How to improve the customer experience in your business

We know customer service impacts your bottom line: 94% of consumers in South Africa agree that a company’s service is as important as its products (Salesforce)
A recent survey found that nearly 6 in 10 customers (59%) are more likely to recommend a brand to friends due to positive customer service. (Gladly)
Over 90% of businesses believe that enhancing customer experience will improve their bottom line. (NTT)
At least 80% of customers have switched brands because of poor customer service experience. (Qualtrics)
96% of customers say a positive support experience makes them more likely to make a repeat purchase which directly impact company profitability (Salesforce)

OUR APPROACH TO STRENGTHENING YOUR CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

1. EXPLORE and determine the gap between your current customer service and how you envision it to be
2. EQUIP all employees to foster excellent customer service
3. ENTRENCH a customer orientated culture of service excellence through continuous evaluation, feedback and refresher training.

1.  EXPLORE your current Customer Service status

To explore the current status of your customer experience we use the RATER model, a valid and reliable tool, derived from SERVQUAL. The model measures customer expectations using five (5) constructs.

1. RELIABILITY: The delivery of the agreed service as promised by you. The service you offer has to be reliable and this can be achieved when you deliver service consistently as agreed and correct the first time.
2. ASSURANCE: Deals with trust and credibility. Do your employees demonstrate knowledge and expertise? Do customers trust what your employees say?
3. TANGIBILITY: The appearance of the building (is it well maintained), the look and feel of the website, the neatness of the office and staff, and the condition of your equipment, etc. Your customers might not always consciously notice this but it does impact their customer experience.
4. EMPATHY: Refers to the employee’s ability to listen carefully to the needs of the customer. Understand their frame of reference and deal with conflict appropriately.
5. RESPONSIVENESS: Your employee’s ability and willingness to offer timely and quality service to the customer. Being able to respond to your customer effectively and to be available to assist the customer when they need you. To gain insight into the current status of your customer experience we conduct a telephonic survey and the results are captured in the cutting-edge IT platform of Mindset Management. You will receive access to an advanced analytic dashboard that will allow you to filter, compare and analyse customer feedback and survey results across business units, regions, and demographics

2.  EQUIP your Employees

Our Customer Excellence Training programme can be customised to align with your customer value proposition. This experiential learning programme is offered to all employees and is guided by the customer service survey results. This will create a common understanding and will strengthen their knowledge and skills to consistently render a service that will nurture an exceptional customer experience.

INTRODUCTION Understanding why excellent customer service is important for your company and what the link is with your customer value proposition. Modules: RELIABILITY: Learn and practice the behaviour associated with building a trust relationship with your customer.

ASSURANCE: Learn and practice the behaviour associated with assuring the customer that your company can meet their needs and expectations.

TANGIBILITY: Create an understanding of the importance of the appearance of the business and its employees and how it consciously and unconsciously impacts the customer’s perceptions.

EMPATHY: Create an understanding of empathy and how that affects the experience customers have when doing business with your company. Learn and practice the behaviour associated with empathy.

RESPONSIVENESS: Learn and practice the behaviour and attitude that will ensure an excellent experience for the customer.

3. ENTRENCH Customer Service Excellence

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a Habit” - Aristotle-

As Aristotle once said, we believe that repeating behaviour becomes an entrenched habit. We believe that a once-off workshop about Customer Service Excellence cannot transform the behaviour of employees and grow a culture of “Customer Excellence”. Our third step in strengthening customer service therefore focuses on the ongoing review of behaviour, providing feedback to enhance what has been learned, and facilitating short refresher workshops to strengthen the behaviours that need further development. The review and feedback are done through regular mystery shopping visits and mystery calling telephonic contacts with the business unit through which the behaviour linked to the five (5) constructs are evaluated. Feedback is provided to enhance repeated learning and strengthen customer service.

STEP 1: The mystery shopping and mystery calling are done by experienced consultants according to set questions that are customised according to the client’s needs. The visits and calls can be done quarterly [4 times a year] or 6-monthly [twice a year].

STEP 2: The outcome of the visits and calls are captured on a customised electronic system that provides graphs, trend reports, and comparisons. An overall term report is provided that gives an overall view of all the business units and shows how the business units compare with each other. This also highlights trends.

STEP 3: The short refresher workshops are done through experiential learning in small groups at the different business units and focus is placed on the behaviours that still need strengthening.