News
6 Warning Signs of
Bad Customer Service
By Bob Harris, managing director,
The Attrition Busters
Many business owners and managers seem to be
ignoring the main signs that customer service
quality isn't as good as it should be, according to
Bob Harris, managing director for The Attrition
Busters, who has compiled a list of the six key
signs to watch out for.
Businesses that deal with consumers seem to be
suffering from a definite disconnect between the
level of service they want to provide and the
service that their employees actually provide.
Six signs of poor service
As a result, Harris suggests the following six key
signs that customer service may be in need of some
attention - and most probably some staff training -
to help restore the customer's faith:
1. Poor employee retention
If employees are leaving too quickly (i.e. within
three years), there can be no real opportunity for
them to build up relationships with customers.
Knowledge about individual customers leaves the
company with every lost employee. If this is the
case, consider bringing in an outside HR (human
resources) consultant to talk to employees and find
out what needs to be done to change the situation;
employees will often tell an 'outsider' things that
they would never tell their manager.
2. Customer complaints
On average, only around 6% of dissatisfied customers
will actually take the time to complain. So, out of
all the customers who encounter a problem, 94% won't
tell you (but they'll tell their friends and family,
of course). When these dissatisfied customers do
gather the strength to actually complain, many front
line employees have a natural instinct to refer the
customer to someone else or, worse still, to deny
that there's really a problem. So if management sees
that there are very few complaints, that doesn't
mean that customer service is perfect at all. If
employees have not built relationships with
customers, many customers will defect without any
further prompting. Make sure that your front line
teams are required to record all complaints and any
action taken to solve them. Complaints data should
be treasured, documented, and shared with
management. If you're not getting complaint data
from the front line, there's a serious problem.
3. Employees aren't empowered to handle problems
Unless front line employees are empowered to resolve
customer complaints and problems without resorting
to calling supervisors or referring the customer to
a manager, customer service - and the company's
reputation - will suffer greatly. Customer issues
should be handled from start to finish by the same
person if at all possible. Customers do not want to
wait or, even worse, be transferred to multiple
people to have their problems solved. There is
nothing worse than having to repeat the problem over
and over again to different people. This is where
you need employee training and empowerment: give the
whole customer-facing team the knowledge, tools, and
authority they need to defuse angry customers.
4. Loss of long-term customers
When a long-term customer leaves, you need to notice
it and query it. When you have built a long-term
relationship with a customer, your ability to retain
that customer significantly increases. So when a
customer who would normally give you the benefit of
the doubt takes their business elsewhere, the
problem is almost always the service they've
received. Try to find out the real reason they
defected, and use that information to prevent it
from happening again. Remember that flexibility is
needed in order to make changes in the company based
on information from lost customers.
5. Fewer referrals
A business with delighted customers should always be
gaining new customers from referrals. If your
service isn't good, referrals will drop off first -
even before your existing customers defect to a
competitor. This makes the continual monitoring of
referral levels one of the most powerful indicators
of ongoing customer satisfaction. To quote a wise
mentor, "Satisfied customers buy from you, but
delighted customers sell for you." Also, if you're
gaining lots of new customers but losing just as
many existing customers, this indicates a serious
disparity between what your brand is promising and
what it actually delivers.
6. Low morale
Employees' morale is something that shows whenever
they interact with customers, and the customer is
quick to pick up on negative sentiment toward the
company. While low morale is not always a result of
poor customer service (although it can be due to a
lack of empowerment), it always creates poor
service. If this is the case, the management needs
to try to instill a sense of pride throughout the
company, and offer employees some well-deserved
rewards and recognition. Empower employees to make
decisions (within reasonable limits), and train them
to make good decisions that have both the customer's
and company's interests at heart.
While there are obviously more than six signs that
identify bad customer service, these are certainly
among the main ones to watch out for. If you
recognize any single one of these six signs, the
time has come to focus attention on fixing it
urgently. If you recognize more than one of these
six signs, there's no time to waste: you're already
losing market share.
---Source: Reprinted from The Wise
Marketer Feb 22, 2008 newsletter
www.thewisemarketer.com.
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Melissa Data
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