In recent years, the need to strengthen the processes related to Customer Service is one of the main challenges for organizations that seek to be competitive and that, through the strengthening of these processes, seek to attract and / or keep customers satisfied.
It is difficult to try to understand at what point the meaning of Customer Service was lost, as a fundamental part of the process of acquiring products and / or services, or as an integral part of all processes related to the pre or post acquisition of products and / or services. or services.
Customer Service is offered today as "Value Added"; when in reality for the Client it has always been something that must be implicit, it is the minimum that she expects to receive when she acquires the products and / or services; We could hardly think that a client decides to purchase the products and / or services, through poor attention from all those who intervene in the processes and who are obliged to serve them properly.
Possibly the time when the meaning of Customer Service was lost; is closely related to the loss of values that our societies have suffered in recent years, putting any commercial objective before it, with commercial and, of course, financial justifications, have forgotten the satisfaction of customer needs, as a fundamental part of the principles businesses that strengthen ethics and morals.
For some companies, investing in education and training through Programs to strengthen Customer Service processes is a "Strategy"; which could be considered a lousy interpretation of the basic definitions of Strategy and Customer Service.
Strategy does not mean "Do the operational right"; therefore it does not mean "Comply with what is offered to the Clients" and even more critical, it does not mean "Do what we have to do"; On the other hand; Customer Service cannot be considered an "Added Value" when it is our obligation to "Comply with what was offered to customers or do what we have to do"
Under this reasoning; Customer Service can be considered a Strategy, only when it meets beyond the customer's expectations, not when it meets the standards defined by a mercantile society and with little ethical or moral value, in relation to what we offer. to customers and what we deliver to them, ironically these standards change when the contract is already signed or when the invoice is already canceled.
The importance of strengthening Customer Service is a need that goes beyond just playing Strategy; It is a need that seeks Customer Satisfaction, through "Execution" and that without forcing us to be strategic can help us regain the credibility of our organizations, our products and / or services, or our brands, and position ourselves in the minds of our customers.
Developing a Customer Service Strengthening Program is much more than training and empowering employees, through seminars or workshops that exemplify what the customer feels or what they think when they are served well or when they are poorly served. Trying to instill “Empathy” is not necessarily the best way for us to live the experience and to change our behavior to understand the needs of customers when they purchase our products and / or services.
Of course empathy is very useful; "When it is genuine"; Only when it is genuine do you get the motivation to act in a different way. It cannot be instilled; In reality, it is an indicator of the emotional intelligence that employees must know how to handle in their job; But it is one of those competencies intrinsic to people, whose job description includes them as basic, in other words, they are not questionable, nor negotiable, nor should time be given to learn to learn them and then to learn to apply them, because it will be very late.
This type of Competences are those that collaborators must already have developed before being hired, they are part of the Job Profile; Understanding by Job Profile: The knowledge, experiences and skills that candidates "must" possess at least to be efficient in the Job Description described in the Job Description. For its part, the Job Description details the functions, tasks and / or activities that must be carried out in the job by the holder of the same.
The task can be as simple or as complex, depending on the alignment between the Job Descriptions and the corresponding Job Profiles; which could possibly already be called Strategy.
The key is the Personnel Selection process, which includes at least the aforementioned alignment; and of course knowing "Choose"; If the Personnel Selection process includes as a fundamental axis, getting to understand by the Candidates, the importance of Customer Service, it will be possible to advance a lot on the subject and it will not be necessary to train and train them after hiring, perhaps it will be It is necessary to strengthen the issue, through the design, implementation and development of a Customer Service Program, which helps to anticipate and anticipate creating solutions to meet the needs of Customers, based on trends and standards that performance indicators indicate us, through permanent monitoring of them.
As we can see, there are two strategic elements that can help us understand Clients' Needs, before formulating our need to Train or Train by simple perception.
The first strategic element is the Selection of Personnel, based on Job Profiles that conform to the Job Descriptions, where attitudinal and not only aptitude issues are evaluated, but that are evaluated under technical premises and not only perceptions or particular criteria of the interviewers.
From a private perspective, it is fair to admit that not all of us find it easy or like to understand and satisfy the needs of others; Most human beings seek first to satisfy our own needs.
In the same way, from the business perspective, not all of us are interested in satisfying the needs of customers, not all of us are suitable for it; That is why part of the strategic work of the Human Talent Manager (previously called Human Resources), must be "Knowing Identify" who or who are suitable for this issue.
While it is true, that the Strengthening of Customer Service; It must be a Cultural issue, it cannot be an obligatory issue; therefore it is important that all those who are part of an organization (they are part of an Organizational Culture) understand the need for the subject; But it is more important that the holders of the Job Positions that have a direct relationship with the Clients are convinced of this and that part of their profile of the position is that competence, only in this way is the genuine commitment to satisfy the needs of the clients.
The second strategic element is the design, implementation and development of performance indicators that allow monitoring and measuring customer satisfaction, before, during and after the process of purchasing products and / or services.
The design of performance indicators has a procedural approach; It is based on the elementary principles of time and motion studies, as well as practices related to quality assurance, efficiency and productivity.
The implementation and development of these performance indicators, although it is an operational issue, also constitutes a cultural issue, whose conviction and commitment by all members of the organization, to ensure compliance and use them referentially within the improvement practice continuous, it is essential and decisive for any Organizational Development program.
Only with these two strategic elements (as a minimum), we can develop a Customer Service Strengthening Program, which can guarantee different results.
It is worth noting that both strategic elements must be designed in a comprehensive manner, they are not exclusive, they are complementary and decisive for the Satisfaction of customer needs; They constitute an action of synergy between people and processes, which translates into "Execution"
The real challenge in Customer Service Strengthening Programs is not to turn them into Strategies and complicate them with Plans that make their understanding and execution difficult; The real challenge is getting the "Execution" through the right people and the right processes; generating a Service Culture based on genuine feelings and values that motivate genuine emotions, in an organizational environment that generates trust inside (collaborators) and outside (clients) of the company.
