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Success in business today is harder than ever to achieve. Customers are becoming more demanding, competition is increasing, change is accelerating, and costs must be controlled. And, all these challenges are intertwined. Businesses do not have the luxury of being able to focus on just one at the expense of progress toward another. Winning, therefore, requires a higher level of agility; coupled with a dedication to improving the velocity with which value is delivered to customers, who are both the source and the subsistence of a company’s growth. It isn’t easy. There is an unrelenting demand for growth by senior management, requiring companies to be more effective in keeping and growing the value of existing customers.
As the rate of introduction of new products and services increase customer service organizations find it increasingly difficult to stay current with developments and deliver superior service experiences—especially under conditions where budgets are being cut. But it must be done. Most customers (75 percent) are only willing to give a company one or two chances before bad service forces them to defect to the competition, and they consciously know their power in an economic environment where every sale is a struggle for the company. As a result, customers now expect more attention and better service. In fact, they are receiving both from the best companies that are now focusing on service as a means to sustain long-term customer relationships. For example, in the annual ranking of customer year for most of the top 25—but mostly deteriorated among the bottom 25 of the 200 brands examined in a research. And it can be done. Other issues in the changing landscape of customer service will be explored—together with the partners practical approach from sales force that uses the power of this service to not only solve many of the current obstacles faced by customer service organizations, but also to position them to engage in the evolving and expanding world of customer conversations occurring beyond the reach of traditional contact centers within social networking.
While there are many recognised benefits and advantages to have with respect to partnership with the customers, the answer to why one seeks to establish partnerships is relatively simple. There is added value in working with other organisations to meet the need of the customer. ?
The benefits of effective partnerships do not appear overnight. Establishing effective and inclusive partnerships takes time, and it is important for you to create the right framework from the start and review the structure and process of the partnership on an ongoing basis to measure its success or failure.
What is customer service partnership?
A working definition of a partnership is a collaborative relationship between entities to work toward shared objectives through a mutually agreed division of labour in satisfying the customer.
While this working definition is not very precise, it does help distinguish partnerships from other forms of aid relationships. Customer service partnership is inherently complex vehicles for the delivery of practical solutions on the ground and at the strategic level. Several studies of how partnerships operate indicate that practitioners manage the complexity by adopting a long-term, flexible, and organic approach. Why organic? During the course of these partnerships, organisations often evolve as they learn more about effective management, build capacity, and gain valuable experiences. In that sense, partnerships act as learning mechanisms that teach you to be better at what you do and enable you to achieve your goals of satisfying the customer at all times.
A shared common vision and purpose that builds trust and openness and recognises the value and contribution of all members also need to exist. Additionally, shared and transparent decision-making processes—extending the scope of influence over and involvement with other services and activities—will prove essential to the partnership. Shared goals and aims, understood and accepted by the organisation, lead to improved coordination of policies, programs, and service delivery, and, ultimately, better outcomes of exceeding customers expectation
Shared can-do values, understanding, and an acceptance of differences (e.g., values, ways of working) are all key components of a successful partnership. Having respect for the contributions of all staff partners, combined with an absence of status barriers, will lead to the active involvement of staff who are identified as being effective, representative, and capable of playing a valued role in the partnership of customer satisfaction.
A healthy partnership promotes an atmosphere of learning. This may involve monitoring and evaluation aimed at improving staffs’ performance. Investing in staff skills, knowledge, and competence needs to be highly valued within the organisational partnership. This open mindset and spirit of facilitation creates opportunities to shape each other’s work and learn together. In this environment, staff can more effectively reflect on both developmental successes and failures.
Across industries and markets, considerable changes in customer expectations are putting new challenges on the customer service function. Customers are demanding more from customer service; meeting their expectations requires an enterprise-wide understanding and commitment, not simply an isolated departmental upgrade.
Leading customer service organisations are emphasising transparency in service performance and demonstrating its contributions to company-wide strategic targets, consumer engagement, and top-line impact.Consumers have never been smarter than they are today. They have more information than ever before to help them make purchasing decisions. They are accustomed to, and expect, regular interaction with companies. The breadth of established and new channels for customer interaction—in shops, in contact centres, over the Internet, and via mobile devices— is ever-increasing. Over the last five years, the ways consumers communicate, learn about products and make purchasing decisions have fundamentally changed.Companies are beginning to understand these changes in consumer behaviour and are adapting to them accordingly—e.g., by changing their marketing mix. Customer service interactions are increasingly seen as opportunities for engaging more intensely with customers, gaining better customer insights, and leveraging service propositions for revenue growth. Technology innovation supports this trend, as large amounts of customer information can now be generated and leveraged more efficiently than in the past.
Leverage service for revenue growth. Best customer service practices seek regular engagement with the customer and take advantage of every customer contact. In the past, customer service focused on “getting the screen green”—closing one call and moving on to the next one as quickly as possible. We are experiencing a shift from contact avoidance to smart contact management. The new challenges: Engage the customer, manage the relationship proactively, cross- and up-sell to different audience segments, and, in mature markets, emphasise service quality as a brand differentiator.
Innovate the customer interface. Leading customer service companies offer multiple channels to their most valued customers, adjusting their channel mix to the customers’ communication preferences and striking a smart balance between automation and human interaction. They are using Web 2.0 tools to engage with their target audience and offer a series of self-service options to streamline the experience for customers and encourage them to return. Investments are shifting from back-end automation to front-end enhancement.
Integrate customer touch points. To maximise the value of every interaction, distinct silos of customer touch points are being abolished. Multi-product companies make sure they can service their entire portfolio across touch points with most contact channels being deployed for both sales and service interactions. Best-in-class players deploy integrated management of all contact channels in order to align cost and value of interactions and to ensure that customers enjoy a seamless experience.
Drive customer-centricity. Customer service sits on one of the largest untapped resources for companies: customer feedback and proprietary customer data. Exploiting this potential throughout the company is a significant value driver. The most forward-looking companies are empowering a strong chief service officer—someone with advanced strategic capabilities who works closely with peers in marketing, sales, and technology. These executives establish a cross-functional end-to- end perspective on customer processes with customer service as the key driver for customer-centricity in a central coordinating role as the “voice of the customer.” They closely with peers in marketing, sales, and technology. These executives establish a cross-functional end-to- end perspective on customer processes with customer service as the key driver for customer-centricity in a central coordinating role as the “voice of the customer.”
As expressed by Michelle Holmes on the 4 A’s of Customer Service should be applied internally too and will enable a business to present itself in a way which ensures a higher Net Promoter Score (NPS) with its customers and partners.The 4 A’s stand for Appearance, Attention, Attitude and Accuracy, and whilst these are often applied purely as outward looking standards to help promote a business and improve customer service, they also underpin the internal customer service which is needed. Looking at each of the 4 A’s there are very simple ways an organisation can improve its internal processes which will generate big external impacts, this has been shared before in my previous articles, still, find it needful to mention it here again as well.
Appearance – First impressions count as much internally as externally. When a colleague approaches you for help, the way you deal with that request immediately creates either resistance or a positive outcome. The colleague who sighs, pulls a face and makes a fuss when asked to support a colleague, is something we have probably all experienced, but this is a first impression that can cause long term damage.
For many organisations, where teams must work together to help their customers, the way colleagues deal with each other can really impact on the final service they deliver. If your appearance to your colleagues is open, helpful and willing to support, then the really big gains come from an improved communication flow, which leads automatically to a better service.
Attention – Have you ever sat near a colleague who is always reading their texts, checking their emails or sorting through an in tray whilst you are trying to explain something of importance? This creates one of the most frustrating internal blockages to good communications internally.
A sales person would never dream of ignoring a customer who was talking to them by checking their mobile or need to have requests repeated to them because they just weren’t listening. However, with colleagues, this approach can be common place. Good internal attention requires colleagues to focus on their workmates and listen and respond. Simple good manners translate into really well-motivated teams and managers who are seen as positive and focused.
Accuracy – How easily do your colleagues find it to provide half-answers to questions, or provide out of date information because they cannot be bothered to search out the accurate information. The idea that you are being ‘efficient’ if you pass someone onto another contact who you ‘think’ knows the answer is nearly always doomed to failure.
Efficiency and shifting responsibility for providing the best and most accurate information are often confused. Great internal customer service puts an emphasis on finding the information or supplying the knowledge your colleagues need to get their jobs done. Accuracy is your communication, saves time, means you can deal with more enquiries and most importantly demonstrates a professionalism which creates loyalty and respect.
Those who demand respect because of position, but don’t demonstrate accuracy in their approach to their colleagues, rarely achieve the respect they crave, and this will always become evident to the external customer.
Attitude – Companies spend billions each year on the promotion of their brand and creating an external perception and appearance of a business. This is undermined completely when the personnel of that organisation do not reflect the values of the business. Poor motivation and negative attitudes towards colleagues can really hamper the business chances of success.
If your colleagues show a disrespectful attitude towards the business, the likelihood that they will adopt similar traits towards their customers are significantly increased. In a business climate where change is now a regular occurrence within companies and long-term security is no longer assured, it is obviously a major challenge to keep employees fully supportive of an organization, but with good internal mechanisms and a ‘positive, can do’ attitude shown at all levels, then the external perception of a business is hugely reinforced.
The marketing spend is always better value, when the company representative espouses the same positive views. At the end of the day, “the power is yours”.
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