Customer Service – At What Cost?

Or, at what point do you fire your customer?

This is not meant to be a provocative or even rhetorical question. It’s a question worth pondering for anyone that is in a customer facing role in an organization, or has the power to make decisions about how the company works with their customers, prioritizes them and assigns resources for them.

I run a marketing services company where the customer (pardon the cliché) really does come first. And second and third for the most part. We live by the principle that our reputation is paramount to our success, and that our customers determine how we are perceived, while helping us pay our rent of course. This translates into a philosophy across the team to do whatever it takes, go above and beyond to satisfy our customers’ requirements, albeit unreasonable sometimes.
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The Role of Customer Service

Every marketer wants customer loyalty, even brand evangelism, but it seems that one of the key factors in achieving these goals is providing quality customer service. According to the American Express Global Customer Service Barometer, consumers will spend 9% more than the average on companies with excellent customer service.

However, customer service isn’t just knowledgeable staff and employee professionalism. Customer service also means managing bad experiences well. According to this survey, it’s not enough to resolve a customer’s problem. 52% of consumers expect something in return for a flawed customer experience and over 70% of consumers want an apology of some form of reimbursement as compensation. However, if those problems are managed effectively, most customers will return even after a bad brand experience. So no matter how many changes the market has undergone, customer service is still key.