The Difficulties of Providing Excellent Customer Service - Essay Example

Project Topic: An investigation into the difficulties of providing excellent service There is a worrying trend in the profession of customer service. Some customers expressed serious complaints against employees who are not articulate enough with the universal English language, thus causing communicative hindrances for understanding in the process of handling customers. Others are not knowledgeable on company’s systems that they sought to represent while, and still other workers deliberately ignore customers’ emails or are making unintelligible responses (Hammit, 2006). These and other major issues relating to customer service, if not addressed appropriately, will result to industry’s failure to truly facilitate in interfacing customers wants and in the sale of company’s products and services. This essay will explicate customer service and its recent trends, its good and negative practices, the disadvantages of bad customer service, its difficulties and how to improve this as a profession. Customer Service: The Basic Customer service relates to marketing and sale of product to a customer from manufacturer to targeted end-user (La Londe and Zinser, 1976). In this service, there is so much need about worker’s availability, reliability, quality delivery of services, responsiveness, organizational ability, communication skill and flexibility. While valuing customer, the customer service representative (CSR) should integrate quality service to develop customer retention and to inculcate competitive advantage in the marketing arena. As such, this means that the CSR is able to contribute improve the profitability of the company. Positive Customer service It is perceived that positive customer service is characterized with sensitivity to buy and sell transactional relations, sufficient knowledge on the crossing-points in the supply chain viz-a-viz marketing orientation, organization in performing tasks and good cognizance of the factors relating to buying-and-sell situation. The customer must therefore be knowledgeable on standard product or service delivery system; immediately recognize critical service problems; develop customer communication system; and have ability to build relations with clients. Kano, Seraku, Takahasi,& Tsuji (1984) explained that positive service is obtain whenever customer satisfaction and marketing strategies are achieved through quality management. Kano et.al (1984). This refers to the ability of the customer representative to meet the six quality attributes. These factors are basic entry threshold toward customer fulfillment, excitement factor, and performance ability (Kano et.al, 1984). Other factors are the indifferent, questionable and reverse attributes. The latter are not much regarded by customers though (Kano et.al.,1984). It is essential however that the customer service representative is able to articulate to customer the basic features of the product or service sold and relate with flexibility, simplicity, adjustability and cost (Kano et.al,1984). As workers, they must be able to balance the financial, customer, business processes and learning perspectives while tending to clients. Financial factor refers to an attribute of being knowledgeable on company’s financial data, including automation of financial processing, to keep them abreast on market risks and to ascertain cost-benefit of investment (Kano et.al,1984). On customer sensitivity, performance management CSR must be able to meet reasonably the customers’ needs and satisfaction (Kano et.al,1984). On the business side, CSR should know how to contribute in strategic management because his task is ultimately linked with the overall goal of the company he or she represents (Kano et.al,1984). He is part of the support processes. Balancing views on these factors can help bolster the performance of the company. It assists in integrating quality and customer service programs for profit, reliability, influence, customer empathy and to ensure quality assurance (Kano et.al,1984). Negative practices and difficulties in customer service The worst CSR practice is illustrated when hired workers are dull, ignorant, and if workers illustrate unethical behaviors, inefficiency, ineffective performance, and insensitivity to clients needing service. There are also those who have the face value but are lacking communicative skills, hence causing hindrances in the free flow of understandable communications. This can lead to wastage of time, lack of accountability and low retention of customers, confusion, ergo, poor marketing and profit outcome. The bad side of this is that customers will be relating stories to their friends, partners and associates about having bad customer service experiences. In this case, the company will be plagued with difficulties in addressing complaints from costumers, exhaust energies in responding to conflicting situations out of poor performance, and will be suffer serious marketing problems. As a consequence, it will weaken the company‘s credibility in the business market because it lacked performance standard as well as ethics or care. Major structural transformation is required to correct poor customer service orientation. It means changing the perspectives of the management to ingrain transformative leadership with an orientation that is customer-focused. There is also a need here to uphold the standards of human resource management, performance management and company standards in operating its business. The company’s internal system and governance must be attune to standard policies relating to entrepreneurship. At other times, there are customer representatives that are suffering family problems and with such inability to manage problems, this will impact in his or her job performance. The lack of focus due to emotional stress might result to bad dealings with customers as human temper, feelings and thoughts influence our behaviors. There are also times when problems baffling workers made them apathetic to customers’ feelings and may result to frustrations. Imperatives of Customer Service It is therefore imperative that companies must have proper customer service strategy to enable a business operation with integrated, adaptable, precise and valuable standard of customer service (Hakansson,1982). Companies must have certain level of customer service sophistication and customer service sensitivity to develop company’s competitive advantage (Hakansson,1982). Hired workers for company must therefore at least earn a degree or substantive level of education to ensure that they have motivation and proficiency to perform tasks. They must be proficient in communication, written and verbal. They must have undergone seminars and trainings or orientation about the company that they sought to represent, including its products or service that they intend to market with customers. Performance standard is a must and expectations are high especially if the customer services are rendered in banks, hotels, retailing department chain of stores, including in information tech associated marketing (Temkin, McInnes, Chu, & Zinser, 2009). It must know how to model adequate and desired customer expectations of services as well as the dynamism of this profession, including professional limits. Employees must know that their quality service is significant as support mechanism to the company’s overall operation and achievement of goals (Parasumaran, Berry, Zeithamel, 1991). Thus, they must perform their profession whilst exhibiting reliability, dependability, accuracy, and accountability of performance. They must be trained to exhibit courtesy, respect, responsible consideration, level of friendliness, clean appearance and of communication proficiency. They must be subject to periodic appraisal to improve services, conduct corrective measures, and learn from experiences objectively (Czinkota & Ronkainen, 2004). If these customer services are managed well, the company will enjoy credibility and business stature. This would also mean that there human resource management is par excellent and attune to standards of competency—a factor that will help boost the company’s reputation Having competent customer service representatives would also mean business’ security because it will reduce risks associated to business operations such as allotting time to manage conflicts that may probably arise from poor customer service. Therefore, companies must develop Service Customer Relationship Management policies to endure professional management (Gummerson, 1987). The company must also make a customer care desk where problems can be channeled and be promptly addressed. This is also helpful for company owners and managers to enable them to immediately diagnose the situation through customer defections analysis (Gummerson, 1987). This analysis could aid management to understand the rate, reasons and causes why customers are leaving (Reichfeld & Strasser, 1990). Defection analysis provides survey questions and illicit answers that may also detect other causes of customer dissatisfaction or their decision to leave or abhor the site. Customers may also prefer other companies due to pricing, location, quality of products, environmental factors or internal policies of companies (Reichfeld & Strasser, 1990). Conclusion Indeed customer service is essential for marketing and in refining the business leverage of a company. This however requires companies to conduct commerce based on international and domestic standards (Keegan, Schlegelmilch, & Stottinger, 2002). The company must enhance its performance management, human resource management, service quality, and refine its competitive niche. Only through this that customer service will be improved and it can assert of its competitive advantage. The company must hire employees that are equipped with knowledge, skill, competence and trustworthiness in managing customers. They must be trained further and groom well with skills par excellence. They shouldn’t be just knowledgeable on managing customer but must be imbued with understanding on the internal system of the company they sought to represent, but they must also be capable of explicating to customers the product and services they are marketing. As such, they are not just workers with attractive images, but must also be equipped with influential strategies in order for them to contribute to the overarching goals and interest of the company. CSR must also undergo periodic performance appraisal to learn from mistakes and to improve their performances. The appraisal is also a protective measure of the company to reduce risks associated with customer management. REFERENCES Hammit, Jennifer Customer Service Problems and Trends. Associated Content. Yahoo. 2006. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/36075/customer_service_problems_and_trends.html Accessed April 10, 2011. Temkin, Brude D.; McInnes,Andrew; Chu, W., Zinser, R. Consumers Expect Poor Service Experiences: Customer Service Expectations Across 10 Industries and Five Generations. The Customer Experience Professionals. Customer Intelligence Professional. Forrester. MA, USA. 2006. Kano, N; Seraku, N; Takahasi, F & Tsuji, S. Attractive quality and must be quality. Hinshitsu,. Quality, the Journal pf Japanese Society for Quality Control. 1984:14: 39-48. La Londe B.J. & P.H. Zinser. Customer service: Meaning and measurement, NCPM, Chicago. 1976. Hakansson H. International marketing and purchasing of industrial goods: an interaction approach, S.I.: Wiley. 1982. Czinkota, M., Ronkainen, I. International Marketing, Thomson Southwestern. 2004. Keegan, W., Schlegelmilch, B., Stottinger, B. Globales Marketing –Management, Oldenbourg Verlag, Munchen, Wien McDonald, M., Wilson, H. (2002). The New Marketing. Transforming the Corporate Future, Butterworth – Heinemann, Oxford (UK). 2002. Parasumaran, A., Berry, L., Zeithamel, V. Understanding Customer Expectations of Service”, Sloan Management Review, Spring. 1991. Reichfeld, F., Sasser, J.E., „Zero Defections: Quality Comes to Services”, Harvard Business Review, September-October, 1990 Read More