The Sunday Mail
Cresencia Marjorie Chiremba
“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little better”- Jeff Bezos
The abrupt business disruption brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic has seen a lot of organisations cutting costs, in order to stay afloat.
The slashing of budgets and streamlining of operations has also made some staff members redundant. These are just some of the short-term measures with negative effects in the long-run, and they slow down the future growth of any business.
When staff is reduced there is a sure probability that the remaining members will be overwhelmed with the increased numbers of customers to serve, thereby compromising on the quality-of-service delivery.
Customers, however tend to look for alternatives whenever they are frustrated with the deteriorating customer service of an organisation. Organisations not prepared for these inevitable eventualities always press the panic button, losing customers in the process. However, to avoid the negative impact of poor customer service or lack of it, organisations should always give priority to the needs of their customers.
Regardless of the changes in the business world, organisations must always maintain or improve quality of service in order to keep the already satisfied customers, while attracting those that have been dissatisfied elsewhere.
Usually, companies that fail to satisfy customers, fail not because they cannot satisfy them. They fail because they lack the proper knowledge about what their customers expect from them, hence they have absolutely no idea of their service shortcomings.
Every customer has expectations of the kind of service they would want to receive when they engage a company to do business, and if those expectations are not met, the customer will either complain or just take their business elsewhere. They say knowledge is power. When you know what your customers want, it makes business sense to strive to meet those expectations.
Thus, meeting the expectations or going an extra mile is a guarantee of repeat business, referrals and the most popular word of mouth marketing for the organisation.
The brand of the organisation is also positively reviewed, making it the preferred choice when faced with a dilemma on who to do business with. Periodic customer audits are as necessary as accounting audits.
Audits tend to unravel gaps, pick out anomalies and plug them before they threaten the organisation’s existence. Customers are the lifeblood of any organisation and losing them may be the end of an organisation.
Customer service areas that have shortcomings and require change, improvements or dropping out completely, will be identified on time and rectified, while those performing well will be upgraded.
The idea of an audit is to reduce and eradicate customer dissonance, and apply strategies that delight customer experiences.
Customer service audits are helping organisations to go back to strategic planning, coming up with new strategic competences that fit in with the current internal and external environment.
Even objectives are being revised, while departmental roles are also being adjusted to suit. Above all, companies are updating the service that they give to their paymasters (the customers).
Nonetheless, companies do differ on how they conduct these audits. For instance, big corporates may prefer to do audits for their valuable high-end potential customers or they can just select their customers randomly and use the information gathered to classify similar customers.
Whatever route they choose, the bottom-line is that organisations are able to evaluate the roles that they are playing in each of their customer’s business journey.
Customer service audits usually include the following:
- Evaluation of the company’s performance over a certain period, compared to its customer’s needs
- Category purchase made in a certain financial period, and planned purchases for the near-term
- Service or product gaps within the organisation’s offerings to their customers
- The most compelling business problems faced by the company’s customers, when it comes to service provision by the organisation
- Means and ways to strengthen and build better stronger relationships with customers. Relationships that will be at higher and more personal level
- Detailed information that relates to the company’s offerings, customer request processing and the decision-making process
- Barriers that are outside the firm’s control that hinder the offering of good customer service
- Identification of ways to turn weaknesses and threats into positives for the company and offer better service(s)
When companies gather data on any of the above, they are able to channel their energies on the best opportunities that will increase customer satisfaction vis-à-vis increase in sales. Where there is an increase in sales, the sales message gets optimised, while the bottom-line shoots in the positive direction.
In instances where there are service and product gaps, it could be a chance for an organisation to invest in high potential new product development. It could also help the organisation to invest in service enhancements.
Customer service audits tend to provide a more directional approach, which businesses can use to define strong and effective strategies that can be used to penetrate and pursue a new market.
So, instead of wasting resources shooting your shots aimlessly, organisations can cost effectively put resources where they are rightfully needed for the success of the organisation.
*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
