to customers is “Do we keep in-touch with our clients?” When companies don’t keep in-touch with customers, they start to lose them. The purpose of after sales service is to find out whether customers are satisfied with the products or services purchased. Apart from that, checking on the customer after the sale allows companies to gauge whether customers know how to use the product and is able to reap the full advantage of the purchase from the company.

6   Giving Too Many Excuses

Excuses do not solve problems. Companies and, most importantly, employees who deal with customers directly must not let anything stand in their way of providing excellent service. Customers are not interested to know about the company policy and by staff apologising for not being able to help due to company policy is an unacceptable excuse. There is always something, in which the employee can do in his or her capacity to help the customer.

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Most companies don’t know how important customer service and the lack of it can be detrimental to the survival of the business. Here are some tips to good customer service:-

1   Have a Good Customer Service Standard

Every company needs to define its own standard of customer service. It is crucial for companies to identify its customer service standard rating. Public Bank, for instance, has a standard waiting time of two minutes. Customers of Public Bank can be assured that they will be served within two minutes and not more than that. When a company delivers on its promise and meets the customer’s expectation, this will create happy and satisfied customers.

2   Mapping SOPs into Measurable Steps

In any organisation, there is always a standard operating procedure (SOP) that acts as a guideline for employee work processes. It is crucial that every employee understands the company SOPs and adhere to the given guidelines. The same goes for each branch and outlets that a company has, in order to reduce issues and customer complaints. Take for example, when a customer sends his car for regular service, the staff at the car workshop must inform customer of the waiting time. If customers are kept waiting for too long, this will result in unhappy customer experience.

3   Building Rapport is Critical

Establishing rapport with customers is essential for the sustainability of the business. Generally, people love when others take the time to listen to them. In the business and customer service context, speaking to customers is a good way to build rapport and understand more about the customer. For this, staff will need to listen well and be trained to ask the right questions. This will make the job easier for the staff as the information gathered can help the staff to offer the right service or products to the customer. Building rapport equals building trust with the brand. Well, how to build rapport? For starters, communicate with the customer and speak about things that are in the interest of the customer.

4   Product Knowledge Mastery

It is necessary for every employee to be a master of their trade. For starters, they can begin by equipping themselves with the relevant information and knowledge that will help them to serve customers better. They will need to be able to provide customers with accurate information to help customers make informed purchase decisions. If a customer finds out that they are given inaccurate information, they will cease to trust the company and eventually opt to bring their business elsewhere.

5   Improve on Speed of Service

It is critical to deliver service on a timely manner at all times. For instance, in the training industry, when a client requests for a proposal, Master Trainers Consulting & Coaching Sdn Bhd will forward the proposal to the client within 24 hours. Anything beyond the stipulated time indicates inefficient service. Customers should not be kept waiting too long as it will affect their perception of the company and make them question the company’s ability to meet with their expectation.

6   Providing after Sales Service

Do we check on our customers after the point of sale? Do we make the effort to gauge customer’s satisfaction with the product or service rendered? For example, a car salesman successfully sold a car to a customer. The salesman was friendly, nice and helpful when he approached the customer to make the sale. However, his attitude towards the customer changed after the sale was successfully secured. The salesman started ignoring customer’s call and made excuses to not to meet up with the customer. Most people do not like to take responsibility for after sales service because it is a tedious task. This should not happen as it is crucial to treat customers like VVIPs because they are the ones who pay the bills. According to branding experts, it is necessary to make a good impression the first time. But, it is equally important to improve and make the second, third and subsequent impressions even better to build solid credibility and gain customer’s trust.

7   Limit Excuses

Businesses and sales people need to be excited and passionate to serve. Limit excuses because it will affect customer’s experience with the company. Everyone in the organisation will need to put in the effort to solve customer’s problem. No customers like to deal with businesses or staff that does not put their best interest at heart. Go the extra mile to win the customer’s heart and eventually their loyalty. As an example, certain hotels make it a practise to provide complementary refreshments to guests upon their check-in at the property. This may be a small gesture, but the guest will feel welcomed and contribute to a pleasant customer experience making it a memorable stay at the hotel.

In every ‘World Class Customer Service’ training, the main focus would be on the ‘Wow’ factor. Master Trainers Consulting and Coaching Sdn. Bhd is the expert in analysing customer service problem. We can design and formulate the right training solutions for your company to enable you to create and offer good service to your customers. In addition, we can also help to measure the results and outcome of the training, regardless of your industry. The key areas of our expertise include identifying problem(s), designing and creating solution as well as measuring results.