Customer Support costs indeed money

It still must be kept in mind: to amaze customers with an excellent quality of service it will cost some money. The truth is: there is no good service with a discount price tag on it. But the good thing is: customers do know and acknowledge this. Not quite a few will be willing to pay more and will receive for this a good, reliable and available service in case of need.

Another truth is: quality service cannot be automated overall. But there are nowadays quite a few enterprises that are trying to cut down service costs with automated voice response systems or the outsourcing to other low-cost countries. Whatsoever - in doing so the risk of losing customers is quite high, since no real customer retention is built. Even worse: a customer in urgent need of support (think of an incident) who firstly has to dial a couple of times the support number because all lines are busy; who then has to talk to automated, often not really mature speech dialog systems, who is then, if not by chance dropped out automatically out of the line, forwarded to a low-cost service center (there is even a good chance to be forwarded to the wrong support division), where English (or the prominent language) is barely understood or the knowledge of the failed product is rather low, will drive this customer directly  into the arms of some other competitor.

Remember: Cheap service will be recognized as such!

It's a matter of common knowledge that the acquisition costs for a new customer is roughly 5 times higher than to keep an existing customer.

And a happy customer will firstly be considerably longer with you and secondly will spend and invest more money with your company. As an example, think of a credit card institution who is upselling insurances or is acting also as a travel agency.

Upselling will work only when your customers are happy.

You will only be able to satisfy your customer, if you really understand his needs and requirements:

Ask yourself: how can you provide good and purposive services, if you do not know by heart what your customers really needs?

You must listen and there isn't just one way of doing it: feedback forms, ratings from your websites, Facebook or similar, mystery shopping, customer surveys and finally the feedback from your own service people.

That said: if you provide a well-designed service strategy with the appropriate service organization including a professional toolset, where each and every service case is completely locked and an analysis of a professional, interdisciplinary Problem Management takes place, this information are collected ongoing and repeatedly within your organization.

The more complicated a product is, the more explanations are needed to understand its nature, the higher the level of training your service staff needs. How embarrassing is it, when tech guys of your customer know obviously more about the troubleshooting of your own products then your own service unites who supposedly should give the needed support?

A robust product design and well-designed production-, sales- and support processes are certainly the main pre-requisite for the long-lasting loyalty of customers.

Certainly, a well-operated Customer Service is only but one factor in satisfying adequately customer demands and wishes: thoughtfully designed products are of course the actual precondition for a lasting customer retention. Even the best service in the world will not make clients stay clients if the products are inferior.

So, if the quality of your products is »right« then the overall satisfaction of your customers is only in the hands of your Customer Service and the ability of its support staff to react quick and work efficient, right?

That's unfortunately incorrect. 

A well-designed service strategy and well-staffed service units will not automatically come to an effectively working result. Common time-eaters which are preventing an efficient service are particularly missing, incomplete or wrong information or data:

• If the exact comments of a customer complaint must be re-evaluated at every step a-new, because your service staff cannot access the already discussed steps or the already introduced intermediate solution approaches, because no overall ticket system is in place or if the used service system "reacts so slow" it slows down the service in such a matter it is not used anymore,

• If each of the service staff must »reinvent the wheel« at every call to find some solution, since no Knowledge Management nor Problem Management are existent,

time is wasted not only for the staff and Support Unit. Rightly the customer will be dissatisfied with the poor quality and efficiency and will run out of patience very quickly.

That said the right sufficiency is not only up to your complaint management. Even high motivated employees will not make up for insufficient processes or supporting tools. If the overall efficiency of the customer service must be just right - all requests of your customer must always be processed efficiently and with a high service standard - then all work conditions and used tools must support this.

Processes and procedures must be continuously optimized (continual service improvement): establish a Service Improvement Plan (SIP) and choose an integrated, service system, which supports besides the obvious ticketing all other necessary services processes as Incident-, Request-, Change- Problem-, Escalation- and Knowledge Management.

The basic prerequisite for excellent service is the constant high level of service delivered. This includes availability, an adequate number of service staff, bandwidth of tools and the expertise of the service agents.

An example:

You booked a night in an international 4-star hotel. While checking in the receptionist serves you a nice welcome drink and the needed paperwork is done, quickly, professional and to your entire satisfaction. The hotel room and the overall interieur meets all your expectations that come with booking a 4-star-hotel and a certain price tag on it.

The week after you are staying a night at the same hotel chain in a different city. The lobby looks a little shabby and you must wait at the reception for the 2 tour busses to check-in before you are dealt with 20 minutes after arrival from an obviously overworked and stressed out receptionist. 

The computer hangs a few times, the service staff swears under his breath and no welcome drink is offered. In your hotel room the towels are missing, and the bath looks somehow half-heartedly cleaned. You call the lobby, but you are treated somehow snappishly and repellent. You will not receive the towels before checking out in the morning.

Will you stay at the same hotel chain next time without at least checking out other hotels before booking?

Without a service strategy, undefined processes or without a service concept it is not possible to deliver service at a constantly high standard and at a reliable level to your clients.

Since a good service requires well-defined, interlinked processes, the use and customization of the Service standard of the ITIL framework imposes itself naturally: no matter, if IT Services or other services are within the focus. It really makes no sense to »reinvent the service wheel« all over again, if a well-defined, de-facto standard and tool supported framework is already at hand and available.

Treat your employees as your customers. As with lost customers - because of a constantly bad delivered service - it costs a lot more to replace good staff then to keep motivated employees with you.

Traditionally companies focus on the service delivered to the "real customers" and relatively seldom on the interaction of internal departments or divisions. The improvement of the relationship between departments and of the inter-divisional support processes supports sustainably the quality of the customer support, is reducing lead times of tickets significantly, improves the overall service and product quality, the communication and finally the employee and customer satisfaction.

New contracts by existing customers not only ensure the own company's existence but is generating this additional revenue needed to for a high-class service organization.

Nutzen Sie alle (notwenigen) Kommunikationswege im gleichen Maß gut

Kunden erwarten heutzutage, dass Kommunikationswege rund um die Uhr verfügbar sind und funktionieren: E-Mail, Facebook, ihre Unternehmensseite, Messenger-Dienste, Telefon, Mobil, Fax, Apps, Face-2-Face, etc.

Dies stellt die viele vor eine schwierige Aufgabe. Versagen ist hier aber keine Option. Nicht beantwortete Posts auf Facebook oder Mailnachrichten, die erst wochenspäter beantwortet werden, sind keine Option. Der nächste Anbieter oder das vernichtende Urteil in Bewertungen ist hier nur ein Mouse-Klick entfernt.

Hier helfen sowohl eine integrierte Lösung, strikte Vorgaben mit messbaren KPIs, ein Bonus/Male-Incentive und ein aussagekräftiges Reporting

Jeder Kundenkontakt gibt ihrem Unternehmen die Möglichkeit sich im besten Licht zu präsentieren!

Sobald ein Kunde den Kundenservice kontaktiert, können ihre gut ausgebildeten und mündigen Servicemitarbeiter schnell und unkompliziert helfen und somit die Erwartungshaltung des Kunden mindestens treffen, wenn möglich übertreffen. Die in jedem Service-Call aufgenommenen und im Servicetool dokumentierte Vorkommnisse (Beschwerden, Reklamationen, Anregungen, Änderungswünsche, sonstiges Feedback) ermöglichen nun die Kernabteilungen im Unternehmen das Produkt, Qualität, Prozess etc. nachhaltig zu verbessern.

Informiert der Kundenservice bei Kontaktaufnahme durch den Kunden über neue, für den Kunden relevante Produkte oder Services, ist es so sogar möglich, einen weiteren Vertriebskanal zu öffnen. Bei größeren Servicecentern kann dies sogar zur Umgestaltung von Cost- nach Profit-Center führen.

Kunden erwarten heute einen guten Kundenservice – egal wo sie sich gerade befinden oder was sie gerade machen...

Egal, ob ein Kunde mit dem Flugzeug oder dem Zug unterwegs ist oder ob er einen Kaffee will – er erwartet auf jeden Fall eine gute Qualität: der Zug oder das Flugzeug sollen gem. Zeitplan ohne Verspätung fahren, bzw. fliegen und auch ankommen – zu jeweils angemessenen Preisen; außerdem soll der reservierte Sitzplatz natürlich frei, sauber und nutzbar sein. Der gekaufte Kaffee muss schnell ausgeschenkt, heiß sein und gut schmecken.

Werden die Erwartungshaltungen nicht erfüllt sind Kunden sehr schnell frustriert. 

Eine Faustregel besagt: 

• Ein zufriedener Kunde sagt an etwa drei Leute weiter, dass er zufrieden ist!
• Ein unzufriedener Kunde hingegen erklärt seinen Frust und die Unzufriedenheit mit einem Unternehmen, Zulieferer weiteren 10 bis 15 Kontakten - und das meistens auch noch ungefragt!