Customer Service Excellence. Impact of technology on Customer Service Excellence - Essay Example

? Service Excellence AFFILIATION: Introduction to Service Excellence In the global economy, various forms of developments are taking place at an accelerating pace and there has been a drastic change in the balance between the company and its customers. The developments of new and innovative technologies along with communication mediums and easy trading among countries have provided multiple choices to the customers. Now-a-days, the customers have a huge variety of choices for each product and the organisations have to develop specific strategies that can help them in creating a distinctive image in the market and capture the attention of its targeted customers. In order to get the customer’s attention, almost every organisation is focusing on enhancing the customer experience by developing an effective customer service excellence strategy (Khan and Matlay, 2009). With dynamic changes happening in the customer needs, the organisations have to respond proactively so that they can maintain their competitive edge in the market; the companies have to be customer-centric as the technological advancements are allowing them to lower their cost of information exchange and solve customer problems effectively (Hilgers, 2007). Such advancements in the field of business require the companies to do re-evaluation of their value propositions and focus more on developing the products and services that will enhance a customer’s experience. Almost every organisation is developing a separate strategy for its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) efforts so that it has the direction on developing cordial relations with its customers and helps them in meeting their ever changing needs (Tipler, 2009) What are firms doing to create demand for products and services? Every organisation has to ensure that it maintains its competitive edge in the market by conducting a market analysis on an ongoing basis. The market analysis helps organisations to identify unmet needs of their customers, analyse any flaws in their products or services, and identify customer loyalty level with specific products or services. Market analysis allows organisations to analyse the impact of technology on customer’s experience and create an attractive and appealing environment for customers (Bolton & Saxena-Iyer, 2009). Whether an organisation is offering a product or service, it is important for them to focus on providing excellent and out of the box customer service. In order to create demand in the market for their products and services, most of the organisations are now developing new and innovative offerings for services and their main aim is to provide the revenue producing solutions. One of the distinctive features of top ranked companies such as Singapore Airlines, Dell, Nokia, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Sony Corporation, Samsung, Apple and others is an appealing and differentiating service culture (Conklin, Powaga & Lipovetsky, 2004). Every customer is looking for the products and service offerings that will help them in having one to one interaction with the companies and ensure that they have the best buying and consumption experience. Importance of Customer Service Excellence According to Cook (2008), business models are an important aspect of every organisation and they determine four crucial elements that enhance performance and profitability of organisations i.e. choices of customers, costs of transactions, competition among companies and existence of heterogeneity among producers (companies) and customers. The customer service excellence is basically considered to be a challenge by organisations as they have to understand the customer’s perceptions about service excellence and then develop a culture that will meet their expectations level. The development of an effective customer service culture is difficult for organisations as every customer perceives differently about various service initiatives; for instance, helping customers in shopping is considered to be a value added service by some of them, while, others might consider it as a disturbance in their shopping experience. However, the organisations have to emphasize on having a flexible CRM system that will allow them to respond proactively to the changing demands of the customers (Empirix, 2010). The service challenge for organisations is that they have to ensure that they fulfil all the promises that they make with their customers. For instance, Toyota Corporation promises to deliver top quality and reliable products at high prices; it even provides excellent after sales service so that the customers have an amazing experience with highly professional and well-trained customer representatives. Dell is also recognized worldwide for offering a superb customer experience so that the customers can get the best products according to their own preferences and even enjoy an extraordinary customer service provided to them. In order to make sure that every organisation is aware of its customers’ requirements, it needs to do evaluation of its internal capabilities that it possesses to deliver the promises made regarding the service; it is vital for them to understand the challenges encountered by the organisations in an effective implementation of customer service strategy (Heracleous & Wirtz, 2006). One of the effective and productive ways of enhancing customer experience with an organisation’s products or services is represented in the following figure: Source: Kotler (1994), cited by Voon (2011) From the above figure, it is evident that there are three important elements for providing excellent customer service i.e. enabling promises, making promises and keeping promises. According to Fink, Zeevi and Te’eni (2008), there are two key elements of customer service i.e. meeting needs of the customers and their expectations; customers will tolerate a certain level of expectation that is unmet but they will be intolerant when needs are not met. It implies that both needs and expectations regarding service should be analysed so that the companies can offer an exceptional customer service and an experience that they can cherish for a long time period (Teece, 2010). When the organisations are making promises about their service level, they have to make sure that they communicate in an effective manner via their marketing activities; only those promises should be made for which they have the resources. They have to ensure that they have all vital resources for enabling their promises and ensure that they keep their promises by delivering a consistent level of service. For instance, Nokia is recognized globally for offering the top quality mobile phones that are durable and reliable; it has maintained its promise up till now and it has made, enabled and kept its promise of offering the best quality mobile phones at affordable prices for various target markets (Bitner, 2005). Likewise, if an organisation claims to offer a high quality product or service, then it will have to ensure that it has the best quality raw materials, machinery and everything that will be compatible with the promised quality standards. If customers are satisfied with a company’s offerings, then they will appreciate it and will enjoy their experience with the respective offering. However, if customers are dissatisfied or feel that their expectation level is unmet; then there are more chances that they will consider the company to be unsuccessful in delivering its promise. In order to provide an exceptionally high level of customer service, it is important for organisations to exceed the customer’s expectations. When a company exceeds the expected level of service demanded by customers, it is able to create a distinctive image in customer’s demands and ensure that it transforms its first time customers into loyal customers (Dess, Lumpkin & Taylor, 2005). The loyalty of customers is an important indicator of the company’s commitment to fulfil its promise of delivering an exceptionally high level of service; the customer loyalty is achieved only when an organisation continues to consistently deliver the top quality service to customers (Tipler, 2009). One of the important determinants of service level is complaint handling; it is one of the important aspects of customer service (Empirix, 2010). Every organisation has to ensure that it has a well-developed customer complaint handling process so that even if a customer is dissatisfied with a product or service; after sales service is provided with perfection. It has been found in the studies of Khan and Matlay (2009) and Voon (2011) that when a customer is given appropriate treatment during an encounter of a problem, there are chances that he/she has a positive image about the respective brand. Therefore, it is important for a company to develop an effective and well-trained customer representative workforce who assists the customers with all kinds of issues related to the company’s products and services. Ethical and social responsibility – Impact on Customer service excellence In order to make sure that organisations are able to attract customers, they are getting involved in various Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities; with the help of these CSR initiatives, organisations are able to create a positive image in the customers’ minds. When customers found out that majority of the organisations are doing animal testing for verification of their products’ quality, they reacted to such unethical behaviour by boycotting from these organisations’ products and services (Hilgers, 2007). When an organisation is involved in ethical practices such as protecting the rights of customers and employees, locating manufacturing plants in less polluted areas, avoiding using or producing any kind of harmful products, protecting the environment and etc., it gives a positive signal to the customers that the company is aware of the ethical code of conduct and is taking every remedy to ensure that the environment is protected from their business operations. According to Cook (2008), the CSR activities organised by companies such as World Health Day, Diabetics Day, Labour Day and Green Environment Day enhance their service level and create a positive customer service experience. Impact of technology on Customer Service Excellence The technological advancements have significantly helped organisations to enhance their service level; the latest trend these days is of online business and most of the customers are now shifting to e-commerce websites to have the best shopping and business experience (Oghojafor, Aduloju & Olowokudejo, 2011). When customers are doing online shopping, there are two most crucial elements that need to be given consideration by the business owners i.e. risk of ensuring protection of customer’s confidential information and trust that transactions are evident only to the customers and e-commerce site. The only difference between retail shop and online shop is lack of personal touch on these websites; however, the organisations are taking advantage of this avenue as it helps them in lowering their transaction and marketing cost. With the help of Internet, companies can reach a much wider audience at a low cost; there are multiple advertising mediums such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) marketing, placement of advertisements on top ranked search engines, email marketing and Pay-per-click marketing (Empirix, 2010). In order to provide excellent level of customer service, trust is the most important factor as it is the main driving force for developing good relationship between the customers and an organisation. When any customer uses the online medium for shopping, the level of trust is influenced by his/her past experience on other channels; for instance, if a customer had a bad experience with a bank on any of its branches, then he is most probably reluctant to use its online services. Hence, a customer’s perception about trust on online services is highly dependent on their experiences with the company on other mediums such as retail outlets, shopping malls and many more (Wiley, 2010). With the help of the technological developments, the customers are provided the best and fastest services. Most of the well-known companies have made their services available on various mobile phones and smartphones so that the customers can access them with utmost ease and convenience. One mistake that is most commonly made by organisations is that they perceive to attract their customers in a similar way; the way they use to attract them via the traditional marketing activities. On Internet, customers have a wide range of options and they have to carefully choose among all available alternatives; it means that the companies have to develop a separate strategy for the online market so that they can fulfil their promise and generate consistent stream of profits. In website design, it is important for companies to incorporate some human touch so that customers can have interaction with the company’s representatives (Empirix, 2010; Wiley, 2010); while, some others are of the view that customers are using the web for their shopping experiences and they prefer to have less personal interaction and guidance that is provided on traditional service platforms (Cook, 2008; Oghojafor, Aduloju & Olowokudejo, 2011). Every website is targeting different customers so it has to be developed in accordance with their preference level so that they have a sensational experience online. However, the customers are looking for assistance online when they cannot find answers to their queries. In order to provide an appropriate guidance to the customers, many of the e-commerce websites have designed a section known as FAQ where the customers can ask their questions and they will be provided answers immediately. In case of urgency, the customers can call the company’s customer representatives on their toll free number as most of them are offering 24/7 availability for their customers (Tipler, 2009). Since customer expectations and needs change at an accelerating rate, it is important for the organisations to keep a check of their customers’ requirements. With the help of technology, the companies can conduct their activities in a flexible manner and the change can be incorporated in their strategy easily. Since the cost of online business activities is comparatively low than the traditional mediums, it is easier for the organisations to make changes in their services; the main concern for customers is the protection of their personal information and they want to be assured that there will be no abuse of privacy rights. In order to determine the customer’s satisfaction level about online medium, it is advised to the companies that they monitor their performance online; although increase in profit is a positive indication but it is less important when the company’s service level is perceived to be of low quality. For instance, the website should be designed in a way that it allows easy navigation, the links can be opened quickly and proper guidance is provided to surf the Website; if these elements are missing, then the customers are more likely to get attracted to the competitors. It is vital for the organisations to ensure that they provide an excellent customer service online so that the customers will continue to remain loyal customers of the company and will allow the company to increase its profitability. According to Voon (2011), the theory of technology related customer service excellence can be extended by adding the element of ‘technology readiness’ in the online service; it implies that unless a customer is willing to accept the new technology, the service of a company will be perceived to be of low level and the customer will be dissatisfied with the respective company’s service. Another important aspect of the online customer service excellence is that the existing customers should not be alienated because they are the ones who have been loyal to the company for a long time; it is the company’s responsibility to appreciate these customers and develop a service strategy both for existing and new online customers (Bolton & Saxen-Iyer, 2009). Conclusion In order to get a competitive edge in the market, every organisation has to ensure that it has an appropriate customer service strategy in place; although development of the customer service excellence strategy is challenging but if it is developed after taking into account all vital factors such as company’s existing position, customer’s perception about the service level, feasibility of the promising elements and availability of the resources to develop a superior level of service. The technological developments have helped the companies in doing things out of the box that are helping them in making valuable contributions in the field and earn a good amount of profit without incurring additional cost. References Bitner, M.J., 2005. Creating Customer Demand through service innovation. [Online] Available at: http://www.smeal.psu.edu/cdt/cdt/ebrcpubs/papers/05wshop/bitner05.pdf [Accessed 23 October 2012] Bolton, R. and Saxena-Iyer, S., 2009. 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Biometrics: the next frontier in service excellence, productivity and security in the service sector. Managing Service Quality, 16(1), pp. 12-22. Hilgers, K., 2007. A key to customer service. [Online] Available at: http://media.govtech.net/GOVTECH_WEBSITE/EVENTS/PRESENTATION_DOCS/2007/ExecEvents/Ohio/400CustomerServiceInaChangingEnvironmentHILGERS.pdf [Accessed 23 October 2012] Khan, H. and Matlay, H., 2009. Implementing service excellence in higher education. Education + Training, 51(8/9), pp. 769-780. Oghojafor, B.E.A., Aduloju, S.A. and Olowokudejo, F.F., 2011. Information technology and customer relationship management (CRM) in some selected insurance firms in Nigeria. Journal of Economics and International Finance, 3(7), pp. 452-461. Teece, D.J., 2010. Business Models, Business Strategy and Innovation. Long Range Planning, 43, pp. 172-194. Tipler, K., 2009. The importance of Customer Service Excellence. The New Researcher, 1, pp. 1- 7. Voon, B.H., 2011. Measuring Culture of Service Excellence: The Development-Validation Journey. [Online] Available at: http://irssm.upnyk.ac.id/userfiles/file/papers/011.pdf [Accessed 23 October 2012] Wiley, J.W., 2010. Driving success through Performance Excellence and Employee Engagement. [Online] Available at: http://www.kenexa.com/getattachment/c7f8d19b-671d-4873-a580-339e25c11640/Driving-Success-Through-Performance-Excellence-and.aspx [Accessed 23 October 2012] Read More