One of the most effective tools used by companies to differentiate themselves from their competition and develop sustainable competitive advantage is customer service.
Do you remember the 4P, product, price, place and promotion? Surely, well, this article has to do with the first one, with the product. It sounds strange that the customer service strategy is linked to the product but it is, and very directly.
The customer service strategy is part of a whole that is the product, there are some products that are tangible, such as salt, that do not require to be accompanied by any service, but there are others that do require it, such as household appliances or banking services, let's focus on them.
When developing a customer service strategy, three basic decisions must be faced: what services will be offered, what level of service should be offered and what is the best way to offer services? Let's look at them in more detail:
1. WHAT SERVICES WILL BE OFFERED
To determine which services are the ones that the client demands, periodic surveys must be carried out to identify the possible services to be offered, and the importance that the consumer gives to each one must be established.
Likewise, we must be aware that although our services are of excellent quality, if they are the same and at the same level as those of the competition, we will never create a competitive advantage, therefore, when applying surveys aimed at improving services, we must try to Compare ourselves with our closest competitors, so we will detect real opportunities to get ahead and be the best.
2. WHAT LEVEL OF SERVICE SHOULD BE OFFERED
You already know what services customers require, now you have to detect the quantity and quality they want, to do so, you can use several elements, including:
Comparison shopping, regular consumer surveys, suggestion boxes, 800 numbers, and complaint and grievance systems.
The last two elements are extremely useful, since they maximize the opportunity to know the levels of satisfaction and what is going wrong.
3. WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO OFFER THE SERVICES
You must decide on the price and supply of the service. For example, any PC manufacturer has three price options for the repair and maintenance service of its equipment, it can offer a free service for a year or a certain period of time, it could sell maintenance apart from the equipment as an additional service or it could not offer any such service; Regarding the supply, it could have its own technical personnel for maintenance and repairs and locate it in each of its authorized distribution points, it could agree with its distributors so that they provide the service or let external firms provide it.
In addition to decisions on the aforementioned aspects, a comprehensive customer service strategy must involve all members of the organization and have a strong staff selection component that allows working with people who like to provide excellent service and don't feel subservient.
Another key element within this strategy is the continuous training of all personnel, with an emphasis on those who deal directly with the client. These people, called «frontline», are those who need further training, it is up to them whether the client returns or not..
A last element, to develop successful customer service strategies, is the internal customer treatment, that is, the treatment of the bosses to their subordinates, if they are not treated in the best way, how can you expect them to treat well our clients? Bosses should treat their subordinates as they would like them to treat clients.
A reminder: "the customer is always right"
