Delivering Customer Service Dr. Jean-Marie Jean-Pierre Sherita Mance Brian Villalva.

Delivering Customer Service

Dr. Jean-Marie Jean-Pierre

Sherita Mance

Brian Villalva

Agenda

• What is Customer Service?• Why Focus on Customer Service?• Service Quality• Give ‘em the Pickle Video!• Four Things Customers Want• Meet the Customers• Key Points to Remember

Objectives

• To reflect on your customer service skills• To challenge you to enhance your

customer service skills• To stress the effects of service quality on

satisfaction and loyalty to customers• To make customer service excellence a

way of life in our organization

What is Customer Service?

• Customer service is an attitude on the part of every employee that the customer is important.

• Bill Peters, Vice President at Outrigger Enterprises, argues that a high quality customer service experience and live interaction between customers and agents are essential ingredients to a successful business. (Communication News, March 2006, 43, 3.)

Customer Service Encompasses:

• Attitude• Knowledge• Care• Helpfulness• Reliability

• Enthusiasm• Responsiveness• Concern• Courtesy• Expertise

Why Focus on Customer Service?• Dissatisfied customers will tell 10 others while

satisfied customers tell only 5• It takes 20 positive customer interactions to

compensate for one negative one• 96% of unhappy customers will not complain• 68% of unhappy customers become dissatisfied

because of poor service• It is five times more expensive to get new

customers than it is to keep existing ones

Service Quality Delivery

• No agreed definition on service quality among scholars.

• Consensus: Service Quality is dependent on consumers’ needs and expectations, and whether the level of service meets these needs and expectations.

Service Quality and Employees• Commitment to service quality is dependent on

the staff members who provide a high proportion of the products/services as well as loyalty.

• Loyalty depends on the development of interpersonal relationships, and the person-to-person interactions between customers and staff members are essential in building loyalty (Czepiel and Gilmore, 1987).

• There is a strong link between customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Service Quality and Trust• Trust is a vital component of efforts to increase the

visibility of a product/service.• Trust is a belief that people should treat others the way

they want to be treated.• Trust is intangible and requires a social bond: One

person relying on another, Connection to one another and to a community.

• It is earned through positive experience.• A belief that an honest and open environment can bring

out the best in people.• Our service delivery must be sustained by trust if we

have to enhance our image and improve our perception. • Trust starts by putting the customer first.

Give ‘em the Pickle Video!

• Service – Make serving others your number one priority.

• Attitude – How you think about the customer is how you will treat them.

• Consistency – Set high service standards and live them every day.

• Teamwork – Look for ways to make each other look good.

Four Things Customers Want

• Friendly Care Service– Thank You

• Flexibility – Go the extra mile to meet my needs

• Problem Solving– Stay with me until we get it resolved

Four Things (cont’d)

• Recovery– Customers have no tolerance for mistakes

occurring over and over again I am sorry for the inconvenience,

apologizeFix it Do something extraFollow up (Is everything OK)

Key Points to Remember• Everyone should be interested in how well you

are meeting external customer needs.• If a customer requirement changes, be prepared

to change your process or system too.• Customers buy your products/services because

of the benefits they offer them.• Today’s customers expect first-class service. If

they sense that you are not putting them first, they will feel disappointed.

Key Points (cont’d)• Customers will judge you against what you

promised to deliver and what they believe to be acceptable standards.

• Help your customers succeed and you will succeed too.

• Make a list of your top 10 customers and talk to them frequently.

• Keep in regular contact with your customers.• Remember that the end customer is the lifeblood

of your organization

Meet the Users

• Open Dialogue with Users

References• Presbury, Rayka et al (2005). Impediments to improvements in service

quality in luxury hotels. School of Management, University of Western Sidney, Australia.

• Asher, M (1996), Managing Quality in the Service Sector, Kogan Page London.

• Crompton, J.L.and Mackay, K.J (1989). “Users’ perception of relative importance of service quality dimensions in selected public recreations program,” Leisure Sciences, Vol 11, pp.367-75.

• Cziepel, J.A. and Gilmore, R.(1987). “Exploring the Concept of loyalty in services,” in Czepiel, J.A., Congram, C.A. and Shanahan, J. (EDS), The Services Marketing Challenge: Integrating for Competitive Advantage, AMA,Chicago,IL, pp. 91-4.

• Crosby, L.A, Evans, K. and Cowles, D. (1990). “Relationship quality in service selling: an interpersonal influence perspective,” Journal of Marketing, Vol 54 No 3, pp. 68-81.

• CRM News Update #20 (October 2005). eBay: Managing Trust with 100 million customers.

• Groonroos, C. (2000). Service management and marketing: A customer relationship management approach, John Wiley, Chichester.