Check list to improve the customer service


The following checklist will help you identify strengths and weaknesses and to improve the quality of service that your organization offers to its customers. It is clear that it costs five times more to conquer new customers than to retain existing ones. So do you need to keep your existing customers!

EXAMINE YOUR ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

  • You can be close to your customers if your corporate culture does not encourage such a relationship. Your employees must be trained to think of the customer first - those who are client-oriented steps may endanger the success of your organization by taking inadequate decisions, by their inability to respond effectively to changing situations, or by their negligence in the customer service; anything that does not always ensure the loyalty of your customers.
  • If your organization's culture does not encourage a customer-oriented approach, put in place a long-term program to change your corporate culture
  • Don't lose sight the fact that each section of your organization has clients. Staff in direct contact with external clients can provide efficient service without the internal support of colleagues of the entire chain. To encourage interdepartmental service that ensures an effective customer focus, the members of each Department will have to work in other departments for at least one to two weeks.
  • Customer orientation must penetrate all levels of the organization. Are policy makers and those who define the business strategy often in contact with customers? A period of attendance at the front could improve awareness.

IDENTIFY YOUR CUSTOMERS

  • Your customers are those who benefit from the results of your work. They can be internal to your organization (for example, your personal service has all employees as customers) or external (public, other enterprises, administration and public institutions)
  • In your identification of customers, well made a distinction between buyers and end-users. You will definitely need to place a database to list your customers by categories.

USE YOUR CLIENTS BY CATEGORY

Several factors influence the behavior of customers, for example when you sell to individuals, there are:

  • The kind - especially when the buyer or the user is the sole decision-maker
  • The age - certain categories of age are more likely to be targeted by some products than others.
  • Marital status - especially when it is associated with other factors such as the number of children and the available income
  • Owner of House - indicates specific needs and responsibilities that impact on purchasing habits.
  • Geography - urban customers differ from rural clients; There's also a cultural and economic differences between the regions.
  • The style of life - since each client has activities, interests and opinions which are linked.

When you sell to businesses, you will consider the following factors:

  • Turnover
  • The number of employees
  • The sector
  • The number of years of presence in the industry.
  • The solvency

These factors are even more useful when they are analyzed together - for example, age, home ownership, and the number of dependent children may indicate a certain level of income available to the client.

Choose a method to analyze your customers and know the basic features. For example, you can ask them individually, but there are other more effective approaches such as:

  • Research on the market
  • The Questionnaires
  • Group of users or focus group discussions
  • Customer audits
  • Surveys of behaviour.

Take advantage of every opportunity you have to meet business clients in their offices through programs of service to customer or membership in user groups, sector meetings or open houses, or partnerships resulting from the development of new products.

LOOKING FOR A UNDERSTANDING OF THE OPINIONS AND ATTITUDES OF YOUR CUSTOMERS.

Organizations that do not have an accurate picture of the needs of their clients come often to:

  • Make based and hazardous pronouncements about what customers think.
  • Often base their decisions on subjective evidence
  • Giving too much importance to the unusual complaints.

If you do not the effort to find out what customers think, you will be surprised when they go elsewhere. If you do not know why they go elsewhere, you cannot take the appropriate corrective measures.

In addition to factual information that you have on customers, also looking to know:

  • Why customers buy your product or use your service;
  • How they use it;
  • What they think of your product or service;
  • Why do they choose your offer and not those of competitors;
  • What is their experience of your product or service in terms of performance or service;

The attitudes and opinions are difficult to quantify, and several factors influence the decision to buy or to remain loyal to a particular brand. Customers can be influenced by what they think of the service - courtesy, promptness, etc. - and by the quality of the product. The analysis of these elements requires a thorough search and if you do not have adequate internal expertise you can use external studies firms.

Make sure that you take into account the feedback from your front staff that receives the first feedback from customers on their satisfaction or not. Put in place a system of feedback. The usual channels used by customer service can be used to collect the opinions of customers through a dialogue which has meaning for the client. These channels take into account charters, the promises of guarantees, the definition (and monitoring) indicators of performance, the agreement and the willingness to accept the sanctions in case of non-application, the refund in case of dissatisfaction.

USE YOUR RESEARCH DATA

Analyze the results of your search, interpret the data, and publish in the results. Use the results to find out at what level you need to take action to maintain your competitive advantage. Involve your staff in this process, all encourage everyone to "think the customer first.

Attention to the needs of clients is an ongoing process. Put in place a permanent research project, use methods of application suggestions to customers and the mechanisms of obtaining response or procedures that enable you to constantly monitor your market.

DO USE INTERNET TO INCREASE YOUR CUSTOMER ORIENTATION

Internet is more and more used by customers to choose products to buy, to specify the design, and make comments and suggestions about the products and services. Use - the wisely, because the Internet can enable an organization to be closer to its customers that it was in the past.

GIVE FEEDBACK TO YOUR CUSTOMERS

Let know to clients, their needs and their ideas interest you. This assumes the publication of a definition of your mission that takes into account your commitment to meet their needs, or the publication of the results of study, and details on new products or amendments made through research.

The feedback is not something you make once in passing. It is an ongoing process to inform your clients about the responses of your organization to their suggestions, new ideas and to encourage future dialogues.

Do's and Don'ts when you want to be closer to the customer...

Things to do:

  • Think how do to reward customers for sharing their opinions and suggestions with you.
  • Make sure that your organizational culture encourages your employees to think of the customer first;
  • Integrate your customer focus in all the activities of your company - it must be a functional trans and interdepartmental initiative.

Do not do

  • Make the preconceived opinions on what think customers without having conducted investigations.
  • Relying on data from a small number of customers.
  • React too quickly to furious complaints from some customers - first see if other clients feel the same.