Last week we explored the first part of this 3 part series on the creation of a superior customer service strategy. These principles discussed here are based on an all-time customer service book by business authors Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles called Raving Fans. In it the authors discuss the principles of customer service based on what we call the 3D Approach to Customer Service Strategy – Decide, Discover and Deliver.
We discussed the must haves on issues surrounding deciding
what any business enterprise requires in terms of your superior customer
service delivery. Employee involvement, buy in and support is crucial in in the successful implementation of your strategy.
Create a vision for your customer service and have it written down in a
powerful statement. Once you have made up your mind and decided what you want
to do it is time to discover what your customers really want.
Ask yourself, what do your clients want? What do they think
about your customer service? How do they want you to serve them? Instead of
speculating on the answers to the above questions ask your customers for the
answers. Find out from them what they really want from you. Do they like your
packaging for your products? Is your product user friendly? Are your employees
giving the customers the right service they deserve?
Both customers and consumers have grown to accept inadequate
performance. Bad service is the status quo in today's world. Many say nothing
when they are dissatisfied. Therefore, you must listen to what your clients are
telling you, and you must also notice the silences. Because your clients are
not complaining does not mean they are happy. Lack of service has created
apathetic consumers or customers who feel complaining may not do anything but
waste their time. So, ask your clients what they want, what you are doing well,
and what you could be doing better. Politely "force" them into
answering those questions instead of just assuming they are satisfied.
So, how do you go about discovering what your customers
want? Carry out customer service surveys where you gather data on the opinions
of your customers about your service. Use the Stop, Start and Continue
principle. Ask customers what is it that they want you to stop doing which
irritates them or inconveniences them? What is it that they want you to start
doing which you are currently not doing? What is it that you are doing that you
should continue doing?
Carrying out a customer service survey is seemingly easy but
it requires excellent use of research methods principles. In that regard it is
highly recommended that if there is no internal expertise in the organization a
professional researcher be contracted to carry it out for you. The design of the questionnaire and the
criterion to be measured has to be clearly understood and user friendly for
your customers so that they give you the right information that you require.
There is need to check for reliability and validity of the test instruments
(questionnaires) to be used. In simple terms validity as a concept looks at whether
the instrument (questionnaire) that has been designed measures what it purports
to measure. Reliability on the other hand looks at the consistency of the
instrument (questionnaire) in coming up with the same results.
There are many sources of information that can be used to gather
data from customers for you to discover what they want. These are not limited to
the use of a customer feedback book, customer satisfaction questionnaires,
email response from customers, carrying out a survey, conducting focus group
discussions, among others. Whatever method agreed internally be sure it will be
able to capture the required information so that sound decision making can be
reached.
Once the raw data has been collected, it becomes time to decipher
through all of it to discover what your customers want. The use of a
statistical analysis package like SPSS – Statistical Package for Social
Sciences is essential in this regard. Share the findings of the research with
everyone in the company in a kind of “our customers spoke and we listened.”
Now that the discovery of what customers want has successfully
been concluded what next? It will be time to move to the final milestone of
delivering which is the focus of next week’s article. In the meantime remember
last week you decided what you want to do by creating a vision. This week you
have discovered what your customers really want from you in terms of service.
Keep in mind that the ultimate goal is to create raving fans who are delighted
customers by offering them superior customer service.
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