The Service Issue

Much of the advise given on this subject matter centres around grasping the right soft-skills such as watching your tonality, showing empathy, maintaining the right body language and many others.

Whilst these practical tips are very important in face-to-face communication, they are also fairly subjective and may yield different results and interpretations. As a result, companies and employees find it hard to measure the effectiveness of employing these techniques despite investing thousands of dollars to build up expertise in this area.

Dealing effectively with complaints doesn't necessarily involve spending thousands of dollars. However, it does involve greater effort and synergy within the company rather than leaving it all to the service staff. Just like a CEO needs outstanding executives to deliver that great business idea, great service requires teamwork within the company.

Service staff play a very important role in representing the company. Yet, there is often a communication and information gap between the service unit and the business units. This results in a lack of product information and necessary support, especially in addressing specific complaints from customers. Customers themselves may also be expecting this information gap and service staff now have the additional hurdle to manage a customer's expectation of their competency in handling the complaint.

Here are some simple changes that you can make within your company to deal with complaints more effectively:

1) Designate representatives from each Business Unit to support your service staff

This helps your Business Units to be more service-oriented and enable new product offerings to better focus on customer needs. Train your Business Units on customer service and don't be afraid to allow customers to speak directly to the Business Units for specific product information when necessary.

2) Conduct regular communication sessions between the Business Units and the service staff

This regular feedback channel provides a platform for the service staff to better understand the company's products and allows the Business Units to understand the real customer needs in order to improve or come up with better products.

3) Share performance indicators

In order to cultivate a customer-oriented approach in your company, it is necessary to have the appropriate motivators for all employees to work towards a common goal. This is especially important when different units deal with your customers directly. Share business profits with your service staff since they provide the necessary after-sales support to delight your customers. Tag service standards, such as customer satisfaction indices, to your Business Units since they create new product offerings and service your customers.

Remember, a customer complaints because he or she wants a particular matter to be resolved. Hence, while it is important to engage your customer professionally, it is equally critical that highlighted issues are resolved in order for your service to be effective.