Customer Service issues are beginning to take a higher dimension on the scale of sales management tools. Globally, customer service has become a low cost method of boosting your business with more patronage driven by customer loyalty as the businesses provide value to their customers. In fact, customer service is being referred to as the ‘New Marketing’.
Various businesses have perfected the act of customer service with the multinational companies leading the pack. The smart businesses pay attention to ensuring customer satisfaction and comfort. What you now have is a silent cut- throat competition amongst businesses in the various industries for supremacy. For a lot of banks, hotels and fast foods eateries, customer service begins from the parking lot. However, we must hasten to add that no matter how nice or polite staff are, it will all be wasted if the business cannot deliver on its brand promises.
A lot of businesses sustain customer loyalty by bringing in innovative products. People love changes. It shows that something fresh is happening in the business. For instance, fairly regular changes in the shop floor plan, a change of uniform and the putting of good communicators at the front desk will certainly be a delight to the customer. The more enterprising businesses innovate daily. Examples abound such as the sales points accumulation program of SPAR, for which the customer is given a distinct red SPAR card. Shoprite has a low cost arrangement to ensure that its customers get the best advantage of good prices, whilst Game practices a lay by arrangement, which enables the customer to ask the shop to put aside what they want and pay for them later, particularly when the customer does not have sufficient funds on the spot to pay for the goods. This ensures that customers are given the opportunity on a first time basis to exercise their choice for what they want. Lay bys are common place abroad, they are also a welcome arrangement here. As a result, many companies are staffing their customer service departments with marketing personnel. The drive is on to ensure that top executives of companies catch the marketing drive and seek to satisfy customer preferences with vigor.
There is therefore the need for customers to be vigilant to protect their rights. Customers should take advantage of various customer service advocacy groups that exist such as the Customer Service Watch and other groups to ensure that they are properly treated as kings and providers for the business. What this means is that when you are served poorly, don’t just turn away and leave, say something to the people in authority in that business. This should be the store supervisor, manager or shop administrator. This is because if you say nothing as many people usually do, there will be no corrections and the tendency is that they will do the same thing to somebody else. If we do speak out, hopefully, the situation will be saved and corrective actions taken to the benefit of the customer. Also, ‘competing on price isn’t the most effective way to build an enduring business. Great service delivered time and time again is defensible against the stiffest and most well funded competition’, as stated by Customer Experience Impact Report, by Harris Interactive/Right 2010. The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5% to 20%, whilst the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60% to 70%.
An important area customers do not focus on is to ensure that they get maximum satisfaction for the goods and products they purchase. Sometimes we buy a product that is defective or not exactly what we want. Instead of making a representation to the store managers, we absorb the loss. If it is possible to change the vendor, we may do so out of quiet anger. If not, we just bear it and move on. The proportion of people who object to poor customer service are less than 10% of the total consumers (Amazon). Locally, attempts must be made by businesses to train their staff in efficient customer service provision. This will be a worthwhile investment which greatly impacts on the bottom line of the business. Businesses that fail to grasp the need for prompt and efficient customer service provision will do so at their own peril. It all starts with anticipating the customer’s needs and then working carefully to satisfy those needs. This is why we agree with an unknown author that customer service shouldn’t just be a department, it should be the entire company involved, from top management to the gate man.
A major area of concern is how customers treat irate customers. What do you do with an impossible to satisfy customer of the business? How do you handle them to have a pleasant shopping experience? How do you keep the customers’ focus and trust in your business? Statistics have revealed that for ‘ every customer that complains, 26 other customers remain silent’. Research has also proven that you need about 12 positive experiences to assuage every unresolved negative experience of the customer (source: Understanding customers by Ruby Newell Legner). This is also bearing in mind that it is 6 to 7 times more expensive to find a new customer than to keep an existing one ( source: White House Office of Consumer Affairs). Also, about 78% of customers have not made an intended purchase because of poor service experience. (Source: American Express Survey 2011). Like we are told, a ‘typical business hears from only 4% of its dissatisfied customers’.
Businesses expect loyalty and patronage from their customers. In fact, the basis of the business being there in the first place is to satisfy the customer. Businesses do not exist in isolation to serve themselves, so why the inversion in interest in what should be? Businesses fail to retain the attention of their customers when they fail to be innovative as earlier stated; when they fail to empathize with the customer, when they fail to keep their promises and generally losing the customer’s trust.
This has all led to the celebration of the customer service week which is celebrated globally. Nigeria is trying to step into this arrangement to celebrate the customer service week with the rest of the global marketing community. Kenya, Zambia and South Africa have been celebrating the customer service week for years. In these countries, customer service has assumed a new impetus. Nigeria with the potential of retaining its position as the largest economy in Africa and a large marketing population ought to be at the forefront of this move. A renewed focus on customer service excellence is therefore very imperative.
Olusegun Agidee
