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The Four Principles of Structuring an Effective Customer Care Program.
Don't Blindfold Yourself to Your Customers. An Open Letter from Ed Romson, President Many companies in the current economic situation think that putting a lot of emphasis on customer service and support is just too costly and should be scaled back to meet fiscal restraints. This is like closing down one of your senses, blindfolding yourself or plugging your ears. While you might be able to perceive what is going on in the world around you, your total comprehension of it will be severely hampered….(and with that, your ability to affect change or improve on the situation.) As a customer, you wouldn't put up with this for long. As a provider of services or products, you need to take advantage of how a customer care program can benefit your bottom line. Here are four basic rules I use, based on quality management principles, for a highly effective Customer Care program...
Customer interaction starts with allowing them access. This need not be costly, but it must be inviting and non-threatening. Access can be achieved by many methods and is governed by understanding how your customers wish to interact with you. This is important because it profoundly affects your customer's response to you. Some customers are technology averse. They require the ability to talk to a company representative via the telephone and will likely be positive toward reading preprinted support material. Other times, a robust web site with lots of information and options such as wizards, tutorials, search features and email contact are more appropriate. The types of customer support system you can choose from vary widely as well. You must select one that not only works for you today, but that scales with you as you grow. Your first decision is whether to build an in-house team or use outsourced providers, or a combination. Next, comes the scale and complexity of the system. Whether it's a small in-house team of customer representatives that provide pre-sale information, process orders and give after-purchase support…or a full outsourcing agreement with a customer care management company, you must weigh all the cost/management benefits and limitations relative to your company's current situation and maturation process. Doing this before you implement a system, can save a lot of headaches later on for both you and your customers. For a discussion of the alternatives of different types of systems, see the white papers section. As part of your evaluation, make sure you factor in how your information system impacts your infrastructure and the ongoing support it will need. Keeping your knowledge base system updated and fresh is as important to your company as your product line strategy. Bad or outdated customer information, broken links, inaccessibility, etc. is worse than not having these things, and can completely derail an otherwise efficient Customer program. Proper training and access to the most current product, services and program details by the people performing your customer care support is paramount to the success of your team, your company and your support program. Here, again, there are many alternatives, variously priced, from which to choose. By keeping in mind your current needs and the scalability of the system, the right choice is a complex process, but essential. You think you have an efficient customer support system. You talk with your customers regularly, you process their orders quickly and you are solving their problems. But do you really know what they are saying to you? Are you using the input you are getting? Does your head of Product Development know what customers really think about that new special feature she designed into the product? Is your Marketing Director aware of all the feedback coming in about the most recent advertisement? How will you react to the info that 16.5% of your products require a service call within the first ninety days of first use? Without a process to capture and act on the information your customers can provide you, you're missing a huge opportunity to improve customer satisfaction and possibly even affect your bottom line. It has been my experience that most companies need to create or improve on one or all of these basic principles of Customer Care Management. If your company is following all four of these, then you should be ahead of the game! For more information on these topics or to find out how Rocair can help in these areas, contact us. © Copyright Rocair Corporation. All rights reserved. |
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Letter from the President