The Sunday Mail
Cresencia Marjorie Chiremba
“Good customer service costs less than bad customer service”- Sally Gronow
Last week, a lot of organisations were celebrating Customer Service Week, and a lot of service providers sent their customers messages thanking them for their valued support, loyalty and, above all, for choosing to do business with them.
This is quite commendable, but do all these companies act on what they say when it comes to customer service?
Their lip service only shows that they believe in a lot of myths regarding customer service. Not many know how to debunk these myths.
Here are some common customer service myths and how to demystify them.
1. Putting Customer First Guarantees Great Customer Service
Management in most companies get their priorities wrong when it comes to who should be put first.
They believe that it is the external customer that should be prioritised, but the opposite is true.
The internal customer – who is the employee – should be considered above everything else.
The initial stage for any organisation that wants to excel is to be ‘employee-centric’, and this is possible when its management creates a positive, happy workstation culture and environment.
Whatever programmes they design for the organisation must consider the employees’ feelings and well-being.
There are organisations that rush to reward customers at the expense of their employees, leaving them disgruntled.
It is always difficult for the same employees to serve the customers wholeheartedly because deep down they know they will be the losers at the end of the day.
Such misaligned priorities will cause a sort of rivalry between the employee and the customer, because more money is spent on customers at the detriment of the employees.
Employees are the face of the brand.
They interact with customers, so once they are not happy, their effort to provide their best service will be compromised.
So great service begins with making the employees happy.
Employees want to be pampered with creative incentives. They should be offered various training packages, rewarded generously for their effort, and empowered.
The working environment must never be toxic, but a pleasure for them because they spend a lot of their lifetime at work.
One thing to remember is that it is difficult to give what you do not have, and the same goes for the employees as they cannot give happiness to external customers if they themselves are not happy with their conditions of service.
A happy employee equals a happy customer.
Thus, priority number one is the employees.
2. The Customer is Always Right
As marketers, we have always been oriented that if you want to achieve great customer service, you should understand that the customer is always right.
This may sound familiar, but the truth of the matter is it is not always the case.
Rather, the customer returns to do business with the organisation because of the perception they have about the brand.
It is all about managing your brand perception so that the customer will always perceive that the solution to their problem can only be solved by brand X.
So, customers will always seek to interact with the brand when they have an enquiry, demand, request or want a response because they believe the brand has got the answer.
It is, however, important to know that the issue of who is wrong or right is not really at the heart of the matter when it comes to customer service.
What is of importance is the ability to acknowledge the subject matter at hand.
If it is a query, the service provider must be prepared to have a dialogue with the aggrieved party in a civil manner.
Matters must be put on the table and be discussed so as to come up with an amicable resolution.
Discussions can be done face-to-face or by electronic mail, phone or even on social media.
Some company representatives try to be defensive when there is a problem that may involve their organisation, but the truth is that there is no need to be defensive.
The idea of having an exchange with the customer is to have an understanding on what transpired and try to find common ground where both parties will not feel cheated.
Sometimes the customer may not even be right, but as the service provider it is vital to be empathetic.
This is only possible if you are able to show the human side of the organisation you serve by giving an ear to your customers so that you hear their perspective.
Offering such a platform will help the organisation to go far with every exchange and make improvements were there is need to.
*Cresencia Marjorie Chiremba is a marketing enthusiast with a strong passion for customer service. For comments, suggestions and training, she can be reached on [email protected] or on 0712 979 461, 0719 978 335
