Implement Customer Service Strategies Content Guide

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Implement customer service strategies: Content guide

Contents

Implement customer service strategies: Content guide 1

Overview 2

Key terms 2

Tell staff about the service strategy 4

New staff induction programs 5

Training 5

Coaching 8

Modelling and leader behaviour 9

Resources for service success 10

Allocating resources 11

Resource planning chart 13

Resource capability matrix 14

Customer service problem solving 15

Examples of service problems 15

How to deal with complaints 16

The problem-solving and decision-making process 18

More resources 19

Sample answers to ‘My workplace’ questions 20

Overview

Developing customer service strategies that meet our customers’ needs is important. But we must also consider how these strategies can be implemented to ensure the delivery of quality products and services that satisfy both internal and external customers. We can achieve this by using available resources to maximise opportunities, and developing appropriate procedures to resolve customers’ objections and complaints.

We’ll discuss a number of skills and approaches that you can use to manage the implementation process successfully.

Key terms

Coaching

Coaching involves training learners, and encouraging them throughout the learning process. Coaching is offered to individuals and teams with the aim of achieving superior performance or achieving a set goal.

Induction

Mentor

An experienced person who provides advice and support to a less experienced person.

Modelling

Setting a good example for the rest of the team to follow, as in being a good ‘role model’.

Motivation

The individual drive that causes us to behave in a certain way.

Pareto Principle

A small proportion of people/effort/time (20%) accounts for a large proportion of the results (80%). Also called the 80/20 rule.

Problem-solving

The process of identifying a problem, its causes, generating options, and choosing a solution. Also see decision-making.

Zone of tolerance

The latitude between a customer’s desired level of service and what they are prepared to accept as adequate.

Tell staff about the service strategy

There are various ways to promote service strategies and opportunities to individuals and groups in your organisation. The best methods depend on the nature and size of your organisation, the purpose of the strategy, and the resources available.

You may choose some of the following methods to communicate and promote your service strategy:

· newsletters and brochures

· posters

· email

· voicemail

· popup computer screen messages on the organisation’s intranet

· formal group presentations.

In a team environment, you may choose to make your communication more direct and personal by promoting your service strategy:

· in induction sessions for new staff,

· training programs, or

· in coaching sessions.

You may also use mentors to convey the service message. And, don’t forget the power of management behaviour in communicating to staff —be conscious of your own behaviour as a model of customer service.

Whatever method you use to promote the service strategy, remember some of the basics of effective communication:

· Use simple, direct language that the receivers of your communication can understand and relate to.

· Seek feedback to ensure you have been understood.

· Use empathy to help understand the possible effects on others of your communication.

· Consider timing. Identify specific times when your message will be most effective.

· Be positive. Your attitude, communicated by your words, will influence how people hear and accept the message.

· Think it through first, especially if the message is complicated.

· Listen. It helps to create empathy and avoid misunderstandings.

New staff induction programs

Organisations frequently go to great trouble to recruit and select staff. Then they simply expect the new employee to intuitively ‘know’ what is expected of them in the workplace and to perform accordingly.

An induction program is a formal process that introduces employees to the workplace and familiarises them with their jobs, team and the organisation. It gives new employees an understanding of their role in the organisation and the performance standards required in the new job.

The behaviour required of employees when dealing with customers, and the systems and processes used to ensure customer satisfaction differ from organisation to organisation. Informing new staff of the needs of the organisation’s customers — and the strategies to meet those needs — is one of the primary functions of a staff induction program in a customer-focused organisation.

My workplace

1. Think about the first day of your team members in their new jobs. What are the most important things they need to know about the organisation’s customers? What information is most crucial to their success in their jobs? From whom do they learn this information?

Answer:

Training

You may choose to communicate and promote your service strategy through training sessions with your staff. You may conduct these sessions yourself, or internal or external training experts may conduct them.

You’ll first need to determine the training needs. These should come from observation of employee performance, examination of performance records, or the outcomes of a formal appraisal program. If there is a gap between the actual performance and the performance required to ensure the success of the service strategy, then you may have a training need.

This step is essential to ensure the real issue has been identified and the nature of the training required determined. You can use the resource capability matrix described later in the learning pack to help you analyse the training needs of your people.

Then, you’ll need to prepare a training session plan. A session plan is a detailed overview of all that you will be covering in your training session.

Your training session plan should include such things as:

· the training outcomes

· where the training will take place

· key areas to be covered

· the training methods

· resources you will use

· assessment criteria (What will staff be required to know or do after training?).

A well-planned training session will:

· help you stay focused on the training objectives

· outline the sequence and priorities of the skills and knowledge you need to cover

· provide a record of the training session

· be able to be used again or modified if necessary.

Here is an example of a plan for a training session on managing customer complaints for new administrative assistants in a manufacturing company.

Sample training session plan

SAMPLE TRAINING SESSION PLAN
Organisation: / JBC Manufacturing
Department: / Human Resources
Date: / 28th October
Trainer: / Jack Pickle
Participant/s: / 5 new recruits — administration
Location of training: / Training room 3rd floor
Training objectives: By the end of the training session participants will be able to manage customer complaints effectively in their work area.
Introduction: We will cover reasons for customer complaints, benefits of effective complaint handling skills to manage complaints and emotions.
Assessment:
Participants will:
· determine reasons for customer complaints
· identify benefits of complaint management
· handle complaints
· manage emotions.
Main points / Training methods
Why customers complain / Group discussion
The benefits of effective complaint management / Group discussion, brainstorming
Complaint management procedures / Overhead transparencies, practice
Managing emotions / Question and answer, role play
Conclusion: Areas covered, feedback about performance, any future plans
Resources/training aids: Whiteboard, overhead projector, handouts

My workplace

2. Develop a training session plan for a customer service skill you’d like your staff to learn or improve. You can use the template below and model your answer on the worked example above.

Table: Training session plan

TRAINING SESSION PLAN
Organisation:
Department:
Date:
Trainer:
Participant/s:
Location of training:
Training objectives:
Introduction:
Assessment:
Main points / Training methods
Conclusion:
Resources/training aids:

Further reading

For some tips on delivering training and measuring its effectiveness refer to Cole, K (2001) Supervision. The theory and practice of first-line management 2nd Edition Prentice Hall: Sydney, pp 511–518.

If you are not conducting the training yourself, you can demonstrate support for the training of your staff by others by:

· creating opportunities and allocating time for participants to practise new skills

· showing interest and enthusiasm in their learning

· speaking positively about the training

· encouraging attendance, eg dropping in to the course yourself for a short visit to see what’s happening

· asking questions about what they are learning

· looking for development of their skills: ‘Catch them doing things right!’

Coaching

Coaching is another way to tell your team members about service strategies and the skills they need to satisfy customers. Coaching involves guiding team members and giving feedback to help them to improve their knowledge and skills.

Coaching situations fall into two main categories:

· Coaching for success — this is proactive. When a team member faces a new or challenging situation, you can offer guidance to help them to work through it successfully. Coaching in advance increases the chances that the person will effectively apply the new skills and knowledge to the situation.

· Coaching for improvement — coaching for improvement is reactive. It helps people improve performance. The purpose of the coaching for improvement discussion is to review performance, find out causes of mistakes or unattained objectives, and give feedback regarding opportunities for improvement. It's also a chance for you to gain (or regain) commitment to service excellence.

Coaching will also help your team members to discover the best way to perform their work responsibilities. As a coach, your short-term goal is to help them accomplish a task or solve a problem. The long-term goal is to develop people who can think through similar issues on their own and so become more self-reliant.

Modelling and leader behaviour

In books about management, much is mentioned about the importance of frontline leaders modelling desired behaviour. We could say that the three most important keys to effective leadership are:

· lead by example

· lead by example, and

· lead by example!

This means that your team members are much more likely to behave in a certain way if they see you behaving in that way — they will copy or model what you say and do. If you pay a lot of attention to the cleanliness of your work area by, for example, picking up papers and wiping work benches, your staff will be more likely to maintain a clean and tidy work area.

Modelling can also work in a negative sense. For example, if you arrive to work untidy and tired, then your staff are more likely to come to work looking this way too.

Resources for service success

The ultimate aim of providing good customer service is to increase profit, but it also incurs certain costs. It is important to ensure that the return from providing the best customer service exceeds the costs involved. This requires knowing, in advance, the costs associated with any change and whether the expense will improve the service and thus provide additional benefits.

In other words, we need to budget for the implementation of customer service strategies and any resources that may be needed. These costs can then be compared with the additional profit or savings the strategy is expected to produce.

Having developed a budgeting process for income and expenditure, it is important that the information in your budget can be compared with actual income and cost figures contained within your organisation’s recording system. In this way, you can monitor whether the anticipated results are being achieved. This may involve some changes to the organisation’s accounting and/or financial reporting process, as budgeted and actual figures should be easily compared. That way, you can ensure that the desired results are being achieved. You will also be able to take corrective action where variances occur.

For a more detailed analysis of the profit/cost relationship in customer service, refer to Martin, D (1998), One stop customer care. Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA) Publishing and Prentice Hall Europe: United Kingdom, pp 87–91.

Here are some examples of resources you may need to budget for:

· staff hours spent in consultation

· your hours spent in consultation

· extra staff required for implementation

· extra hours required for implementation

· staff training

· stationery

· uniforms (Will the strategy require an image change?)

· travel

· technology (Does the strategy need new computer programs or other technology?)

· printed matter (Do you need to produce brochures or handouts?)

· consultants

· market research

· other resources?

Allocating resources

No organisation has limitless resources. Managers need to understand how best to use the resources they have to bring about the most beneficial results.

You can use the Pareto principle to make sure that your resources are channelled in the most productive way. Vilfredo Pareto was a nineteenth century Italian economist and sociologist. He came up with the Pareto principle, now known as the 80:20 ratio. Simply put, it says that 80% of an organisation’s revenue comes from 20% of its customers.

This also means that 20% of your results will absorb 80% of your effort. This ratio has powerful implications for every area of your organisation and the key is in understanding which customers fall into the top 20% and which of your customer service personnel put in the 80% effort.