Customer Service is Important:Part II

Customer Service is Important. No one can disagree with that statement. That’s it. Customer Service is important and if a company does not have it, then they will not be in business for long.

I could easily leave the post just to contain that, but leaving it at that is not getting to the heart of the issue. See, everyone understands that Customer Service is important, but the real question is not whether it is important or not, but why is it important.

To give a quick recap of last week, Customer Service is:

• Customer-oriented philosophy that is to help integrate and manage
• It is identifiable, but intangible
• It is to increase value

In this post I will be focusing more on the last two points

Why is Customer Service Important?

To best get an idea on why it is so important, I picked up some of my old textbooks and read a number of articles on the issue. As I read through these sources, specifically my textbooks, I was able to gain a better grasp of the significance Customer Service plays in business.

Customer Service can lead to Customer Satisfaction

I will be the first to admit that this sounds great! You give good customer service and then the customer is satisfied and comes back to your business.  Sounds basic, but as all things that sound too good to be true, it is not that simple. Gauging customer satisfaction with customer service is exceedingly difficult and not because gathering data is difficult, but it is clearly something of perception.

Gathering data is easy, but it is making sure your customer satisfaction survey is asking the right questions.

Marketers can use such data to retain customers, sell more products and services, improve the quality and value of their offerings, and operate more effectively and efficiently (1).

Data is easy, but it is using data to help better customer service can prove difficult because there are certain items that a business can't change. One of those areas is a company policy.

For example, if a company’s policy says that you can have a no-hassle return and that associate is not making it easy for the customer, then you can speak with that associate for next time to make the experience better. Now if your company has a 90-day return policy and a customer comes in and it has been past the 90-day period, then the customer is going to be dissatisfied. With a policy set in place, it is difficult to appease certain customers, but these policies are set in place for a reason.

Customer satisfaction is needed for consumers to return to your business and by sustaining this high standard of customer service, a company is positioning themselves with a key strategy.

Customer Service can be a part of a Differentiation Strategy

Think of a store, restaurant or any other service business that has excellent customer service. Any of these places can be substituted with any of their competitors. Some of these places that you thought of may not have the best deals in town or are quite expensive. Now why do you continue going to this business? You like the quality or taste? That does play a role, but would you continue going to that place if they were horrible at customer service?

A typical response for this would be no. You would go some place else.

In a Virginia Libraries article, libraries also are concerned with customer service, stressed the importance of customer service by stating:

In this era of transition, customer service is more important than ever. We need to maintain a positive welcoming image—both to retain the patrons we have had and encourage them to bring others (2).

This differentiation approach is increasing the value of your company, increasing company reputation and potentially bringing more consumers to your door. Your product or service may be excellent, but if your service is unbearable, then consumers can go to one of your competitors. Building a reputation for customer service takes a considerable amount of time, effort and resources. In Grewal and Levy’s textbook entitled Marketing, they state “…once a marketer has earned a good service reputation, it can sustain this advantage for a long time because a competitor is hard pressed to develop a comparable reputation (3).”

An awesome example of a company known for customer service that had a featured case study in Crafting and Executing Strategy: The Quest for Competitive Advantage: Concepts and Cases textbook is Southwest airlines. One of the many ways that Southwest made sure that they excelled in customer service was their 2007 gate makeover. Southwest understood that they have two specific types of customers: families and the businessman. So like any strategic company, they decided to differentiate from their competitors and created a gate that met the needs of their customers.  This makeover “…included adding (1) a business-focused area with padded seats, tables with power outlets, power stations with stools, and a flat-screen TV with news programming, and (2) a family-focused area with smaller tables and chairs, power stations for charging electrical devices, and kid-friendly programming on a flat-screen TV (4).”

People, consumers, whatever you want to call them do remember these positive changes a company makes, especially if it is customer service based.

One of the major lessons I learned consistently during my time in college was how negative news/media spreads quicker than positive. Keeping that consistently excellent customer service can help deflect some of the negative feedback that people have said. If consumers can experience excellent customer service and it does not seem insincere, there is a greater likelihood they will return and potentially lead to a loyal customer base.

Customer Service is important and there are a lot of reasons why that I didn’t even touch in this article because then the article would be way too long. The main point though is that it is IMPORTANT and we all need to evaluate our level of customer service and understand why we are giving this specific type of service.

The next two blogs to come with this series:

3.  The Customer Service Funnel Effect

4.  My Customer Service Experience

Sources

(1) Boles, Patrick F. Pearson Custom Business Resources (Buyer Behavior University of Akron). N.p.: n.p., 2011. N. pag. Print.

(2) Gardner, C. A. "The Importance of Customer Service." Virginia Libraries 51.4 (2005): 2-4. Print.

(3) Grewal, Dhruv, and Michael Levy. Marketing. Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2010. Print.

(4) Thompson, Arthur A., and Arthur A. Thompson. Crafting and Executing Strategy: The Quest for Competitive Advantage : Concepts and Cases. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2012. Print.