The Green Mile: Fallacy of Customer Service
- Submitted by: ambarishraj
- Views: 814
- Category: Other
- Date Submitted: 12/07/2010 05:02 AM
- Pages: 3
- Report this Essay
Unlocking Potential. Delivering Results
The Green Mile: Fallacy of Customer Service There was a recent article which stated that its not possible to achieve 100% customer satisfaction and the investment needed to improve customer satisfaction levels beyond a certain level is just not worth the effort in terms of customer retention or improvement in top-line. This perhaps indicates the state of affairs on the level of importance associated with providing a complete experience to customers. Hope that companies which do read the above article do not misinterpret it and use it as a means to stop evangelizing “good customer experience” as a tenet. Our secondary research on customer experiences through various websites/ blogs/ forums indicate that there are many customers who are quite satisfied with the experience associated with their purchase of a product or service. A credit card customer complaining about issues with billing and card closure, a car customer raising issues on the service and product related support from the company..and the list is endless. These experiences tell a sad tale. Customer relationships’ are often killed due to actions or inaction of the company providing the product/ service. For every four weddings (a customer engaging with a company) there will be one funeral!! The funeral is the death of the relationship where the customer if forced to walk the “green mile”. So whats the issue? Several companies do not have a sound customer experience strategy in place. The question to ask is – have they gone beyond speeches/ rhetoric on customer service? Providing good customer service requires a different kind of approach, mindset and attitude. It requires a strong resolve and the ability to rise above short term budget issues. It requires focus on skilling people, establishing the right processes and commitment from all levels of the organization. Companies spend a lot on money on acquiring customers. But how much money do they spend on retaining...
The Green Mile: Fallacy of Customer Service There was a recent article which stated that its not possible to achieve 100% customer satisfaction and the investment needed to improve customer satisfaction levels beyond a certain level is just not worth the effort in terms of customer retention or improvement in top-line. This perhaps indicates the state of affairs on the level of importance associated with providing a complete experience to customers. Hope that companies which do read the above article do not misinterpret it and use it as a means to stop evangelizing “good customer experience” as a tenet. Our secondary research on customer experiences through various websites/ blogs/ forums indicate that there are many customers who are quite satisfied with the experience associated with their purchase of a product or service. A credit card customer complaining about issues with billing and card closure, a car customer raising issues on the service and product related support from the company..and the list is endless. These experiences tell a sad tale. Customer relationships’ are often killed due to actions or inaction of the company providing the product/ service. For every four weddings (a customer engaging with a company) there will be one funeral!! The funeral is the death of the relationship where the customer if forced to walk the “green mile”. So whats the issue? Several companies do not have a sound customer experience strategy in place. The question to ask is – have they gone beyond speeches/ rhetoric on customer service? Providing good customer service requires a different kind of approach, mindset and attitude. It requires a strong resolve and the ability to rise above short term budget issues. It requires focus on skilling people, establishing the right processes and commitment from all levels of the organization. Companies spend a lot on money on acquiring customers. But how much money do they spend on retaining...