Friday, September 29, 2006

Some Days Just Dont Add Up

In the grand scheme of things sometimes what we do seems quite insignificant. Maybe its because we felt that we were in the drivers seat and the world was ours or perhaps we just get to much of ourselves being the all important manager or the owner of a flourishing business. It really doesn't matter how, but it does matter that when we do we dont lose site of the the fact that no mater how important we feel we are that5 we still realise that the customer is still more important. We need to realize that when we do put our selves on such a pedestal our resulting behavior destroys the very business that we are trying to build.

Yea, this is about customer service. When we fail to see the importance of the customer, we simply forget to put them first. It seems that we forget to care about why they are buying our products or services in the first place, we forget to see the things that we and our business does in their terms, we forget alot of things including how to be kind to our customers. In fact we really forget much more.

So before you think that your so hot remember that without the customer you ain’t got nothin at all. By the way this also includes your employees.

We encourage you to leave your comments and value your thoughts.

Friday, September 08, 2006

The Internal Customer - "Customer Policy Development"

I was reading one of the associate blog sites involved in the development customer service Customer Relations: The New Competitive Edge" written by Meikah, where she brings up an interesting point about customers. The internal customer to be exact.

When push comes to shove the internal customers (employees)usually get the raw end of the deal. Why, because they are seen as an expendable resource, a necessary evil to splitting up the work loads, but not as a quality asset.

In the realms of customer service and customer acquisition, studies have shown that it is the employee, your internal customer that has the greatest effect on the customer buying cycle, repeat customer business, and on going customer relationships. Should I also mention the business culture here as well.

What this means is you better train them not just in their job functions, but a lot more in customer service and relationship management and yes this means the floor clerk, accountant, and warehouse personnel. If you have one employee train them if you have 500 train them and then hold on to them at all cost. Every employee adds value to this customer service and development chain. They maybe the single greatest element to the success of an on going business.

Customer service policies have to cover all aspects of what is a customer; In this case the internal customer or your employees should be the first consideration in their impact on a business, both negative and positive.

Yes training should be a part of the policy mix. It wouldn’t hurt management either.

Please share your comments, they are always welcome.

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Saturday, September 02, 2006

Customer Service Policy - Part 3

In the exploration of policy development and the formation of formal policies it is also important to keep in mind the ease in which these policies can be instituted by the manger and the lower staff that comes into direct contact with the customer.

There are many policies instituted by businesses that are virtually rendered useless based on their relevance to the customer and there relevance to how they can be supported or implemented by the staff that has direct responsibility for the customer.

Relevance of the policies that you will use or implement must be considered in all circumstances as these will have a direct effect on customer response to the policies. Such responses can have either a direct positive outcome on resulting customer perceptions of the business and the purchasing of current or future purchases, or they may have a devastating negative effect resulting in dissatisfaction with the company or disengagement with the on going or future buying processes.

Policy choice also has a direct impact on the development of customer relationships and the on going development of long term customer life cycles.

In any case relevancy of any policy and the ease in which it can be implemented must be primary in the policy development and the formation of any policy rgarding customer service.

As always you are invited to leave a comment or to share an idea.

For more information on customer service or the customer experience we recomend that you visit "The Customer Development Center"