Customer Service

Customer service is providing service to customers before, during and after a purchase.

Because you’ve been on the receiving end of customer service, even if you’re not currently working in the field, you understand the process—gathering information about the product before purchasing, getting help with the purchase process and then contacting the company to return, repair or get operating assistance for your purchase.   All of these activities can be done in person, over the phone, by email and increasingly, through various social media. Most businesses use a combination of these.

A common perception is the customer service and support departments are a room of phone banks, anywhere in the world and those on the end of the phone line aren’t helpful.  Many of the departments may have phone banks anywhere in the world, but there’s no reason that much of what we discuss this week can’t be applied to small and large businesses alike, regardless of where the departments are located.

By now, you have a good understanding of the importance of CRM to an organization and a customer service department is the frontline of customer contact.  The following story illustrates the importance of each customer contact.

Jan Carlzon,  then CEO of SAS Airlines (the premier Scandinavian airline), quietly published his book Moments of Truth (Ballinger Publishing Company, 1987). It's an account of how the airline, under Carlzon's leadership, asked what influenced its passengers' perceptions of service. What the airline found was that perceptions of service depended on how customers remembered discrete encounters they had with the airline. These encounters — or moments of truth — can be either memorably positive experiences or memorably negative experiences. Each kind of encounter plays a critical part in an individual customer's future purchasing decisions. For example, a two-minute phone conversation can influence a customer's opinion about the entire enterprise — even more so than a two-hour flight!

Customer Service for Dummies 3rd ed. 
Karen Leland & Keith Bailey

This moment-of-truth thinking about customer service continues to hold up, because no matter what service or product a company provides, your customers are making quick judgments based on fleeting contacts.  Customer perception is reality, and service excellence, to a large degree, is managing your customers' perceptions and expectations.

General Customer Service Thoughts

The approach to customer service is the same regardless of the technology used.  Some specifics may be different and we’ll recognize some of those later in the reading.  But for now, let’s review some of the common ground.

Regardless of whether your company is large or small, local or international, in the manufacturing, technology, service, or public sector, the key to successful customer relations is infusing your company to the core with the principles of quality customer service. As a manager, executive, or business owner, you have to deliver first-rate service to your customers, instill a commitment to service in every person who works for you, and strive to create a customer-centered company culture. The path to excellence in customer service isn't simply a matter of hiring the right people and training the front-line staff, it's a genuine commitment to create a customer-focused rather than an in-focused company

Customer Service for Dummies 3rd ed. 
Karen Leland & Keith Bailey

The following article from Inc. magazine provides a perfect example of this commitment in practice.

Article:  How to Provide Great B2B Customer Service

 (Links to an external site.)

Links to an external site.

And the MentalFloss blog link below provides some individual stories, some about well-known businesses, that embody excellent customer service.  Notice that in these examples, people close to the customer are empowered to do what’s needed to provide exceptional service, another key to delighting the customer!

Article:  11 of the Best Customer Service Stories Ever

 (Links to an external site.)

Links to an external site.

The next reading is from Customer Service for Dummies 3rd edition, written by customer service experts Karen Leland and Keith Bailey.   Despite the unfortunate “dummies” moniker, this book, included as an e-book in Champlain’s library. is clearly written, easy to read and includes many interesting stories.  The following link explains Six Key Strategies for Customer Service. They include: