Customer service can mean different things to different people. But in its simplest terms it means consistently achieving customer satisfaction with the supply of an organisation’s goods or services.
Good customer service should be evident across all parts of a business or public sector institution that interfaces with customers. This normally includes marketing staff, sales staff, telesales, website delivery, social media etc.
Staff should be encouraged and required to put good customer service at the centre of all their activities.
The author of this blog advocates a culture audit to start with to identify the issues that currently prevail within the organisation. If there is an unhappy or poorly motivated workforce then customer service is unlikely to prevail.
It is amazing to see these days how often poor customer service is still endemic in many organisations large and small.
There is often much work to create the right customer service culture. However, the CEO of the enterprise must advocate its importance and communicate the message from the top.
Payment and reward structures should not merely be aligned with sales. Good customer service outcomes should be incorporated within incentive programmes as well.
By adopting the prestigious British Standard BS8477 an organisation can benchmark its arrangements to the leading published framework for customer service.
An organisation seeking to progress customer service to the highest level may wish to entertain the BSI Customer Service Kitemark award. The author of this blog is especially qualified in this arena preparing clients for such a distinction.
For further information and to book your BS 8477 – Customer Service survey please contact: Marcus J Allen at Thamer James Ltd. Email: [email protected]
Marcus has twenty years’ experience in delivering Governance, Risk and Compliance solutions to over two hundred organisations within the UK. Marcus holds the respected Diploma in Governance, Risk and Compliance from the International Compliance Association and holds a master’s degree in Management Learning & Change from the University of Bristol. Marcus is a Fellow of the Institute of Consultants and Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.