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Best Practices in Customer Service Part One. Great Customer Service, Customer Retention, and Growth
Many times we read about the importance of serving customers well, but poor service is still all too common. Why is this? This article by the co-editor of this book suggests that managers often do not relate excellent customer service to excellent business results. It also shows the fallacy of not understanding this and provides a model for demonstrating the inextricable connection between organizational success and customer satisfaction. Finally, it provides a context for all the articles that follow. E-mail, John Woods: jwoods@execpc.com Do you want your customers to be excited about what you have to offer? Do you want to create positive impressions consistently above the normal customer expectations? This article maps out three checkpoints along the road to "Wow!" service: establish a compelling reason for making customer service a primary goal, create a common service language and focus within your organization, and identify some of the potential barriers. Jerry Fritz is the Director of Sales and Customer Service Programs for the Management Institute in the School of Business at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 1996 he was named marketing educator of the year by Sales and Marketing Executives International. He's also a member of the National Association of Sales Professionals Education Institute Advisory Group "to help provide national standards defining sales professionals and a certification exam." E-mail: jlf@mi.bus.wisc.edu Is the customer service department a cost or a profit center? In this article, John Goodman dramatically demonstrates that it is, indeed, a profit center, one which can generate revenues many times greater than the cost of providing service. In addition, Goodman provides a methodology for measuring the profitability of a customer service department. John Goodman is the president of TARP (Technical Assistance Research Programs), a leading research and consulting organization specializing in customer service toll-free telephone systems and loyalty measurement systems. He has managed more than 600 customer service studies, including TARP's White House sponsored evaluation of complaint-handling practices in government and business. He has developed methodologies for integrating customer problem data with other types of market feedback to estimate the market implications of quality and service decisions. Goodman and TARP's clients include many companies in the Fortune 100 as well as numerous international firms. E-mail: jgoodman@tarp.com Web site: www.tarp.com This article highlights the crucial role of world-class service in building an organization's competitive advantage. As the author notes, "For organizations to survive and prosper, creating competitive advantage through customer loyalty is the strategic imperative." He shows how the effort to deliver world-class service begins with finding out what your customers want and expect from your company and he recommends some means for doing so. Eberhard E. Scheuing, Ph.D., C.P.M., A.P.P., is Professor of Marketing and the NAPM Professor of Purchasing and Supply Leadership at St. John's University in New York. Born and educated in Germany, he received his M.B.A. in management and his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Munich. The author of 26 books and more than 500 articles, Eb is the founder and president of the International Service Quality Association, co-chair of international service quality conferences, and a frequent seminar leader, conference speaker, and consultant. E-mail: ebscheuing@netstep.net Businesses too often tend to treat the customer as an angler treats a fish: once you've located it and hooked it, you put it away and forget about it, turning your attention to catching another. This article explores the concept of aftermarketing and describes the stages of service and meeting the expectations of customers after you've sold them something. Each stage requires that the company deal with the customer in different ways. And if you do this well, you're far more likely to retain those customers. Terry G. Vavra, Ph.D., is president of Marketing Metrics, Inc. in Paramus, New Jersey, a firm specializing in customer retention programs and strategic marketing planning. He is author of two books related to customer care: Aftermarketing: How to Keep Customers for Life Through Relationship Marketing (Irwin Professional Publishers, 1992 and 1995) and Improving Your Measurement of Customer Satisfaction (American Society for Quality, 1997). Terry is also Associate Professor of Marketing in the Lubin School of Business, Pace University (White Plains, New York), where he teaches courses in Strategic Marketing, Consumer Behavior, and Financial Services Marketing. E-mail: tvavra@marketingmetrics.com Web site: http://www.marketingmetrics.com Douglas R. Pruden is Senior Vice President, Director of Retention Practices, at Marketing Metrics, Inc., Paramus, New Jersey. He has a multi-faceted background in direct marketing, database marketing, and public relations. Prior to joining Marketing Metrics, Doug worked in New York at JWT Direct, BBDO Direct, and in Connecticut with Mason: Madison Advertising and the American Cancer Society. Doug is a frequent speaker at industry seminars and professional meetings on the topics of customer care and customer retention. E-mail: dprudent@marketingmetrics.com Web site: http://www.marketingmetrics.com Return to Best Practices in Customer Service page |