Customer is king

Having discussed the essentials of client servicing, I though it would be a good idea to take the discussion forward and discuss the importance of client servicing. Considering a hypothetical situation of all things being equal, why is that some organizations flourish while others perish. Numerous researches have shown time and again that customer service is of paramount importance, and should be integral to any business. Business innovation, concepts, strategies and trends are susceptible to fluctuation, but the one thing that always has and will always be constant is customer service. An organization working toward its commitment to meet and exceed customer expectations would emerge as a clear winner.

The visionaries place customers at the core of their organization's business process. Customer service is critical for success in any business. If a business is to outperform competition, it will have to attract and retain customers. It is proven that the greatest profits result from customer retention, loyalty and repurchase rather than new customer acquisition.

Customers are very sensitive about differences in functionals and emotional benefits attached to a product or service. A recent survey showed that 70% of the customers walked out of business alliance, not because of price or quality issues, but because they were not content with the human side of doing business with that vendor. A fact finding attempt at your end would definitely substantiate the findings of the survey.

No organization, whether big or small, is impervious to the effects of poor customer service. The real danger lies in it becoming a habit rather than a rare instance. Competition will be quick to sniff your weakness, improve upon and gain business at your expense. Tom Peters, a renowned author, in his book 'In the Pursuit of Wow' , accentuates the need for continuous use of heuristic techniques to step out and stand out.

Customer service, usually considered a support function, has emerged as a important marketing tool. It has become as much a marketing tool as it is a management approach. Superior quality customer service motivates customers to tell others about you, generating referral sales. This customer sales force is the least expensive way of acquiring new customers.

Organization's constantly tout the importance of imparting high quality customer service, and everyone seems to agree. There is an abundance of books and articles written on this topic so much so that it is has become common knowledge that quality customer service is the door that leads to success.

If customer service is such an extensively read and talked about topic, why is it that you find so many examples of poor customer service? The answer to this questions still eludes me. I fail to understand why organization fizzle to deliver good service. By doing so they not only lose business, but give a bad reputation to themselves. A dissatisfied customer is more likely to tell 10 others of his bad experience than a satisfied customer.

If there is still an iota of doubt left as to the importance of providing good customer services, turn your attention to internet, a tool prevalently used by disgruntled customers to share their less than favorable customer service experience.

I hope this article provides sufficient reasons to necessitate the practice of providing world class customer service. I am sure you can think of many more reasons. So use all of them to justify your expenditure in training staff to provide quality service. Thomas Watson, founder of IBM, once said “ If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work”, a quote that summarizes client servicing in a nutshell.