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The Key Service Relationship Activities
How well you are undertaking each of these activities?
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Products and services information
Can you answer yes to these questions?
- Do you provide readily available, clear and concise information to your customers?
- Does your information guide the customer, and is it expressed in plain language?
Information is especially critical if you are providing service as it is often more difficult to communicate intangibles clearly. Experience has shown that services are easier to misunderstand than products.
Customers typically value:
- Concise information written in jargon-free language
- Information that is readily available and guides them to where more detail can be found, if required.
Face-to-Face Service checklist
Can you answer yes to these questions?
- Can customers readily identify and find staff to assist them?
- Are fully informed, knowledgeable and trained staff always available to deal with customers in a responsive manner?
- Are customers who are waiting to be served always acknowledged?
- Are customers treated as individually important?
- Is interest shown in the customer by asking questions, listening and clarifying
- Is time taken to serve the customer to their satisfaction?
- Are your customers treated, as you would wish to be treated?
- Where follow-up is necessary is the customer clear about what you're going to do, and what they have to do?
Customers typically value:
- Having service areas and staff that are easy to find
- Staff that are friendly and attentive to their needs
- Knowledgeable staff
- Being dealt with quickly but not rushed
Handling complaints
Can you answer yes to these questions?
- Is it easy for customers to raise any problems they have?
- Are customers thanked for raising problems or concerns?
- Are customers with problems treated with empathy, courtesy, patience, honesty and fairness?
- Are problems quickly respond to, or at least acknowledged?
- Do you listen carefully, ask questions to clarify and summarise your understanding?
- Do you let customers know what will happen to their problem or concern?
- Is there one person who owns and manages the problem?
- Is there a follow-up system to ensure that the problem or concern is closed?
Customers typically value:
- Problems being easy to report
- Acknowledgement of the problem
- Receiving quick, sensitive and fair treatment
Visiting the Customer
Getting out to the customer's workplace is an important public relations activity.
When you go to visit a customer can you answer yes to these questions?
- Do you arrange appointments that best suit the customer?
- Are specific dates, times and venues agreed?
- Is the purpose of the visit clear and agreed?
- Do you confirm the appointment prior to the meeting, when the meeting has been scheduled well in advance?
- Do you always arrive on time?
- If you are unavoidably detained, is the customer contacted to advice of the delay and to check that the revised time is convenient?
Customer typically value:
- Reliability
- Portrayal of professionalism
- Knowledgeable staff
- Knowing in advance the meeting topic, and the duration of the meeting
Managing the service culture
Can you answer yes to these questions?
- Is your customer service environment aligned with your customers' needs?
- Do you have a customer service charter that sets out the quality of service customers can expect?
- Do your policies, practices, systems, rules, facilities and staff provide for excellent service delivery?
- Is your customer service strategy integrated with your business approach and plans?
- Have you created a structure and culture that enable staff satisfaction, and recognises their service delivery excellence?
- Do you have customer feedback mechanisms in place?
- Are quality service and continuous improvement actively encouraged?
Good service can only occur where the management culture brings together a service environment that integrates staff with processes, systems and policies that are focused on servicing the customer.
Telephone service
Can you answer yes to these questions?
- Do your customers know the right telephone number to call?
- Are your staff adequately informed, trained and knowledgeable to be able to respond to a customer's call?
- Are all calls answered promptly (ideally 10 seconds, and when calls are answered with a recorded announcement a person picking up the call within 30 seconds)
- Are messages answered within 4 hours?
- Are customers who are put on hold acknowledged during the period and receive an apology for the delay?
- Is interest shown in the customer by asking questions, listening and clarify?
- Is jargon kept to a minimum?
- Are your customers treated as you would wish to be treated?
- Where follow-up is necessary is the customer clear about what you are going to do, and what they have to do?
- Is the customer always to first to end the call?
Customers typically value:
- Knowing who to contact, and staff that are easy to access
- Staff that are friendly and attentive to their needs
- Knowledgeable staff
- Being dealt with quickly but not rushed
Quick, convenient and immediate accessibly are features of telephone contact that explain why a customer will typically telephone rather than come to a service area. Anything that works against these features, such as having trouble getting through, being put on hold, having first to deal with a recorded message or automated system, and only then (maybe) getting through to a person, will frustrate the customer
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