Customer Service

Customer service does and always will define the way companies are seen and talked about. Whether it is going the extra mile for that one customer or making a customer smile, it’s all worth it for positive word of mouth marketing about your business.
The January/February edition of Supplier Global Resource magazine mentions the following tips on how to better your customer service:

• Listen to the voices: This means listen to customer emotions. Listen and try and decipher just how the customer feels about the company. Also try to ensure that the level of service at each customer touch point is consistent and positive. Further, ensure that your company acts on complaints because complaints are opportunities to improve the business.
• A team-wide effort: Customer service must be an integrated focus of the organisation, where the customer is frequently thought about in the strategic direction of the firm. This also means that the integration and strategic direction of the firm must be managed and evaluated at ongoing and long term intervals to ensure the success of the organisation and the committment to the customer.
• Get social: Ensure that you have the right social media communications tools to connect with your clients, positively. Social media is an outlet where customers can vent about their customer service experiences and you want to make sure that your company is not ‘vented’ about but more positively ‘praised’ about. You must have an appropriate social media strategy for the kind of business you are in, whether it be business-to-business or business-to-customer etc. Social media in this digital age, is actually responsible for some of company reputation building and therefore, the messages and conversations that the company is using online must be consistent with the organisation’s principles and aims.

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