You gain, and you lose customers every day. Unfortunately, the sad fact is that the latter seems to be a more familiar experience for most organizations, resulting in unnecessary dollars spent gaining new ones.
Has your organization seriously focused on why you are losing customers? Or a better question to ask is WHO is causing you to lose these customers? A recent visit to a local bank provided me with an eye-opening experience that may help you answer this almost impossible question.
I was on a routine visit to an international bank to make payment on a credit card. As I entered the grandly laid out and contemporarily decorated lobby of the bank, I habitually made a beeline to the Queue Management System number dispenser. There to greet me was a layer of dust marked with four clean circles of what must have been the feet of the QMS machine. There were no other trails for me to follow, so it was evident it didn't just sprout legs and galloped away. I glanced around the lobby only to be greeted by a human face as I reached my neck's pivoting limit of approximately 180°, and it spoke! (as most faces can).
"Sorry, the number machine has been moved to the entrance where it will be easier for our customers to see." said the pleasantly smiling face as he pointed towards the vicinity of the main entrance. Ladies and gentlemen, I had just encountered a friendly bank staff. However, the excellent service doesn't stop there.
I was invited to sit by another staff, attended to like royalty at the teller counter and even was at the receiving end of a smile by the bank officer who took the time to look up amid his utmost important task of signing off on a hundred documents. I was WOW'ed by a bank. Imagine that! This deserves a compliment.
I walked toward a 'Manager' plaque strategically placed without obstruction on a grand oak table to share my experience and deliver my compliment, pinching myself as I made my way. However, this is where it gets interesting.
The gentleman seated there glanced up and, through gritted teeth gnarled, "What can I do for you?" Taken aback, I hesitantly began to relate my tale of exemplary service, and before I could finish telling him about the relocated QMS, he snapped back with, "QMS is better where it is now!" An uncomfortable pause settled in as our eye contact, and body language reached Def Con 4 levels.
Customer service is constantly embraced and rolled out to the masses in large organizations. However, it only takes one individual to destroy the distinct customer experience that an organization strives for continuously. So what can be done to ensure the complete cycle of an emotionally delighting customer experience is delivered?
Delighting customer service experiences are challenging to come by, let alone created at every opportunity by an organization. So what is within the control of organizations that endeavour to fulfil this highly demanding requirement of everybody's like you and me?
Establish a Service Charter
Creating a service charter by innovating (read plagiarize) or modifying existing charters created by other organizations and adopting them as your own is like wearing a talisman to bring good luck, a sure way to commit service suicide. Service standards or charters should be a solemn pledge made and committed to every process and procedure set forth within your organization. This is a statement so strong that your entire organization breathes and lives every single word. They believe, trust and zealously convey every possible customer interaction.
Continuous Consistency
At every interaction point: when a customer calls, walks into your premises, sends you an email, faxes you a request or even sends an SMS to you, can you unequivocally say they receive the same level of service as established in your service charter? There is nothing worse than providing inconsistent service at different interaction points with your customers. Maintaining consistency by Management being religiously aware of employees' to customers at every contact is essential. Ensure they are delivering service that corresponds with the image you wish to project to your precious customers. Coach employees who do not meet the mark or slip from that echelon ensure consistency; CONTINUOUSLY.
Attribute it to Attitude
This combination of eight letters creates the most potent force known to anyone alive today, ATTITUDE. First, create awareness within the ranks that Attitude counts for everything. Next, encourage the development of proper attitudes by motivating working environments, cultivating a nurturing organizational culture that emphasizes individual growth, and increasing intra-personal and interpersonal consciousness by providing training that effectively internalizes the right attitudes. More importantly, pay recognition to individuals who exude fantastic attitudes to create a powerful, infectious wave of morale lifting behaviours.
Measure It or Misplace It
"If it's not measured, it's not done." An unfortunate truth in the organizational culture of today. Performance management has become a vigorous religion in any organization that values productivity and efficiency. Placing Key Performance Indicators to critical elements of service delivery is essential to ensure its continuity. Not measuring encouraged practices will undoubtedly result in the dissipation of such components.
