Customer Service - A Sweet Essence
Due to unusually heavy call volume, our customer service agents
are busy helping other customers. Your wait time is
approximately 15 minutes. Please continue to hold...Please
continue to hold...Please continue to hold...
First let us specifically define customer service. It is the
performance of a duty or responsibility due to a customer as a
result of selling them a product or service.
We must distinguish between customer sales and service versus
customer service. Whereas customer sales and service is largely
concerned with selling an additional item or an additional
service subsequent to an initial sale, customer service is
mainly concerned with customer care.
True customer service is synonymous with "ACCOMMODATION". When
we sell a product or a service we accept the responsibility and
the obligation to potentially provide our customers with a broad
range of possible actions. These actions we define as customer
service and may include necessary "ACCOMMODATIONS" to make the
initial product or service reasonably useful in the way it was
intended and in the way that it was marketed.
"Due to unusually heavy call volume our customer service agents
are busy helping other customers. Your call is important to us.
Please continue to hold... Please continue to hold... Please
continue to hold..." WILL SOMEONE STOP THIS INSANITY !!! No
article on customer service would be complete without addressing
automated telephone systems. We are all consumers. It does not
matter what else we do, whether we are manufacturers or clerks
or customer service agents. We should make ourselves available
so that our customers can speak with us. Nothing beats face to
face contact but the next best thing is a person's voice.
Overall, I believe that automated phone systems may be the worst
single tool ever invented for all of us as consumers. There are
a very few select companies whose systems serve us well by
pointedly and quickly getting us fast service. But the vast
majority of these automated telephone systems are nothing more
than roadblocks to consumers. We have all been there and have
been frustrated all too often. You might as well try to call the
president of the United States.
WE, ALL OF US, ARE PUTTING EACH OTHER ON HOLD ON THE TELEPHONE
LINE... !!! Why not hire a live breathing caring human being who
knows their job depends on their customer. This is not rocket
science !
When was the last time that you received outstanding customer
service? Did you feel like you wanted to do more business with
that company ? Did you like the people who were helping you ?
Right there is one of the most powerful forces in customer
service - customer loyalty and retention. What else is there in
business with such a sweet essence ?
- Jim Hoyle