Put Every Employee in Customer Service
During lean economic times, business managers need to take advantage of very opportunity to hang onto existing business and to prepare employees to better serve the customer. For example, one Fox Valley firm has been conducting employee training during periods of reduced work demands to maintain employee technical competence.
A year ago, most businesses were busy just trying to keep up with customer orders. Staffing was tight and new employees, when you could find one, were put on the job immediately because the backlog left no time for training. Now, reduced production or service demands may free some time for employee training. Such training can focus on better sales techniques, improving job skills for better efficiency, enhancing product or service knowledge, or improving customer service.
As a consumer, I certainly don't need to be insulted by a tactless employee, or concerned about the lack of skill of a new employee thrown on the job without adequate training, or feel like I'm interrupting the employee's personal call or non-work conversation with a co-worker or friend. These impressions certainly affect future buying decisions.
In most industries, there are competing organizations offering the same products or services. Whether a customer selects one organization or another can depend on price, product or service offerings, quality, and availability. Often, the only real factor that separates one organization from another is SERVICE. For this reason, many of the leading organizations put a high degree of emphasis on training and customer service.
Whether your organization makes a product or provides a service, an emphasis on customer service can be that subtle competitive edge that helps your firm to weather an economic storm. Here are some thoughts on improving customer service.
Define a commitment to top flight customer service. Put your commitment to customer service in a written statement, such as a mission statement or published business objective.
Communicate the customer service statement to employees and customers alike.
Include the statement in employee communication materials such as a policy manual, bulletin board posting, payroll insert or on-line screen saver. Likewise, communicate your customer service message to customers in ads, promotional materials, correspondence, and workplace signage.
Define responsibilities for responding to customer concerns and complaints. Include a statement about care of the customer in job descriptions. Clarify how much authority an employee has to resolve a matter of customer concern and when the matter should be passed on to a supervisor.
Provide training to employees and management on how to deal with customer service issues. Such training can cover the importance of listening to the customer, being responsive to customer needs, maintaining customer communication and how to deal with troublesome issues or customers.
In this era of "business casual" dress practices, recognize that employee dress and appearance can affect employee demeanor on the job, influencing customer confidence and impressions of your business.
Here's one final observation. Many businesses have numerous "behind the scenes" employees who do not have direct contact with the buying customer. To convey a sense of customer service, some firms identify internal customers. An internal customer is the person or department who receives the output of your work effort. With this philosophy, every employee is responsible to care for their customers by providing their work effort carefully, accurately and on time.
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William S. Hubbartt is president of Hubbartt & Associates, a St. Charles, IL consulting firm specializing in employee compensation, employee handbooks, personnel policies and supervisory training. (www.Hubbartt.com) Mr. Hubbartt is author of The New Battle Over Workplace Privacy, published by AMACOM Books.
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