Current Business Essay
Importance of Customer Service
Richard Anderson
22 January 2018
Liberty University
Importance of Customer Service Anderson 1
Importance of Customer Service
Throughout time, all businesses have attempted to satisfy their customer’s needs to
ensure businesses can keep their customers satisfied in the future. While customer service may
be important, it is essential to keep your customers satisfied and provide excellent customer
service. In today’s modern age, many companies have opted to utilize social media, online
instant chat, and etcetera to respond to their customers as quickly as possible. To truly
understand from a business mindset how to provide exceptional customer service, businesses
have to deeply investigate to discover consumer’s ever-changing need and wants.
According to Huang (2018), they explain:
Customers who had interacted with a brand’s customer service representative on Twitter
were significantly more likely to pay more for the brand, or choose the brand more often
from a comparably-priced consideration set, compared to our control group of customers
who had no such interaction (Huang, 2018, p.2).
In today’s era millennial’s have adapted to social media and hold it very close to their beliefs. In
the above passage it shows that not only is it financially beneficial for a business to use social
media, but it also gives a business brand loyalty. Brand loyalty for a business is a huge advantage
to companies against its competitors. Companies such as Nike, Google, Apple, Microsoft,
Adidas, Mercedes Benz, BMW, etc. have created brand loyalty in one way or another.
Businesses have to always keep in mind that consumer’s needs are always changing and they
need to be in tune with those changes promptly. If not other competitors will beat they to that
opportunity and it will be harder to pull those lost consumers back.
In customer service, a huge challenge is dealing with angry customers, but the author
Huang (2018)had a different opinion. According to Huang(2018), it expands on:
Importance of Customer Service Anderson 2
Handling angry customers is a daily task for any customer service rep. While most
companies do earnestly try to solve customer problems, inevitably there are some
problems that cannot ever be fixed — the canceled flight that causes you to miss your
sister’s wedding, or the dropped calls during your critical business negotiation. In many
cases, there is little a company can do to redress a customer’s specific grievance. But
sometimes customers are just looking for a little empathy. When customers used a
negative or even an angry tone in their initial tweet to a brand’s customer service team,
we saw that the best approach was to respond to negative comments instead of ignoring
them (Huang, 2018, p.2).
Even when dealing with less than desirable conversations with angry consumers, it is
always vital to acknowledge their grievances in a timely matter. Consumers left abandoned or
ignored will leave a company’s relationship with a customer completely damaged. As the above
explains, when the customers would tweet with an angry tone, they would respond to the
comments instead of ignoring them. Most consumers want the organizations customer service to
feel empathetic toward there grievance and understand their true issues with the service.
According to Rossmann (2017) it states, “Customer expectations from social media have
amplified in recent years [22]. Customers share the impression that services in social media
channels are convenient and reduce service costs – both monetary and nonmonetary.” With this
being said, social media customer service is the present and the future of many businesses to
survive. Businesses need to focus their team member resources and financial resources because
social media is being use as a new form of competitive advantage to drive competition.
Importance of Customer Service Anderson 3
Some studies conducted by Kiss Metrics (a marketing performance company), show that
there are 5 different traits that helps convey the right message to consumers. According to
Douglass (2015) it states the following:
A number of research studies on knowing and evaluating customer desires and
expectations reveal some key company-customer findings:
* Customers care more about quality than they do speed. Good service trumps fast
service.
* Customers know what they want. Their ideas need to be listened to and acted on.
* Creating goodwill with customers doesn't cost a lot of money. The intentions of
the giver (the server) affect the value of the gift (the service).
* Customers want personalization. Remember them, their names and their preferences.
* Customers want simplicity, clarity and confidence. Communicate clearly,
with friendliness and completeness (Douglass, 2015, pg.2).
These findings from these studies help support that customers want to be recognized when they
have grievances. The more prompt businesses act upon consumer issues, the quicker they can
build a positive rapport with that customer. In result of prompt action and customer service, a
business can also gain new consumers by positive reviews and word of mouth. A new aspect
Douglass brought to customer service is that consumers want personalization and want
businesses to remember personal information about them. Businesses and organizations need to
make executive decision to strive and perfect exceptional customer support.
Lastly, building relationships with consumer’s can be one of a business’s best assets.
Building these relationships can be challenging depending on the consumer’s perception the
company’s customer service quality. According to Leland (2006) he says, “Becoming customer
centric often meant moving away from an intense focus on product development to placing an
equal amount of emphasis on relationship development. After all, even great products fail
occasionally, and a strong bond between company and customer can overcome most problems.”
So businesses will have to shift their focus from product development in order to focus on
relationship development to help build their popularity as well as revenue. This can be done by
Importance of Customer Service Anderson 4
conducting surveys, research, reading consumer reviews, and talking with current consumer who
purchase your service or products. Doing these task will help ensure that businesses have the
business intelligence to adapt to consumers wants and needs.
Customer service has been proven very important, but the real question is how do you
keep your customers and provide excellent customer service? A business can do this by, dealing
with less than desirable conversations with angry consumers. Businesses will also need to always
keep in mind that consumer’s needs are always changing and they need to be in tune with those
changes promptly. Businesses need to focus their team member resources and financial resources
because social media is being use as a new form of competitive advantage to drive competition.
To understand from a business mindset how to provide exceptional customer service, businesses
have to drill down to discover consumer’s ever changing need and wants.
References
Douglass, C. (2015). The language of customer service. Arkansas Business, 32(40), 35.
Retrieved from
Importance of Customer Service Anderson 5
http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/apps/doc/A433436423/ITOF?
u=vic_liberty&sid=ITOF&xid=e490fc69
Leland, K., & Bailey, K. (2006). Customer service for dummies. Indianapolis, IN : Wiley.
Rossmann, A., Wilke, T., & Stei, G. (2017, November 20). Usage of Social Media Systems in
Customer Service Strategies. Retrieved January 20, 2018, from
https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/41637/1/paper0488.pdf
Huang W., Mitchell J., Dibner C., Ruttenberg A.,Tripp A., H., Mitchell, J., Dibner, C.,
Ruttenburg, A., & Tripp, A. (2018, January 16). How Customer Service Can Turn Angry
Customers into Loyal Ones. Retrieved, from https://hbr.org/2018/01/how-customer-
service-can-turn-angry-customers-into-loyal-ones
