A Customer Service Blog

One of the most common things we here on our customer service training courses is that although people are willing they often do not have the necessary tools or instruments to carry out their role.

It is actually amazing how much can be achieved through harmonious teamwork when everyone is committed to the same goal - even if they don’t have the right tools or instruments.  Take a couple of minutes out and turn the sound up to see and hear what can be achieved when everyone is committed and working together to achieve a specific goal.

I have recently started to buy all of my meat from the butchers.  A strange start to a blog I know.

The reason for this switch away from the supermarkets and into the butchers is a simple one.  When I go into the butchers I am treated like an important customer but crucially I am given a level of customer service that goes beyond simply selling me some meat products.

A butcher is an expert in meat and all related areas and this expertise simply does not exist in most supermarkets.  So when buying meat for a casserole I can ask the butcher a number of questions such as “what is the best cut for this type of meal?” - “how many people will this be likely to serve?” - “how long should I cook it for?” - “are there any accompaniments you can recommend?” etc etc.

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A general election was called today for the 6th May 2010.  Labour will go to the people and hope that they can eat away at the now slender lead the Conservatives have in the polls.

This is the biggest customer service pitch around.  We the people are the Government’s customers and we will be deciding who gets to provide our customer service over the next 4 - 5 years.

Think of this in terms of commerce and it throws up a very interesting slant on things.  Imagine if every company you dealt with only gave you the option to move once every 4 - 5 years and you only had two main companies to choose from.  It would be a major decision and one which you would probably agonise over a lot.  You would take advice from people about their experiences, you would look at all the angles and then you would make the decision.

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Yesterday we gave you part one of our interview with Tim Dibbs of Crown Honda on his company’s commitment to achieving excellence in customer service.

GT: What is the one thing that drives you Tim in terms of customer service?

TD: Consistency, consistency and consistency.  Not only does the experience have to be consistent no matter what day or indeed time of day it also has to be getting consistently better at all times to keep me happy.

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Any regular readers of this blog will know that I take a very keen interest in the Owner / Drivers or MD’s of companies who have a strong commitment to achieving excellence in customer care and high levels of customer satisfaction.

I was therefore delighted when I recently got the opportunity to spend an hour with Tim Dibbs, Managing Director of Crown Honda to discuss his company’s ongoing commitment to achieving “client delight”.

Crown has won too many awards for their customer service to list here and I have to say my own personal experience has never been anything other than excellent.

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Following last week’s blog about customer service telephone centres and the lack of authority the person answering the call has, my ears pricked up during the news this morning when it was reported that there had been a rise in complaints about the HM Revenue and Customs call centres. It took some digging around to find out the numbers, but believe me they were worth the dig!

According to an article published earlier this month in CCF (Call Centre Focus) Magazine, latest figures show an increase of a third in the number of complaints made about the Treasury’s call centre. In 2008/2009 they received 7,644 complaints, a staggering 1,739 increase on the year before. That’s more than 25 complaints a day. And that is only the call centre complaints - in total the Treasury received more than 87,000 customer complaints last year.
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On day two of the Annual Conference for the ICS (Institute of Customer Service) there have been presentations on Recruitment, Management and Work-Life Balance. There has been a session on Customer Service Delivery and the highlights gleaned from one attendee has provided much food for thought.

“delivering customer service needs to be “Right First Time”, and rarely (if ever) include temporary, low quality solutions.”

This, on the face of it may seem a rather obvious statement, but let’s just unpick the “Right First Time” concept. Of course as a business you always want to service your customers correctly and to their satisfaction - that is after all what they came to you for, however a straight forward transaction where expectations were met will not necessarily place you, in their estimation, as delivering excellent Customer Service.

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I was intrigued to learn that the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) began their annual conference today - billed as “the UK’s largest gathering of customer service opinion formers, academics and professionals, so it’s a must for anyone with a strategic interest in customer service.”

It is being held at “The Brewery” in London and, all the organisation for delegates and accommodation has been arranged by Creme Conferences - now there is pressure on staff to realise “outstanding” customer satisfaction! Creme Conferences have the company motto - “passionate about venue finding” whilst The Brewery lists among its many awards AEO Team of the Year “The accolade recognizes high customer service levels, duty of care and the enthusiasm and dedication of the Brewery’s staff. Judges commented particularly on impressive low levels of staff turnover, high levels of repeat clients and the likelihood of clients to recommend the venue.” I am certain that their experience will be drawn on this week!

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Last week I had the pleasure of presenting to an audience of 100+ business owners in a beautiful country house near Lewes in Sussex.  My colleague and I had the privelege to be asked to present a ten minute slot at the Sussex Enterprise’s Sales Maximisation event.

The topic of our discussion was assessing the lifetime value of each individual customer.  We used examples of a cup of coffee through to a high-end software purchase and the main point throughout was that each so called “moment of truth” within customer service is vital.  Many people often only view each transaction within its face value context so for example a cup of coffee may only cost £2 but if that customer keeps coming back their value to say Starbucks can keep growing exponentially.

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Yesterday we gave you part one of our interview with Noel Pope, Director of Merityre Specialists, a company bucking the trend and using excellence in customer service to drive their business forward in this challenging time.

Here is part 2 and the concluding part of the interview.  GA Training has been working in partnership with Merityre to provide customer service training that helps drive the business forward.

GT: How do you monitor customer service levels within Merityre?

NP: One easy measure is the number of customer complaints we receive but we also regularly take part in mystery shopping exercises to assess the levels of customer service within Merityre.

GT: What is your opinion on mystery shopping in general?

NP: It is an incredibly useful tool when used correctly. The most important thing is to take action on the results. Without the follow up action being taken the exercise is pretty pointless but if you do follow up correctly it is invaluable.

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