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Businesses Urged to Take Customer Service More Seriously
The Institute of Customer Service (ICS) has warned that small firms who neglect customer service are damaging their business prospects, writes Aengus Collins.
The ICS’ comments follow a University of Nottingham survey of small firms that showed almost 40 per cent of respondents have no formal system in place to deal with customer complaints.
ICS director Paul Cooper pointed out that responding properly to customer queries and complaints is the most important factor in getting customer service right.
“The way a business handles complaints from its customers is a crucial part of its overall customer service, because we all evaluate organisations’ customer service on the basis of how problems are resolved,” he said.
“We’re seeing more evidence of firms cutting costs, rather than focusing on the single biggest driver of business success — customer service,” he added.
Cooper also stressed that businesses don’t pay enough attention to customer service issues when making recruitment decisions.
“You can train a new employee with any skills you want,” he continued, “but it’s not possible to train people in the same way with the traits that drive good customer service, such as a sense of empathy with the customer.”
According to the ICS, the three most important customer-service lessons that businesses need to learn are:
- The importance of empathy with the customer — too many businesses are reluctant to say sorry.
- The need to listen all the way through to the customer’s side of the story before deciding how to act.
- Value customer feedback — think of it as free market research and thank customers who point out problems.
