Customer Service is the one which is the fundamental life line for any business organisation. Be it a Company, a Financial hub or a hospitality industry, it is the customer who hogs the central spot for its growth. The organisations can survive only by being customer centric all the time. They need not only to deliver the best of service, but also to embark on innovative strategies to win their customer’s heart.
We observe that many of the companies feel reluctant to move outside the customer service comfort zone. These companies are still mired in darkness thinking customer service as a commodity rather than a strategy. If we consider a recent assessment, around 11% of the people opined that serving customers is the main duty of the customer service department and 15% felt that the customer service is a key component which enhances their brand image and gives a decent perspective of their organisation.
Many companies even today are of the considered opinion that customer service is mainly a post purchase activity, which is a wrong notion. They are yet to recognise the power of customer service in informing and converting potential customers at pre-purchase time. Pre-purchase service is the best component of a successful organisation which earns it many quality customers. There lies the success of any organisation in tapping the high valued clientele into their business books.
Nowadays, several companies are adopting innovative technologies and delivering their best for an immaculate customer experience, but still feel highly cosy with the existing conventional channels. A striking hurdle to adding the new service channels is the cost associated with them to the organisation. Integration challenges such as inability to align with the existing available systems and fears about implementation of the same, are also some of the important barriers in delivering the best customer experience. Knowledge management is often the main aspect in winning the customer and offering him the best service. If the serving staff are not equipped suitably or lacking the required knowledge to deliver the desirable service, it will be a great setback for the organisation. So, suitable training has to be imparted to them through training, be it online or at a campus. The modern organisations are thus laying great emphasis on training their staff in different programmes. The junior management, middle management and senior management are deputed to suitable institutions to garner the required skills to propel the customer service in that organisation.
How your company treats the customers when they are interacting in person also influences their behaviour. Providing a frictionless customer experience not only leads to satisfied repeat customers but also creates customer advocates in the organisation. In the era of social media, stories of brands going above and beyond in customer delight gain rapt media attention, the most important customers’ trust, and ultimately, their wallets.
Lot of talk can be garnered about the most important doctrine of customer service in theory, but ultimately what sort of service is practically being rendered in active business is the one which matters the most.
GV Sastry,
DGM & Senior Faculty,
State Bank Staff College,
Hyderabad