Some useful hints and tips for delivering and measuring customer service in start ups and small businesses

1. Customer service and customer care
Stuart Hartley
Director

2. • What are your challenges with customer service and
customer care?

3. • Can you think of some examples of good customer service?
What made it a good experience?

4. • Can you think of some examples of BAD customer service?
What made it a BAD experience?

5. Customers
• Customer service and customer care
starts with your customers
• Who are your customers?
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6. Customers
Internal
are specific people and departments
who play in helping you to serve
external customers
External
Include not just the paying customer
but also anyone who receives the
benefit of the goods and services.
Please remember we have two types of customers to provide customer service to

7. What is customer service
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8. Customer service is more than just
keeping customers satisfied.
It is the art of creating LOYAL and
REPEATING CLIENTS

9. What is customer service
Customer service is NOT a smile
campaign.
It is the quality of WHAT you deliver and
the quality of HOW you deliver

10. There is only one boss.
The Customer.
And they can fire everybody in the company from the
chairman down, simply by spending their money
somewhere else.
When the customer comes first, the customer will
last.
The golden rule for every business person is this: 'Put
yourself in your customer's place.'‘

11. Customer service
• Why is customer service so difficult to accurately define?
− It is not tangible
− It is more emotional than rational
− You can sell it, but you cannot give a customer sample to take & show to another
− Having given it, the customer may not have acquired anything
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12. Two types of service
•Material
−Price
−Quantity
−Quality
−Routine
−Working method
−Staffing
These are easy to define and relatively easy to
monitor and change
•Personal
−It is a personal service which upgrades or
downgrades a neutral impression about a
service
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13. Customer service
• Is the act of giving assistance.
• An avenue for current profitability
• It’s building and maintaining a brand
• It is also about treating customers with respect, individuality, and personal attention
• Customer service is a function of how well an organization meets the needs of its customers
• A customer defines good customer service as how they perceive that an organization has delighted her,
by exceeding to meet her needs
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14. Customer service - What do customers expect?
• Customers always expect a TREAT!!!!
−Trust (ability to provide what was promised, dependably and accurately)
−Responsiveness (willingness to help customers promptly)
−Empathy (degree of caring and individual attention you show to customers)
−Assurance (knowledge and courtesy you show to customers, and ability to convey trust)
−Tangibles (physical facilities and equipments, and your own (and others’) appearance)

15. Evolution of customer service – customer trends
Then
− Less informed
− Less choices
− Preference less dynamic
− Satisfied with low priced, mass produced product
/ services
− Selection of a product mainly based on price.
Now
− Highly informed
− More choices
− Ever-changing preference
− Demands customized solution
− Selection of a product based on convenience and
convergence.

16. The basics - First Impressions Matter
• First impressions are mental snapshots you take when you first encounter a person or situation. It
includes a person’s looks and actions, including general grooming and cleanliness, clothing, voice tone,
attitude, body language and posture.
− Steps in Making Good Impression:
−1. People see you first, hear you second.
−2. Wear appropriate clothing for the work you do.
−3. Make sure you are groomed.
−4. Maintain a relaxed and open demeanor.

17. The basics - Courtesy Counts
• Unlike children, as adults, you are not going to receive constant praise for being courteous, but people will
appreciate your behavior. When your act courteously, you send a positive and become a natural part of
your vocabulary and personality.
− Steps in Developing Courtesy:
−Say “Please”, “Thank you” and “ You’re Welcome”.
−Say “Excuse Me” and “I’m Sorry”.
−Use “Sir” and Ma’am”.
−Use a person’s name when you know it
−Use “Yes” rather than “Yeah”.
−Say it with a smile.

18. The basics - Attitude is Everything
• Attitude is everything. Good or bad. Whether yours is good or bad, your attitude is what people are going
to remember about you. When you interact with customers, you may not get a second chance. Even if
you are not as naturally positive person you can learn to have a more positive attitude.
− Steps in developing positive attitude:
−Appreciate the good in yourself and in others.
−Believe in yourself.
−Believe you can make a difference.
−Keep an open-mind ; do not stereotype people.

19. The basics - Doing the Right Thing: the Ethical Issues
• Being ethical means being honest, doing the right thing, and being accountable for your actions
− Steps to develop ethical ways of doing things:
−Always be honest.
−Do the right thing.
−Do what you say when you say you will.
−Be accountable for your actions.

20. Quality in a service or product is not what you
put into it. It is what the client or customer gets
out of it

21. Excellent Service through Effective Communication
• Choose the Right Words.
− choose the words that will be understandable to the customer. - opt for easy and familiar words when
communicating, especially if the customer is not so familiar with the company or product.
• Make sure your voice tone fits the message your sending.
− how to say something is more important than what you say. - pay attention to your listener’s nonverbal cues
to make sure your tone fits you customer.
• Add welcome words to your vocabulary.
− using words that sound positive and confident projects a positive and confident attitude. - “Yes, I’ll be happy
to!”, “Sure, I can!”, “Absolutely!”
• Keep business conversations professional.
− draw the line between being professional and getting personal.

22. Excellent Service through Effective Communication – what you don’t say
• How you say something is more important than the words you choose, but what you do when you convey
a message is also important .
• Steps to improve non-verbal communication
− Smile often.
− Make eye contact.
− Maintain good posture.
− Keep your energy level steady.

23. Excellent Service through Effective Communication – when the customer says no
• Always do what is right for the customers and uncover the reason for objections, even if you have offered
a valid solution and the customer still says “no”.
− Steps on how to found the solution to a customers objection
−Listen to the customer’s objection
−Acknowledge the objection
−Follow-up with a question
−Consider the customer’s action

24. Excellent Service through Effective Communication – listening actively
• Effective communication is not just dependent on your ability to talk and write well
− Focus entirely on your customer
− think of that customer you are helping is the only customer in your business so that you will be able to give your full
attention.
− Listen completely
− pay complete attention to the customer while he/she is speaking.
− do not think of any response yet while the customer is talking.
− Remain objective ; do not judge
− gathering all relevant information
− paraphrase the customer’s words or ask more questions to clarify.
− Consider the customer’s answer
− the customer’s response will determine if you successfully made the customer believe in you.
− Listen to what not is said.
− pay attention to customer’s body language and expression. - “reading between the lines”.

25. A good customer service agent is one who has
the right mix of head and a heart. One who
enjoys his work and has the right attitude
towards life. Of all the qualities ATTITUDE is the
most important one

26. Customers may come into business because of
the products but they will decide to come again
because of the way they are treated.

27. CUSTOMER SERVICE OVER THE PHONE

28. Telephone techniques
• Smile before answering the phone.
• Answer the phone in three rings or less.
• Give your company name and your name when answering the phone.
• Use proper language and warm, friendly voice tone.
• Be courteous and pleasant.
• Be helpful.
• Tell the customer the action you are going to take

29. Customer service over the phone
• STEP 1: PUTTING THE BEST EAR FORWARD
− Listen to customer’s opening statement.
− Write down or input key points.
− Listen without interrupting.
− Give the customer the assurance that you are helping with full attention.

30. Customer service over the phone
• STEP 2: SAYING HELLO : PHONE ETIQUETTE
− Answer on the first ring.
− Give the name of your business, your name, and then an opening statement or question.
− Sound enthusiastic and ready to help.
− Work on relationship building from the beginning of contact.
− Address the customer by name.

31. Customer service over the phone
• STEP 3: BETWEEN HELLO AND GOODBYE : HELPING THE CUSTOMER
− Assure the customer you can help
−“ absolutely! I can help you with that.”
−“ if you will refer customer to another department or employee, say “I’m to transfer you to the
department that can take care of this for you, but I will stay on the line until someone answers.”
− Summarize or paraphrase customer’s statement. - re-cap customer’s statement without verbatim.
− Verbalize what you are doing. - tell your customers what you are doing throughout the contact.
− Put your personal touch into the contact
−talk to the customer while you are waiting or checking on something.
−avoid “dead air” (no conversation for a period of time during contact)

32. Customer service over the phone
• STEP 4: SAYING GOODDBYE : THE CLOSER
− Recap what you are going to do.
− Gain the customer’s acceptance.
− Ask if you can help with anything else.
− Thank the customer contact

33. Why does good customer service matter?

34. Customer service
• Good customer service equates to:
− Commercial Survival
− Job security
− Good self-image

35. Benefits of good customer relationships – for the business
• Increased purchases – the greater the level of the relationship the greater the level of trust. The greater
the level of trust the higher or more frequent the purchase
• Lower cost – Costs of attracting new customers are much higher than attracting existing customers
• Lifetime value of a customer – this is where real profit is made for an organisation. The greater the
lifetime value the greater the profit
• Word of mouth – good customer relationships create good word of mouth referrals
• Employee satisfaction – good relationships with customers create happier customers and therefore happier
staff. Happier staff equate to greater employee satisfaction and loyalty.

36. Benefits of good customer relationships – for the customer
• Risk and stress reduction – services cannot be experienced prior to purchase. A good customer
relationship prior to purchase can reduce this risk and stress
• Higher quality service – we all remember shops / businesses where we get great / bad customer service.
This can be a strong differentiating factor for businesses.
• Avoidance of switching costs – good relationships with suppliers mean that you are less likely to want to
switch to another provider – switching to another provider can mean an additional cost
• Social benefits – in some circumstances (think hairdressers for example) good customer service can often
resemble personal friendship. Again this is a strong differentiating factor for business.

37. If you believe customer service doesn’t matter
then imagine a month without any customers!
What would it mean to your company / position?

38. Customer service
• Only 4% of customers actually complain
• Around 75% of the complaining customers will do business with you again, if you act quickly
• Of the customers you lose on average
− 1% die
− 3% move away
− 9% go away for cheaper prices
− 19% are chronic customers
− 68% leave due to bad service

39. What does bad customer service look like?
• Can you remember any particularly bad examples?
− Why was it bad?
− What did you do after receiving that bad service?

40. Bad customer service
• Apathy
− Lack of enthusiasm or energy when responding to customers
• Brush off
− Dismissing someone abruptly
• Snobby and pretentious
• Rule book
• Different standards

41. The 7 key things customers want
1.Quick Result
2.Simple-Fast Transaction
3.Personal Attention Qualities that are important to our customers:
− Accuracy
− Friendliness
− Timeliness
− Efficiency
− Courtesy
− Honesty

42. The 7 key things customers want
4. Friendly, caring service:
− Being interested
− Warm friendly responses.
5. Flexibility
− Customer want the person to “jiggle” the system to make it work for them.
− They don’t want to hear “No”
6. Problem resolution
− Business problems
− Non-business problem

43. 7. Recovery
− If and when mistake is made, customer wants you to take care of it quickly and to their satisfaction
−Apology
−Fix it
−Extra Step
−Follow up

44. TURNING COMPLAINTS INTO
OPPORTUNITIES

45. Benefits of complaints
• Improved procedures
• Elimination of product defect
• More skillful customer service behavior
• Higher performance standards
• Customer- focused management

46. Handling complaints
• Appreciate/Thank the customer for sharing the complaint
• Apologize for the error / mistake / inconvenience
• Listen actively and nod from time to time showing interest
• Show Empathy – Put yourself in the customer’s place
• Resolve, if it is within your control.
• If not solved immediately, take down the customer’s details (name, telephone number, address) to
contact with the solution
• Do follow up till the customer is satisfied
REMEMBER: Don’t take customers’ complaints personally

47. Monitoring customer service
• How do you monitor your customer service levels:
− Numbers of complaints?
− Numbers of repeat orders?
− Unsolicited testimonials

48. Metrics
• Engagement metrics vs customer care
metrics

49. 7 crucial customer care metrics
1. Customer request volume
− First we need to understand the volume of requests. By measuring your customer request volume you can
assess:
− The weight of your workload
− Whether you have enough resource to maintain customer satisfaction
− Whether your answering more or fewer requests over time
2. Average number of replies per request
− Tells you the average number of replies it takes to resolve a customer requests
Average number of replies per request = Number of replies on resolved requests / number of resolved
requests

50. 7 crucial customer care metrics
3. Resolution rate
− The percentage of requests you solved in a reporting period reflects your effectiveness
Resolution rate = Resolved requests / support requests
− One important thing to keep in mind, is to not set your requests as ‘resolved’ until the customer actually
confirms it is.
4. First response time
− A recent study found that 33% of customers felt positive about companies that offered a quick first
response. Even if it didn’t solve the issue, customers preferred a response that was quick, instead of one
that was calculated but delayed.
− First response time will also vary across different channels, such as email and social media.
− Customers will have different expectations depending on their channel for contacting you, and it’s
important to keep this in mind when benchmarking response times across channels.

51. 7 crucial customer care metrics
5. Average reply time
− With average reply time you’re measuring how long it takes your customer service team to reply to each
message.
Average Reply Time = Total reply time / Total number of requests
− This metric helps you evaluate whether requests are followed up on in a timely manner.
− Additionally, your average reply time can tell you whether you have enough people to manage request
volume.
6. Average time to resolution
− This metric tells you how long it takes your team to resolve issues.
Average time to resolution = Total resolution time / Total number of requests
− While this is a good indicator for your customer service team’s speed in resolving requests – make sure
customer satisfaction isn’t sacrificed for the sake of speed.

52. 7 crucial customer care metrics
7. Customer satisfaction
− A recent study found that 96% of unhappy customers don’t complain, but 91% of those will never buy from
you again.
− Tracking customer satisfaction helps determine whether your customers are happy with their experience with
you.
− Businesses with happy customers flourish and grow – while businesses with unhappy customers tend to
crash and burn.

53. Tracking customer satisfaction
• Customer satisfaction surveys
− The customer satisfaction survey is the standard approach for collecting data on customer happiness.
− Three useful variations:
−In-App Surveys
− With this you integrate a subtle feedback bar inside your website, with generally not more than one or two
questions. It’s one of the methods with the highest response rates, thanks to the fact that the customer is asked for
her opinion while she’s engaged with your company.
−Post-Service Surveys
− This type of survey focuses on the customer’s satisfaction with a specific service she’s just received. You ask it right
after the delivery, when it's still fresh in the mind.
−Long Email Surveys
− The above survey methods aren't suitable for in-depth insights about your customer happiness. Why are they
happy or unhappy? Email surveys, on the other hand, are a good tool for this. Although they have a downside of
low response rates they do allow your customer to take their time in answering multiple questions.

54. Tracking customer satisfaction
• Customer satisfaction score – CSAT
− This is the most standard customer satisfaction metric, asking your customer to rate her satisfaction with
your business, product, or service.
− Your CSAT score is then the average rating of your customer responses.
• Net Promoter Score
− Measures the likeliness of a customer referring you to someone
− The strength from NPS is that it's not about an emotion of satisfaction, but about your intention of referring