KEY FOUR
Consistency is key.
Consider the following scenario. A customer is standing in line at a retail store. The line is very long, and the checker seems to be taking forever. The customer feels like complaining, and he wastes no time in doing so. Via social networking over his mobile phone, his closest friends, and countless others, are literally at his fingertips.
The combination of social media and mobile devices produces the perfect storm for frustrated customers, making customer service more critical than ever for companies large and small, across all industries. It has become imperative for brands and companies to listen constantly, and beyond their normal channels, to learn of any customer service issues. Those who don't will quickly fall behind.
At the same time, customer service needs an extreme makeover. Service personnel too often are treated as second-class citizens inside their own companies. So is it any surprise when they treat customers the same way? Moreover, contact centers are regarded as cost centers, so in difficult times many of the budget cuts are made in these departments.
This shouldn't be the case! Customer service is the brand to most customers; the majority of customer-facing interactions take place in this arena. It's time for companies to stop viewing customer service as a “cost of doing business” and start viewing it as a key to ensuring strong ...
