I have been involved in customer service in one way or the other since 1970. I have seen and read hundreds of articles and books on the subject. There are dozens of theories and concepts on the subject and every few years there is another new “term’ or “phrase” to explain what it is and what to do. We have seen the “secrets” article such as: Secrets of Providing Good Customer Care, The Secrets To Extraordinary Service, 7 Secrets To Get Good Customer Service By Phone, Five Secrets To Providing Customer Service that Kicks Butt and Secrets to offering exceptional customer service. We have seen the articles educating us in customer service such as: 8 Fresh Customer Service Ideas Worth Stealing, 25 Fun, Quirky and Memorable Customer Appreciation Ideas, 7 Ways to Show Customers that You Care, 50 Small Ways to Improve Customer Service, Best Customer Service Ideas, 7 Brilliant Ideas To Make Your Customer Service Shine, 6 Keys to Improving Your Team's Customer Care Skills and Learn how to improve your customer service skills. And we have even seen religion brought into the fray with such articles as: The Customer is God, Customer Service in God's House, Customer Service is the God Particle, In Japan the customer is God, Finding God in Customer Service, and Customer Service vs. God. Ok, ok I know this is now getting a little out of hand so let me get back to my point. All of the above articles have something interesting to say, but I still think that it only takes one statement to define the customer care objective. Meeting that objective is difficult and takes a lot of work. One of the keys is having a staff dedicated to customer care hat knows how to listen and work with people. Customers are not bad, they just get tired of not being listened to and getting caught up in YOUR corporate policies and procedures when they just want their “toaster to work.” They do not care about the inter-working of your organization that is preventing them from ever talking to anyone who can help. When they went online they never envisioned the hours of phones calls, numerous emails and lack of action from your group. THEY JUST WANT THEIR TOAST! So over the years I have written many of my own articles, provided customer service management services and joined a lot of LinkedIn customer service groups. I have looked at customer service from the viewpoints of the president, CFO, manufacturing, sales, reps, marketing, end user and customer care and I have come to this one statement that defines customer service’s objective… Ready? Here it is! The definitive customer service mission statement: “Solve The Customer’s Problem To Their Satisfaction in a professional and Timely Manner” No more, no less! It is that simple! Jim Stedt is a partner at The Business SoftSkills Company (GetSoftSkillsNow.Com) located in Santa Ana, California. They provide job readiness and workforce success videos for education, business, prisons and individual use. Training is available online, on DVD, or through an affiliate program. These products are the most complete and concise soft skills training packages now available for the price of an average college textbook.
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Mission statement, customer service, satisfied customer,
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