Key Elements Needed for a Customer Service Unit ⁽¹⁾

Designing your customer service strategy

A strategy is a plan for positive action. You develop strategies - in this case, a customer service strategy - to outline the steps and financial commitments to achieve business (customer service) goals.

These goals may vary from reducing customer complaints to answering customer service calls in 20 seconds or less. Your customer service plans need to be balanced. Too much "customer service" may result in a drain on your financial position; and too little customer service may incite your customers to take their business elsewhere. Your plans can evolve as additional goals or priorities may surface as your strategy is being developed.

Your customer service strategy will include the following key elements:

• infrastructure
• culture
• high-touch - low touch planning
• consumption behavior

infrastructure development

Customer service depends on the existence of an appropriate level of infrastructure. An infrastructure is the makeup of people, technical networks, physical facilities, and information systems that support the customer service unit.

You need to understand your current capabilities before designing your infrastructure plan. For example, if a company adds a toll-free customer service hotline and does not increase the number of phone lines into the business, it may do more damage than good. The lack of additional lines may cause customers to become frustrated because they can't get through.

Infrastructures require a lot of planning and revisions as they put into use. And they must be used to its fullest potential. If the current technology is in place but employees have not been trained to use it, then it is wasted.

DEVELOP THE culture

Culture is composed of values, beliefs, and norms shared by a group of people. This becomes the work environment that makes customer service units work. If the "culture" does not encourage excellent customer service, excellent customer service will not exist.

Some examples of culture in specific industries:

1. typical workday hours
2. industry lingo
3. peer accountability
4. levels of certification
5. extra company-sponsored activities

developing high-touch and low-touch segmentation

Customers will have different customer service expectations. One method of segmenting customers' expectations is into high-touch and low-touch customer experiences.

High-touch customers require a high level of customer interaction. These customers are expecting (and demanding) a high level of service. If they don't experience a high level of interaction, they will probably be dissatisfied.

Examples of high-touch:

1. bank lobbies
2. specialty stores
3. hotel lobbies
4. purchase of real estate
5. lawyers and accountants
6. prestige restaurant

Low-touch customers expect a low level of customer interaction and often customers will choose this option and may resent being required to participate in a high-touch experience. Low-touch interaction is supported by technology and tends to have high usage and low cost per use.

Examples of low-touch:

1. automatic teller machines
2. express rental car checkout
3. pay-at-pump gas stations
4. fast-food drive ups
5. self checkout
6. downloading of music
7. online bill payment and account management

Understanding Consumption Behavior

Consumption behavior refers to the customer's usage and payment patterns. This information is relatively easy to collect as the customer interacts with your company, especially if the organization has an established method of customer data collection (Customer Information Systems; i.e., CIS). Too often, however, many companies do not know how use the information that has been collected.

Some of the important questions to ask when identifying consumption behavior are:

• what are customers buying?
• why did they buy it?
• why did they buy more today than they did in our last transactions?
• why did they call about a question?
• what was their question?
• how much did they buy?
• have they bought from us before?
• how did they pay?
• when did they pay?
• when will they be installing/assembling the product?

The more information an organization has about its customer's consumption patterns, the better prepared it is to create a strategy to better serve that customer. You need to design and develop a CIS in order to support your customer service strategy.

Most companies serve a variety of different customers with unique consumption patterns. Not all customers should be served the same way - you risk offending some customers, over-serving others, and neglecting others.

For example, credit card companies collect alot information regarding their customer consumption and payment patterns. If a consistent, on-time paying customer misses a payment one month, the card company knows instantly to remove the late fee in order to give the customer a pleasant experience. That same policy would not be available for customers who are consistently late.

Next time:
using empowerment in customer service

References

⁽¹⁾ the following article was referenced from:

Harris, Elaine K. Customer Service: A Practical Approach, Fifth Edition; Prentice Hall
www.pearsonhighered.com