Customer Satisfaction and the Client Retention - Coursework Example

? Service Introduction No business organization functions in isolation. Any business venture operatesin a macro environment characterized by competition as well as trends sharpening opportunities or posing threats to the success of the entity. The restructuring of the administrative policies and periodic review enhances efficient customer delivery and client retention. Customer service refers to the totality of the activities within an organization to satisfy and meet the customer expectations. An excellent customer service ensures that the customers know the services expected from the organization, and the organization should ensure high quality information about the regular customer needs. The company management should be easily accessible, and response should be fast. Customer service provides a framework in the creation of commendable customer relationship within the organization. Customer service creates trust and loyalty between the organization and the customers transcending moment interaction. Mostly, complaining psychology ensues as measurement for crises ad opportunities (Kelshall 2009, p.223). Customer service entails all the activities that enhance high level customer satisfaction by ensuring the services and the product meet the customer expectation, and it enhances income and revenue generation. Customers and the Organization Customers can be regarded as key stakeholders to every success within an organization. The constant drive in customer satisfaction is the duty of all people within an organization. The appreciation of the employees in organizations takes place regardless of whether the link is direct or indirect. Many organizations consider the customer role as the prime. This happens through corporate training programs and improved communication techniques. Customer satisfaction by an organization requires maintenance of the customer contacts. Marketers enhance customer satisfaction through market survey and research to offer insights on the new services and products sought by the customers (Rao & Madhavi 2004, p. 38). Customers influence the decision by the marketing team towards decision making. Customers are crucial determinants of profits and revenues and ensure job security within an organization. Therefore, viability of an organization measured based on the potential of an organization to attract customers. Provision of excellent customer service is the paramount goal of an organization (Chung 2006, p. 10). Customer satisfaction and the client retention Customer retention ensures continued business relationship between the customer and the firm. On the other hand, customer satisfaction is the measure of the surpassing power of goods and services by an organization to customer expectation. Commendable customer satisfaction accompanies loyalty. The organization with high customer satisfaction pays little attention to the advertising from their competitors. Satisfaction influences repurchasing intention and ensures customer retention. Unsatisfied customers may continue their patronage based on fear of shifting to other alternatives. Fear is created by the unawareness of the other services elsewhere, especially when using the repurchase intention in measuring the customer satisfaction (Kelshall 2009, p.224). Relationship between organization profitability and customer satisfaction Many studies indicate the correlation between the customer satisfaction and the organization profitability. Happy employees communicate well with the customers. The customers continue with their patronage. The relationship develops leading to continuous loyalty. Invariably, the defection rate reduces and acquisition of new customers results. Good customer service is critical in enhancing customer perceived value. The overall assessment of the customer on the product utility improves the customer loyalty. The customer perceived values influence the cost and the tastes of the customers. The interaction efficiency with the staff influences the perceived value of the customer (Kelshall 2009, p.226). Importance of effective customer service The central aim of any effective customer service is retaining the customers. The extent of acquisition and retention of customers by an organization measures the success of the organization. Excellent customer service enhances customer retention. The retention of customers through effective customer services improves the motivation and morale among the staff. Any working environment that has poor customer relation is stressful for the workers. This improvement in the motivation and the morale among the employees due to reduced customer attrition enables high turnover and retention of staff (Farkas 2011, p. 56). The reduction in customer attrition reduces the legal and litigation problems from the far trading laws and the customers. Retention of customers enhances a proactive approach in crisis management, reactive fire fighting and failure analysis. The retention and delighting of customer enhances a positive publicity and media reputation. Customer service is crucial in an organization since it allows the contact between the company and the customer. Customers can be regarded as valuable resources in any organization. Many customers spend a lot of money on a company and any problem arising calls for addressing by the customer service (Farkas 2011, p. 57). Customer service distinguishes a company from the rest such as the competitors. Excellent customer service experiences high repeat business from the customers. The company benefits due to immense sales and profits. Poor customer service leads to loss of customers that negatively affects the businesses. Acquisition of new customers is more expensive than retaining them. The efforts in maintenance of quality customer service pay considerable dividends over time. Publicity of a company results from excellent customer service. Satisfied customers share with their friends about their experience with a certain company. This promotes the products offered by an organization. In addition, outstanding customer service eliminates the possibilities for complaints. The consumer affairs or Better Business Bureau receive few customer complaints (Cook, 2010). Challenges facing customer service For the customers, quality of services offered plays a crucial role in deciding on the purchase of the product. Significance of the customer service is challenging in many organizations. The empowerment of customer service staff is poor and the design of systems and formulation of policies fail in addressing customer service and trust of the customers declines. Pricing strategy is critical in customer service. This may discriminate against the existing customers. Gaining of new customers is expensive than retaining the existing ones. Neglects and failure of optimizing the customer service leads to wastage of opportunities. Rather, several organizations pay more attention to sales, advertising, promotions and marketing in an effort to attract new customers. Their regard to the customers leaving is less (Cook, 2010). Many organizations face challenges in execution of excellent customer relations. In an effort to solve these problems, the organization should devise and implement a strategy to govern the approach towards the promotion of excellent customer relations. Failure of strategizing affects the customers. The company should create a customer-centric culture to motivate and engage internal customers in delivery of the brand promise. Many organizations should aim at knowing their customers. Most organizations operate with superficial knowledge regarding their customers instead of cultivating for customer intimacy. Knowing the customer provides customer data that enhances personalization of the customer experience (Kirsch 2012, p. 90). Integration of the data sources (structured and unstructured) strewn across enterprise should be improved and visibility enhanced from a single access point. The company information to the customers should be relevant to enhance a customized interaction with customers. This ensures a satisfactory customer response. The customer facing professionals should be empowered. These facilitate intelligent conversations for a personalized experience with the customers. The access to information will be quick and the expert uses it in solving the complex problems, and this increases the efficiency in enhancing the customer experience (Reed, 2012). Training of the employees on their role in fostering a workable customer service is a vital component. The expert team must have all the relevant information regarding the brand. This ensures delivery of parallel services by the staff. Leveraging of the existing knowledge should be emphasized to ensure satisfactory content to the customers. The messages delivered regarding the brands should ensure that all the interaction points contain consistent messages reinforcing the customer experience (Reed, 2012). The organization should get first hand information from their customers by keeping close contacts with them. The customer experience should be measured consistently with the change in customer needs. Collaboration and communication enhances reliability in customer feedback Influence of Technology in Customer Service Several companies have adopted technology for efficiency in delivery of the customer services. In engendering customer loyalty, various technologies apply (Curry 2004, p. 331). These include Websites, E-mails, and Communication Software. In customer interactions, the principal goal is to generate customer loyalty. This is achievable through offering better products and maintaining an intimate relationship with the customers. The emergence of new technologies has facilitated exceptional customer service interaction. The extent to which technology can help in driving profitability through delivery of excellent customer service can be measured from the customer data available. Furthermore, the data collected enhances the analysis and management of the preferences. The insight of customer data regarding the business enhances effectiveness in targeting the market. The automation and streamlining of the business process enhances reduction in costs. The free interaction of customers with the business facilitates self-service optimization. Encouraging the staff in embracing new customer treatment methods will ensure effectiveness in the workforce (Timm 2005, p. 63). Websites These enhance online customer relations. Websites facilitate automatic assignment of the personal representatives who file the questions and send emails based on the contact information. Customers’ contentment results from the assignment of personal representatives. Most of the online transactions face problems of trust due to lack of facial interactions. Some software like Christian retailer C28 presents the customer with the picture of the manager and this enhances trust. Websites allow customers to enter their orders and contact address. In case they abandon the orders, the organization can use their phone numbers to trace them (Thornley 2000, p. 254). The FAQ knowledge base provides a faster searchable base. This answers any relevant question from the customer and enhances customer satisfaction. Live chart happens through the company’s website. Customers enjoy real time chat. Visitors ask questions using the chat option, and this reduces call volume for the call centre. The call centre empowering ensures easy monitoring and improves the effectiveness when serving the clients. Websites support detailed pages on the products. The web pages hold all the relevant details concerning the product. Having a customer centered slogan on the home page is an indication of dedication to the customer care. The staff should be able to access previous interaction history (Reed, 2012). E-mails The advent of E-mail has enhanced customer service. E-mail is the fastest growing channel in customer service. The technology enhances marketing, offer alerts and alerts on promotions and discounts. E-mail is a valuable tool in the provision of customer service. Any business with a website may ask the e- mail address and permission to contact the customer from the customer himself. However, any company allowing communication through emails should let them know the policies of the company. The standard rules of grammar and punctuation should be followed to ensure professionalism in the idea communicated. This creates the image of the services and staff. The tone used in e-mails should be professional and conversational in nature. The messages should be easy to read and brief (Curry 2004, p. 334). E-mail Exceptional Customer Service Apart from grammatical errors and content, the e-mail technology is not an ultimate satisfaction to the customer. For efficiency in customer service, there should be prompt response to emails. This ensures gentle handling of customer grievances urgently. Solving the customers’ problems should be immediate. ASAP response assists in to get back to the customers. A follow-up e-mail is necessary after some days to enhance customer satisfaction. Any feedback from customers can be gotten through filling out a survey. The organization can seek for contact opportunity where they ask for contacting permission from their customers (Rouse, 2007). The Time-Saving Shortcuts Email gives an option of responding to multiple emails at once through the creation of e-mail templates. This is especially applicable for the common messages sent frequently. Personalization of the responses is possible using the name of the customer and other noteworthy information. The auto-responding tool allows for automatic generation of responses explaining any unusual problem. This prevents inconveniences due to lack of responses. The e-mail management system for responses includes e-mail tools, which manage and track the complaints by the customer to enhance interactions and better management of the process (Yuksel 2008, p. 57). Video Calling Video calling enables capturing storage and sharing of the video content. Video calling can be applied internally in an organization by the employees and should be applied to the customers. The technology allows for video-calling between customers and the organization. The video-calling technology allows the customers see the agents. This enhances a strong bond within the organization where agents are able to see customers and have a visual interaction. This directs minor repairs for the product or determines whether an engineer should be dispatched to the customer (Curry 2004, pp. 338). The company’s website may contain instructional videos. Addition of visual element to the customer contact utilizes the visual IVRs principles. Click-To-Call This technology escalates the sales enquiries converted by the agent from contact center. Many consumers stay within the chosen channels from the outset forcing customers into other channels. Many contact centers display the phone numbers on each web page. The click-to-call technology is a service enhancing tool. It places customers from the web to a universal virtual queue in contact centre with the transaction history popped up on the desktop of the agent (Kirsch 2012, p. 89). Homeworking This provides for revolutionizing of the workforce effectiveness for those people working from home. The homeworking revolution brings such employees into business. The IP technology allows for logging in and out from the central system. This has enabled dramatic shift in nature of operations in the contact centers. Companies have integrated the different business units to form a single operation in customer service. As a result, this has opened up expertise branch as well as the back-office employees to customer service team (Welsh 2008, p. 12). Outsourcing Customer Service The technological developments in IP enable companies to seek for cheaper options within their contact centers in far globe areas. Offshore method provides for low cost service in business. Many high profile incidents involving the offshore sites convert the public opinion from the foreign agents. Threats to churn by the customers, if not provided with localized service, results to irrelevance. Emphasis has indicated the fundamentals of the customer service to business (Chung 2006, p. 45). Customer service software Customer Service Software provides tools used in enhancing customer service. On-demand is a web-based system integrated with customer relationship management; it allows for the submission of the service request free of hassles. The web-based system allows for the access of all the information by the operators. As a result, tracking and reporting the activities is possible. The customers’ information can be accessed when needed (Welsh 2008, p. 15). Customizable software allow for prepackaging and impersonalizing the customer and the company. The software matches other processes and allows for addition or removal of unnecessary tools. Therefore, different businesses can use the same service, which has to be modified to meet the specifications. Live chat lets customers communicate directly with the customer service via integrated chat window. As a result, customers can request anything as per the need. Integration with social networks like Facebook and Twitter ensures complete and real time connection of the consumers. Task Automation facilitates streamlining of the services (Curry 2004, p. 340). The appropriate representative receives the problems. The user creates FAQs for the benefit of both the customer and representative. References List Curry, A. (2004). The Relative Importance of Technology in Enhancing Customer Relationships . Managing Service Quality 14 (4). pp. 331-41. Chung, W. W. (2006). Enterprise Information System for Customer Services Excellence. International Journal of Business Performance Management 8 (1). pp. 5-53. Cook, S. (2010). Customer Care Excellence: How to Create an Effective Customer Focus, London, Kogan Page. Farkas, V. J. (2011). Customer Relations, New York, Nova Science.pp. 56-59. Kelshall, J. (2009). Embracing Success through Customer Service, Trinidad and Tobago, Joy Kelshall. pp.223-229. Kirsch, C. E. (2012). Fundamentals of Broker-dealer Regulation, New York, Practising Law Institute. pp. 89-93. Reed, S. (2012). The Importance of Customer Service [Online] Available at: http://www.customerservicecrossing.com/article/460204/The-Importance-of-Customer-Service/ [Accessed 25 October 2012]. Rao, S. B. & Madhavi, C. V. (2004). Customer service excellence: trends and strategies, New York, Kanishka Publishers. pp. 37-65. Rouse, M. (2007). Multichannel Marketing [Online]. Available at: searchcrm.techtarget.com/definition/multichannel-marketing [Accessed 25 October 2012]. Thornley, M. (2005). Practices of Excellence in Customer Service. Australian Veterinary Journal 83 (5). pp. 254. Timm, P. R. (2005). Technology and Customer Service: Profitable Relationship Building, Upper Saddle River, Pearson/Prentice Hall. pp. 63-69. Welsh, K. (2008). Happy about Customer Service? Creating a Culture of Customer Service Excellence, California, Happy About. pp. 11-19. Yuksel, A. (2008). Nonverbal Service Behavior and Customer's Affective Assessment. Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism 9 (1). pp. 57-77. Read More