An organisation embarking upon a customer service strategy should plan the people resources and technology that will be needed to support the delivery of the planned product or service.

It is no use having a marvellous product if the processes for its release to the customer are wholly inadequate.

Planning with some form of business analysis may help. Evaluating how competitors perform is a good way to identify areas for improvement.

Using technology can vastly expedite processing and having appropriate customer data to hand is beneficial. However, this does not obviate the need for good interaction with the customer during the sales process and on-going customer relations.

Ensuring that sales staff have the appropriate technology to hand can speed up order taking and placing. Most industries are now supported by ‘off-the shelf’ software that caters for numerous business models allowing far greater analysis of order taking, processing and delivery.

Technology used should be planned around expected demand and allow for sufficient capacity for expected growth. 

People needs are paramount with a full appreciation of the number of well-trained staff required to facilitate and operate the new technology platforms. Organisations seeking to be recognised as leaders in customer service should always ensure that they have enough staff to fulfil peaks in demand.

By adopting the prestigious British Standard BS8477 an organisation can benchmark its arrangements to the leading published framework for customer service.

A business seeking to stand out as a beacon of good customer service, can consider BSI’s Customer Service Kitemark award. The author is qualified in providing advice on this path.

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.