Service Mindsets By Lim Swee Say
July 20, 2010
Service Mindsets By Lim Swee Say, Minister for Prime Minister’s Office and Secretary-General for NTUC
“If every one of us in the service sector in Singapore can adopt the same mindset, in terms of having a service quality target, a productivity target, an innovation target - maybe with the three coming together, there is hope we can achieve a breakthrough in a very widespread manner.
“If you’re the best today, strive to be better. If you’re better today, strive to be ‘betterer’ and if you’re ‘betterer’ today, strive to be ‘betterest’ so that over time, Singapore’s service standards can just keep getting better, ‘betterer’ and ‘betterest’.” - Lim Swee Say
WHO IN YOUR MIND ARE THE BEST WHEN IT COMES TO SERVICE IN SINGAPORE?
Go to www.SingaporeServiceAcademy.com/Rate and Make Your Voice Matter
You As The Customer Have Rights & You Should Stand Up For Them By Making Your Voice Matter by Manoj Sharma
July 15, 2010
You As The Customer Have Rights & You Should Stand Up For Them By Making Your Voice Matter
By Manoj Sharma
It is often said in service that “The Customer Is Always Right”. While that saying has got good intentions, it obvious is an exaggeration and is certainly not the whole truth.
You see from the Products and/or Service Providers perspective, its not that your customer is always right, it is that your customer has rights.
So, read the following from the perspective of a customer and if you find that as a customer this is true for you, then consider that from your organization’s perspective you need to deliver on this too.
You as the customer have rights as to…
1) How the People at your Products and/or Services Provider interact with you. You have a right to them…
- Behaving professionally
- Making you feel valuable
- Being knowledgeable about their products and/or services
- Being competent at their jobs
- Being personable
- Being warm in their welcome
- Being friendly
- Being focused on assisting you find a solution
2) The Products and/or Services your Products and/or Services Provider provides. You have the right to…
- Choice of Products and/or Services
- Options to customize the Products and/or Services to meet your specific needs
- Have the Products and/or Services work as promised
- Have the Products and/or Services ultimately meet your specific needs
3) The Processes, Procedures & Policies of your Products and/or Services Provider. You have a right to…
- Timely processes
- Convenient procedures
- Flexible policies
4) The Physical & Virtual Environments of your Products and/or Services Provider. You have a right to…
- Inviting and ascetically appealing physical environments
- Physical environments designed for your convenience and comfort
- Virtual environments that are easy to access, well laid out and simple to get around
- The content of the virtual environment being up-to-date, accurate and relevant
5) The Other Components that make your experience complete. You have a right to…
- Congruency between their People, Products and & Service, Processes, Procedures & Policies, Physical & Virtual Environments
- Getting value for your time and money
- Telling the world about your experience with this organization
And How Do Exercise Your Rights?
One way is to go to www.SingaporeServiceAcademy.com/Rate and Stand Up For Your Rights As A Customer by Making Your Voice Matter.
Converting Complaints Into Profits By Measuring Your Customers’ Experience By Manoj Sharma
July 9, 2010
Converting Complaints Into Profits By Measuring Your Customers’ Experience by Manoj Sharma
Here is the truth.
Your organization simply cannot get your customers’ experience right every single time, so there is no shame in welcoming, measuring, examining shortfalls in service and then focusing on improving your customers’ experience. Also there is in Measuring Your Customers’ Experience no need for defensiveness or offensiveness, but certainly as just stated above there is a need to be welcoming, measuring, examining and improving.
You see, the needs, wants and desires of your customers and potential customers are always evolving to a higher plane. These ever increasing needs, wants and desires on your customers part are an opportunity for you to increase your value proposition and gain a greater competitive edge in your marketplace. But this is conveniently not explored by most people in most organization.
I’m sure you’ve heard numerous times that a good customer recovery system can turn unsatisfied customers into loyal advocates. And you know loyal advocates lead to higher profitability, one of 3 cornerstones of every successful organization, the other two of course being performance and fulfillment.
To profit from this information, we first get a full sense that it takes time, effort and energy on the part of your customer to complain, and frustration is often the fuel propelling the complain. Thereafter, let us maturely and objectively appreciate that complaining customers are telling you what doesn’t work for them and possibly your other customers too. It is only then that we can truly look upon a customer’s complain as what it really is; an opportunity to improve. In light of this, only the best leaders in organizations welcome, measure and examine customers’ complains (and complements too) and use them an opportunity to improve further still.
Sadly, traditionally, it has been “tradition” to push complaining customers from pillar to post and delay, diffuse and/or discard all responsibility. But when this is done, your organization will miss out on improving from the complain and end up dealing with the psychological pain of your customers instead.
Yes, good service recovery people and systems costs, time, resources and energy, but bad service people and systems have the habit of causing you even more time, resources and energy. In reality your organization can ill afford the price of not having satisfied customers. Yes, it really is true that it costs more to acquire a new customer or replace a lost one that it does to retain an existing on or create loyal advocates from existing customers.
So, after having fully absorbed all of the above you can conclude that when you are creating technologies to Measure Your Customers’ Experience, you are not just putting time, resources and energy into discovering what disgusts your customers but also what delights your customers. You can then channel more efforts into what delights them and learn what will delight the disgusted ones towards a mutually beneficial outcome.
Case Study On Service Recovery & Retention
July 9, 2010
Case Study On Service Recovery & Retention
British Airway’s customer-relations department can now claim to be a true champion of the customer. The retention rate among those who complain to customer relations has more than doubled, while the department’s return on investment (the value of business saved plus increased loyalty and new business from referrals relative to the department’s total costs) has risen 200 percent.
In training its employees, British Airways tried to help staff understand several things:
- If the company replies to a customer and claims that events did not happen as the customer suggested, then the customer perceives the company to be calling him or her a liar.
- If, after investigating, the company reports back to the customer that events indeed took place as the customer claimed, then the customer can become even more agitated, inferring that the company did not believe him or her at first.
- If the company relays information to the customer that he or she did not know, the customer may think that the company is trying to make excuses for poor service.
To deal with these issues, British Airways’ customer-relations department developed a four-step process that it incorporated into all its technical and human systems.
- Apologize and take up the problem. Customers do not care whose fault the problem was; they want an apology and they want someone to champion their cause.
- Do it quickly. Aim to reply to the customer the same day, and if that is not possible, certainly within 72 hours. British Airways research showed that 40 to 50 percent of customers who contacted it with complaints defected if it took company staff longer than five days to respond. A speedy reply demonstrates a sense of urgency; it shows that the company really cares about the customer’s feelings and situation.
- Assure the customer that the problem is being fixed. Customers can be retained if they are confident that the operational problem they encountered will truly be addressed.
- Do it by phone. British Airways found that customers with problems were delighted to have a customer-relations person call them.