05/ 25/ 2006
by Charles R. McConnell
The first and, perhaps, most important task in designing a customer satisfaction system is impressing the principles of effective customer service and the importance of them upon employees. From top management to the newest entry-level worker, principles of effective customer service include:
- Always treating customers as you would like to be treated
- Anticipating customers' needs and wants and knowing how to meet them
- Making yourself a model of outstanding customer service
- Under-promising, over-delivering and exceeding customers' expectations whenever possible
- Performing work the correct way the first time
Picking the right employees
The path to customer satisfaction begins with employee selection. It ideally starts with hiring employees who exhibit a caring attitude. For many entry-level positions that involve considerable customer contact, it makes sense to hire primarily for manner and attitude and refine job skills through orientation and training. For current employees lacking appropriate people skills, retraining, reassignment or, perhaps, even removal may be in order. No individual whose attitude or demeanor could potentially alienate customers should remain in a customer-contact position.
Implementing training
Orientation and training should strongly address customer satisfaction requirements, with your company's customer satisfaction principles covered face-to-face and provided in a published policy or employee handbook. At the start of employment, complete customer satisfaction should be stressed as a primary concern of everyone in the company.
Measuring success
Monitor the behavior of your customer-contact employees and provide immediate coaching for those who demonstrate shortcomings. Include customer satisfaction as a condition of acceptable performance and emphasize this by addressing customer satisfaction in performance evaluations. Use the evaluation process to identify employees' customer service weaknesses and determine their strengths. Also, adopt the practice of recognizing and rewarding those who make special efforts to please customers.
Handling complaints
Give properly trained employees the authority to resolve customer complaints whenever possible. The fewer people a complaint has to go through, the faster and more visibly it can be resolved. Establish channels and mechanisms for obtaining feedback from customers. Customers are likely to be displeased when:
- They don't receive what they expected or were promised.
- They experience what they consider to be unreasonable delays.
- Someone who represents the company comes across as rude, patronizing or indifferent.
- They feel they're getting the brush-off or the runaround.
- Someone expresses a "we can't do it" attitude or hides behind a supposed rule or policy as a reason for inaction.
Complaints should always be addressed as potential suggestions for improving customer service. Complaints are the least costly source of customer feedback, but to get them you often have to actively solicit them. Many customers who are unhappy with the way they've been treated don't complain—they simply don't come back. They're likely to tell friends and relatives about their experience, but you may never know unless you go out of your way to ask. Post visible instructions for registering a complaint, Make comment cards available. Ask customers who are leaving about the quality of service received as well as for specific suggestions for improving service.
Encourage employees to report complaints and make suggestions for resolving them and preventing their reoccurrence. Maintain a comment log. Most customers will be understanding if they feel employees care about them, so give employees the authority they need to personally address complaints.
When faced with a valid complaint, acknowledge its validity, offer an apology when appropriate and accept responsibility without shifting the blame to people or circumstances beyond your control. Empathize with the complainer and ask what he or she believes should be done, or take the initiative to make an offer that you believe would solve the problem. Thank the individual for bringing the matter to your attention. Promise to do what you agreed to do, then promptly do it.
In summary, building an effective customer satisfaction system involves:
- Adopting the principles of customer service and customizing them to your business as necessary. Publishing these in some convenient form and communicating them to all employees.
- Selecting new customer-contact employees for manner and attitude, emphasizing people skills, retraining current employees as needed and reassigning or removing those who are ineffective in such positions.
- Make customer satisfaction a condition of acceptable performance and include it in performance evaluations.
- Track customer complaints and actively solicit customer feedback. Post complaint procedures and ensure that all customers know how to register complaints
- When possible, empower individual employees to resolve customer complaints as they arise.
- Always remain conscious of why you should be attentive to customer satisfaction: A satisfied customer is your best advertisement.
