How to avoid customer service setbacks

Our Director of Account Management explains how customer service barriers can hinder business progress

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When growing and expanding any business, customer service is completely vital. It can be an overlooked area, however to develop your range of partners and clients, being able to deliver quality customer care time and time again is crucial.

What business factors can influence poor customer service?

  • Bureaucracy. No one wants to wade through tons of red tape just to perform a simple task. The more layers and people there are to go through, the longer a solution will take and the more frustrating it will be for everyone involved. That is why we have a sole Client Account Manager for each trust, so that all of our clients have a dedicated, single point of contact.
  • Non-caring culture. Staff must care about the clients and what they need, or they will under-deliver. It is important that customers are made to be the priority so an empowering and positive culture needs to be encouraged. Training is a great tool to boost this, as well as dishing out greater responsibility and accountability.
  • Poor accountability. Being able to place the blame for mistakes or lacklustre service elsewhere and avoid trouble is no way to provide the WOW service that clients expect. Systems need to have a tracking mechanism so that employee accountability can become the norm.
  • Insufficient systems. Slow and outdated computer systems that doesn’t track or display relevant and up to data properly will soon hold you up, and can make clients feel underappreciated if their history is not known immediately.
  • Customer value hasn’t been communicated. This is so important as if employees haven’t been shown the value that the clients bring to the organisation then they won’t want to go the extra mile. This understanding is everything.
  • Lack of incentive. Offering staff rewards is a great motivator and helps drive colleagues to give something more with their customer service.

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How can you avoid these factors?

1)      Build your team wisely

The individuals who deal with the clients must have a solid knowledge of the service they will be providing, as well as the business and its procedures. Being polite, friendly, patient and professional are all huge plus points and staff with excellent customer service will also be brilliant communicators, with great problem solving skills and the ability to emphasise with different situations.

2)      Train and empower your team

To create this solid understanding of business dealings, adequate training is essential, as the support team need to be fully engaged and finely tuned to address any and all client needs or questions.

3)      Put metrics in place

Being able to monitor the effectiveness of the current customer / client support that you have means that you can pinpoint and tailor your training regime better. You can quickly pick out who are the experts in their field and who are struggling to pick up the pace. Call quality programmes are useful for analysing customer service trends.

How to build great client relationships:

  • Your attitude matters, so check how you respond to others
  • Compliment others and be positive about their work
  • Know what questions to ask
  • Remember your new connections

[testimonial name=”Julie Smith” who=”Director of Account Management” imagelinks=”https://totalassist.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Julie-4-e1407848336160.jpeg” vertical=”no”]”With over 15 years experience in the medical recruitment industry, I am an empowering and ambitious hands on Director, heading up the Client Account Managers at Total Assist Group. I have a high focus on quality customer service and delivering results.”[/testimonial]

 

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