Customer Service, After -Sales And Loyalty

Customer service, after -sales and loyalty

Introduction

As the main purpose of this content, it is to show in an orderly manner some bases and tools for the implementation and understanding of customer service, after -sales work and the interrelation between both points, being presented as a conference.

The document raises the explanation of the content so that the issue is of total understanding for the exhibitor as for the attendees, taking side of both parties. We suggest full attention and monitoring, in a serious and organized way by all participants, of the recommendations presented here.

The points discussed at the conference will help to provide better service to customers through the knowledge of the bases that constitute it, of the good practices that must always be present regardless of what position of the organization are those attending the attendees to theConference, the content is equally valid and applicable;as well as the importance of after -sales work, which is often overlooked or demerified as non -relevant.

Objectives

Create a culture of knowledge and good implementation of customer service together with the correct post -sales exercise.

Despite being two different themes, both are integrated, so their objectives are similar.

• Through the knowledge of customer service scope and after -sales, it is intended to improve the performance and quality of services that supply the needs and expectations of the final customer.

• Understanding the content and concepts, in addition to meeting the requirements of the final customer.

• Continuously improve processes.

• Consider processes that provide value.

• Generate higher sales.

• Generate fidelity with the work of after -sales.

• Higher earnings.

• Organization growth. 

Benefits

Knowledge will open the way to domain of the topics that in turn will provide the following benefits:

• Increased general culture of staff working in the company.

• More satisfied customers.

• Greater fidelity because of a better service.

• Increased productivity and personnel sales effectiveness.

• Notable improvement in the human factor treatment in employee / employee / employee.

Customer service

The Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy defines service as the action and the effect of serving. In more focused terms, service is defined as: “… any activity or benefit offers to another;They are essentially intangible and do not give rise to the property of anything. Its production can be linked or not with a physical product ”(Kotler, 1997, p. 656).

Then it is understood as the activity or work whose benefits satisfy one or more consumers.

Meanwhile, customer service is defined as:

"… set of benefits that the customer expects, in addition to the basic product or service, as a consequence of the price, image and reputation of the same …" (Horovitz, 1990, p. 7).

And as extra, but not least, it is necessary to know the definition of quality:

“Quality refers, not only to finished products or services, but also to the quality of the processes that are related to these products or services. The quality goes through all the phases of the company’s activity, that is, through all the processes of development, design, production, sale and maintenance of the products or services… ”(IMAI, 1998, P. 41).

In the generality of the definitions on the quality of the service, the concept of quality focuses on the perceived quality, that is, “… to the consumer’s judgment on the excellence and superiority of a product…” (Zeithaml, 1988, p. 3). In this case, subjectivity in quality perception implies a higher level than any of the specific ones inherent to the multidimensional characteristics product. CUSTOMER SERVICE

Customer service standards

They are used to exceed customer expectations and thus transform them into attributes that can be received from the service, they are based on the indispensable guidelines previously valued as important for the client. They are visible and measurable attributes despite being qualitative concepts and are classified as follows:

Speed standards:

A fast service is decisive to keep a client satisfied because it translates into greater comfort and then the guidelines for speed standards are listed.

Initial response time:

Means the average time of obtaining response to any type of consultation made by customers. The communication channel is of the utmost importance, since the response time will be directly related to the form of contact so that the client knows that it has been heard. For example, if a first contact is made through a website that has a chat, the response from the online executive, not the bot, should be in less than approximately two minutes. If the first contact is via email, then the answer should not exceed 24 hours to be answered. While, by telephone, the answer or first contact (not necessarily the resolution of the doubt) must be immediately. In the event that the phones provided are out of service, the situation must be handled shortly;since, having contact numbers in that state, lower the customer reliability percentage to the company largely.

• Resolution index to the first contact:

The greater the amount of issues resolved during the first client contact with the company and its advisors, it will result in reliable indicator of the efficiency of the equipment and, therefore, of the company.

• Instant Service Index / Wait:

This point refers to the proportional comparison of those clients who received immediate attention compared to those who were sent to wait. This point cannot be generalized, because companies and their departments perform different work, so it will be necessary to apply it according to the activities that each one performs and measure it based on the type of customers that each manages.

• Waiting time rowing:

In case of applying, it is the time that customers have to wait when they go to some type of branch so that the service or product is provided to them. Many times it happens that, because of mediocre management, customers expect more from the account or jump from person in person until they reach the indicated. This should be avoided as much as possible. Several important factors must be taken into consideration, such as:

1. The appropriate training of employees so that they can correctly perform their functions and solve the situations that are presented to each client.
2. If the goal is to keep the waiting time under, Maya S. Horowitz suggests that optimal waiting time is the one that remains below the time in which the first clients stop waiting and begin to leave.
3. Make sure you have enough staff to perform the urgent work of the company or, preferably to stick to coherence and not receive more work than you can handle. It is preferable to have few customers, but loyal that recommend service to other similar customers, to have many customers and attend them badly, because they will later talk badly about the company and its processes.

• Problem resolution time:

It is the approximate general duration before a problem is solved. Each company can establish its standards.

Precision standards:

Rapidéz or precision?

On many occasions the quality factor is overlooked and, as we mentioned before, what is the most convenient type of customers, which is faithful and recommends a certain service or product, or many dissatisfied customers who speak ill of certain processes?

Well, we can exemplify customer service via telephone.

A client may be in search of guidance or responses in relation to the service and yet run into two types of advisors:

The first is someone relaxed, of good treatment to try to solve each call that is assigned. Customers arrive with questions and this advisor solves the matter in a matter of a few minutes, or makes them believe that he resolved them. It remains on the ideal margin of the duration of the average calls that the company seem appropriate. Unfortunately, this style will not work with all customers because no client is the same, because there are many factors to consider as the type of doubt, the age range, among other things and surely, the clients they attended will call again asking exactlythe same.

And then we have the second advisor. It is the type of delivered profile that is explained in each call and does not hang until each of the customer’s doubts have been resolved. It could sound like the exemplary employee, but it also has a disadvantage, its calls are well above the general average time accepted by the company and, most likely, it has customers waiting.

Who is the best, which of the two advisors will result in the cusp of efficiency and productivity?

The response to this issue is based on the ideals of the company and its leaders. Every employee will be the reflection of the firmness of values and guidelines that the company manages, as well as its priorities. It is then advised to consider the integration of the following two points:

• Successful client index: the "client success" is measured in reference to the number of them that found what they were looking for compared to those who did not do it. Each company defines what is successful even though it is not the best service.
• Things that went wrong: results can be observed at this point by applying service surveys, so that the information collected throws quantifiable information, for example: the monitoring of the number of complaints (1 complaint for “x” reason in 1,000 surveysof service).

Transparency standards:

Data are preferred that are easy to measure by quantitative nuances, however, it is not always easy to measure transparency in this way, a lot of documentation or the realization of very expensive processes would be necessary. However, the psychology behind the waiting lines or lines has tried how uncertainty or inexplicable waiting causes much longer waiting rows, while those clients who are explained or who know how long they will waitFrom the beginning they can carry out their processes in less time and therefore the waiting ranks are shorter. So it is better that customers have notion of the process to follow and how long it will take them to finish it, so that their patience is rewarded resulting in something positive for all involved.

Accessibility standards:

If a client requests help for a specific problem related to the company or to which the company in question can help it, then the company, instead of putting obstacles for the client to solve the problem, must be proactive. A better customer service will be reflected by demonstrating that it is present when necessary and that it strives by the client.

Based on a Harvard Business article, which will be addressed later, mentions that customers are more willing to punish a bad service than to reward a satisfactory service.

The client’s effort score concept aims.

This same point is composed of three parts:

• Transfer for Subject: Relationship directly proportional to “How many employees will the client be transferred before he can solve his problem?”Customers don’t like having to repeat the problem over and over again.
• You expect interrupted: situation that is presented when a customer is waiting for a long time and decides to abandon the process by not getting an answer in a reasonable time. This translates into an unsatisfied customer who will not speak well of the service or the company.
• Clicks to get to the first contact: this applies on the Internet, the websites of the companies and how many tabs or updates a customer must go through to reach the first contact or a telephone number to work and be in force. Less clicks = greater accessibility.

Empowerment standards:

The main foundation to ensure that you have a good customer service is to have control.

For example, if customers call or seek support constantly going with the same questions, it does not mean that they are conspiring to torment the company, but rather, the information given to them or the answers they obtain are not correct. It is then when the work relationship work should be done to create a “FAQ’s” section (Frequently Asked Questions) or frequent questions, where customers come before calling.

Great standards:

It is a basic principle, of common sense, which will determine how feasible it will be for customers to recommend the service they received or the company with which they treated. It is also recommended to use post -service surveys. But first you have to determine how long after the interaction the survey will be done, preferably via email, since in this way the client is more likely to be friendly when answering the survey.

Efficiency standards:

It is important to understand and balance speed and efficiency, as mentioned above in the example of telephone advisors. Next, some metrics are presented to achieve this balance:

• It is suggested to focus on the search, identification and interpretation of atypical values or well above what is generally handled. When this kind of thing occurs, it means that something is out of the ordinary and you have to pay attention.
• Average occupation: the time that the representatives take to attend to one more client the time they take to write and organize the information, after interaction with the client.
• Earrning / outgoing earrings: Relationship with the amount of issues received compared to that of solved matters.
• Minutes per matter: its main function is to compare the service granted by matter in relation to the efficiency of the advisor.

Standards that go wrong:

The standards are metric that serve as a guide, however, flexibility and opening to change are recommended. It is important to be careful when establishing the standards and making them known to the staff, because when they set ideal numbers, it is likely that when employees reach them, then they overlook other clients. In addition, this type of fixation can generate a type of vanity in which employees lose sight of the customer as the main objective. Post -sales

When the customer is made of a service or product, it is common to forget the follow -up duty or after -sales work and the opportunity to create fidelity is missing. So these types of opportunities should not be passed to generate an increase in sales and faithful customers.

The work of after -sales or monitoring of new and active customers is carried out once the sale has been made with the purpose that the customer repeats his purchase or recommends to the company.

Then the following points are post -sales objectives:

• Sales increase.
• Customer Fidelity Incentive – Company.
• GENERATION OF GREATER INCOME.
• Make the company grow.
• The way to achieve this is through the implementation of the following points:
• Constant evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Analysis and monitoring of constant quality measures.
• Correct and timely training of advisors from their hiring and their conform update acquire experience in the position.
• Constantly motivate staff through activities or exercises that help them develop the set of skills mentioned for good customer service.

conclusion

In general and as mentioned, customer service and after -sales work, despite being two issues, both are directly related, because one cannot happen optimally without the other and both have to do with the quality and treatment ofclient.

The post -sales cannot happen without previously generating a notion of fidelity in the client’s mind towards the products or services of a certain company, on the other hand, if post -sales work is done with people who had never heard of the company orthat has never been related to it, this work becomes annoying and valuable opportunities of new customers are lost in the subsequent future.

Let us also remember that it is more common for customers to punish a bad service to reward a positive one, but although this may sound discouraging, it is the opposite. These types of situations shine to companies to focus on doing what is really important, to concentrate on playing the role that corresponds to them and taking adversity as an opportunity for improvement. So what does it have to do companies that want to improve their customer service?..

Simple, to give the time to completely train their advisors, representatives, employees, etc., under the unification of the values, guidelines and processes that distinguish the company and keep its knowledge fresh with constant empathy activities and exercises in which improvisation and skill development are practiced.

Finally, after ensuring the correct training of employees, it is also of the utmost importance, the establishment of work breaks in which employees feel that there is the willingness to release the accumulated tension from constantly dealing with difficult customers with customers. Recall that the human, internal and external resource is valuable and independent, not disposable cartridges. If employees in charge of a company are sufficiently satisfied, then they will project it towards customers, generating more and better future profits.