Do you really deserve to be an entrepreneur? Do you have an A* service mindset?

Just ask yourself once! Are you devoted to provide your customers the best possible service? Alright! Let’s find out how dedicated you are towards your customers and how can you improve the service management.

The attitude you have and the culture you follow in your company defines your relationship with the customers. Fill your mind with constructive thinking. Approach your world of service with commitment and compassion.

 Following are some vital points that will help you build that A* service mindset in your company and develop character traits to become a great leader/entrepreneur.

• You need to have that element of Generosity in you. Try and give customers the best of your product. Don’t hesitate to go an extra mile and try to do the job before the general timeline if urgent. Work in the after-hours to help them. Be a part of their happiness, wish them on special occasions and congratulate them on their purchases. Would you love if one of your customers walks up to you and says “I got more than I expected”. Isn’t it the best feedback and a sheer delight to your ears? It is indeed!   

One of the best examples is “The Baker’s Dozen”. Contrary to its name it always delivers 13 pieces. Isn’t it something unexpected?

• Try to build an atmosphere where your employees are regularly educated about the importance of customers in your business. Organize regular sessions, workshops, presentations and group discussions. Being a leader it is your duty to ensure proper employee engagement. Keep organizing the activities that create bonding between them to ensure that employees are committed to their organisation's goals and values, motivated to contribute to organisational success, and are able at the same time to enhance their own sense of well-being. Accept the feedback your customers give and share it with your team. Ask for advices and suggestions. That will not just boost their morale but will also help them handle customers effectively. And the efficiently they’ll deal with difficult situations; more trust your customers gain on you.

“A good company is known by the people it keeps”. . . .

• Take ownership of the services you provide and the problems that your customers face due to your product. Never play the blame game. Accept if it’s your fault and rather than subduing the fact remain open to feedback. Sympathize accordingly. The customer is the best teacher. Ask them “What can I do to make your day better?”, “How shall I improve?” You’re not expected to know all the answers but at least you can try to get it done by the relevant people. 

I believe we’ll would have gone through it. You’re angry, you’ve been on hold for long, someone answers and then you get to hear that same old story. “We apologize but that’s not our fault, it was the other team who did it! Why the hell would you be worried which department did it. You only know the company as whole”

• You need to see the world through the customer’s eyes. The customers will not understand your internal procedure and challenges. They have their own needs, preferences and priorities. Being the service provider it’s your responsibility to understand their point of view. Although it is really hard for you to imagine life from someone else’s point of view but this what entrepreneurs with an A* service mindset do.

“British Airways took an amazing initiative of installing video booths at the airports. The passengers could record their compliments and complaints. Now the management could see their service from the customer’s point of view”.

There are many more things which a leader needs to understand and implement for creating an A* service mindset for his team and himself.

The customer king specializes in this domain and helps you develop that mindset for you and your employees. We know how hard it can be for startups especially, to focus on these important things.  

  

We are just a click away! Contact us before someone else takes your customers away!

Read More

An important thing that many companies miss?

How easy life would have been if you got to know about no exams or no results after every year? You’d pass merely by attending the class. No report card, no parent teacher conference and no area of opportunities shared or feedback given to you. Won’t you feel like walking on a dark endless road with nothing around?

Many of us would know by now what I am talking about. Yes, it’s really important for you to capture the feedback for the services you’re providing to your customers. Every customer has a voice which demands to be heard. Every thought and feedback must be acknowledged and analyzed in order to give a better customer experience.

Today is the world of social media. It is way more easy for a customer to appreciate or depreciate a company’s image. A mere post or rumor can go viral and destroy the customer base which took years to build up and also a great amount of investment.

How to tackle this? Read below. . . . 

1-      Contact Methods- Not all the companies can afford contact centers, hence it is mandatory for them to design effective touchpoints where the interaction can be easily done. Live chats, email support, forums and contact forms are some common examples which should be regularly updated and the customer’s are replied as fast as possible.

   

2-      Vigilant mechanism for escalations- Every company must have a team depending upon its size which is dedicated only towards customer feedback and escalations.  They should be able to provide satisfactory and speedy resolutions. As more the customer waits, faster their faith withers away.  

3-      Surveys- A survey must be well designed and should have precise questions. In simple words it’s a report card for the services and a customer has a full right to mark you down or rate you 10/10. NPS and CSAT forms are two examples of it.

Facebook’s CEO Mr. Mark Zuckerberg has presented the best example of customer interaction. By commenting and replying to his website users on his posts, he is able to deliver that satisfaction that someone is listening to them 

All the data and information collected from the above mentioned ways are a great source to learn, improvise and flourish.  As said by Mr. Bill Gates, “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning”. Your focus shouldn’t just be on resolving the problem that a customer faced but should rather be on not letting it happen again. 

So devise a way your customers feel easy to contact you. Hear them, analyze their problems and feedback and treat them accordingly. Because a happy customer is the best Business strategy!

Read More

How you define customer service?

“There is only one boss, and whether one shines shoes for a living or heads up the biggest corporation in the world, the boss remains the same. It is the customer!”-Sam M. Walton, CEO Wal-Mart 

Behind the success of any business in the world is the seriousness of its leaders towards their customers. They know how important a customer is to their operations and how adversely it can impact their setup if not treated properly. Not all companies which start, make it large as Wal-Mart or Apple. It all depends upon the way you see your customers. Who they are to you and are you ready to go an extra mile to provide them one good experience. 

How you define customer service shapes your relationship with the customers. Mere exchange of products for monies is not customer service. Doing something over it that gives them satisfaction is all that they need. As a happy and satisfied customer will bring more business than any well designed marketing strategy.


It’s a customer who pays everyone’s salary, decides a company’s fate or can fire anyone just by spending his money somewhere else. Customers need satisfaction in return to the money they have paid. Someone to listen to them, hold their hand and take them through the process. A company must understand what is motivating their customers to buy their product and focus on their needs, research on their habits and expectations. 

Let’s study few basic needs of every customer:

1)      Politeness : Being the most basic it needs utmost care. The representatives of any company need to be very polite while addressing their customers. People from hospitality and aviation industry would understand this better.  
2)      Acknowledgement : Customers should feel their needs are being acknowledged. Their voice is being heard and attention is being given to what they asked for.
3)      Apology : Understanding human nature, An apology if served right can transform an angry customer into a sweet angel and do the service recovery in just few seconds. 
4)      Empathy : A proper response is much needed after hearing to the customer. A customer must feel that you appreciate the circumstances and would have felt the same if you were at their place.
5)      Sympathy: Though close to empathy yet different. Telling a customer how sorry you are for their loss or feeling glad on their achievements.   
  
6)      Information : A customer will always love to know about the products and services you offer, if you’re able to serve them all this information without wasting much of their time.

Here’s a small video that shows a customer service representative attending to all the needs of the customer and turning him to be a happy customer.

Read More

The Theory of Unexpected

What actually does the term “business” mean? 
An organization or economic system where goods and services are exchanged for one another or for money. This is one of the most retrospective definitions of the term business. However what we see today is the much more advanced world. Business is not just selling goods and yielding profits. It has become more dynamic.

Looking back at the old days. The options were less. A single company had the monopoly in the market and we were forced to buy that product no matter how pathetic it was. Now the time has changed. We have 263 registered television and 150 telephone or mobile phone manufacturers in the world. Out of which you hardly remember 5 or 10. How many of you reading this would not want an Iphone or maybe A Sony or Samsung LED mounted on your wall.

They all provide the same facility with a little difference but still only few manage to be on our wishlist. That one thing that plays an important role in their success is the impeccable customer service that they provide to their customers. They play the game of unexpected.

Imagine you being a customer ordered a phone on Christmas or Diwali. You open the box and see a handwritten note wishing you the occasion. Isn’t it something you never expected? That one note will at least give you a smile while you open the box and look for the product and next time you’d prefer shopping there.

Delivering what you were supposed to isn’t great business. It may be good but do you think good is just sufficient? You gave them what they paid for and the story ends there. The chances of that person doing business with you again are uncertain unless you’re the only provider in the market or the product you deliver is brilliant enough to overrule the other facts.

One of the best customer service stories are below:

“Sainsbury’s, a grocery store in the United Kingdom, received a letter from a three-year-old girl named Lily. “Why is tiger bread called tiger bread?” she asked, referring to one of their bakery items. “It should be called giraffe bread.” As the pattern on the bread does resemble a giraffe more than a tiger. To everyone’s surprise, Chris King, a customer service manager at the chain, responded. “I think renaming tiger bread giraffe bread is a brilliant idea – it looks much more like the blotches on a giraffe than the stripes on a tiger, doesn’t it? It is called tiger bread because the first baker who made it a long time ago thought it looked stripy like a tiger. Maybe they were a bit silly.” He enclosed a gift card, and the bread was renamed.

Can you now imagine the level of satisfaction in her or her parent’s mind after seeing the response and the feeling of being special that she would have got.


And why it happened? Because that was way too Unexpected.  

Read More

The Melting Domestic Customer Service Industry.

Today India is the most favored market for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies in the world and caters to 60% of the need. The BPO/KPO industry employs a workforce of 1.98 million directly and 7.5 million indirectly. The figures are dynamic and constantly growing. Our talented low cost labor and need to grow has made it easier for the bigger firms to establish their contact centers here.



      The reason of such growth is the fine quality of customer services provided by our people to their customers resulting in enhanced business and hence revenue. Our capability to speak fluent English and master skills in customer handling has captured the interest of many countries thus making it a hotspot. Many of us reading this article would be working in the BPO sector and will understand the importance of standards and protocols reinforced in our respective lines of business.


    Although famous as per the definition BPO is outsourcing of non-core activities to a third party. But are we sure if it's really non-core?Being on the front line and being the first point of contact of the customer , a customer service representative plays an imminent role in creating the company's true picture.


Companies based in countries like United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand force much on customer eccentricity and maintain optimum levels of standards and practices to ensure customer satisfaction. They treat customers like a King, may not literally but ethically.


In International contact centers based in India, From opening of a call, to proper acknowledgement, resolution providing till the proper closing, each and every step is under proper surveillance. The executives are taken through a proper training program and their skills are furbished before they are unleashed to handle the customers.

So we all know how wonderful we make a customer's experience which is reflected by the CSAT scores and the NPS surveys that they fill for us.

But do we remember any such jaw dropping or memorable experience where we have called a domestic company's contact center and proper hold procedure, language comprehension and systematic resolution sharing was followed in a proper and professional manner?


I guess for many of us the answer will be NO!

This is not because the manpower is lacking or they don't have it in them. This is because the companies don't give much importance to proper call structures and customer satisfaction levels. But we still are forced to use such brands because we don't have much alternatives.  Taking an example of United Kingdom where the electricity and gas is supplied by six big providers. A person is free to choose among them and can switch if not happy with the services. We still await that era of Customer choice.

And you know who provides this customer service facility to them? We INDIANS!


But Why can't we ensure same level of customer satisfaction in our domestic market in spite of being the biggest player of the industry. I understand the country is developing and new startups are happening. Indian companies are making big on the board but they still need to add the important ingredient of efficient Customer service leading to more customer satisfaction and more business growth.

  

Read More