Essay Example on Bad Customer Service? Here's How to Fix It

A company that delivers poor customer services experiences a lot of negative press coverage. If a company has the urge to stand out, then it needs to develop better strategies on how to treat its customers. To build better customer service, the concerned firm should track the performance of the customer service representatives (Goodman, 2019). Through this criterion, the managers will be able to notice the shortcomings within the reps and find a way of rectifying them. If, after tracking their services, they emerge to be doing well, then the company should appreciate their good work and motivate them to continue with the same spirit. Through tracking the performance of the customer service team, the firm will be able to develop the required strategies to handle their weaknesses to meet the expectations of the customers. In customer service, no tool is capable of compensating the lack of skills, not even the CRM (Payne & Frow 2013). The primary reason why clients shift from a company is that they feel the company does not care about them, so to maintain customers; one should focus on providing excellent services for them. Therefore, it is vital to track the services of the customer care representative to build better customer service.

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In creating the best customer services, the company should strengthen the customer service team skills. An organisation or the management must make sure that their customer service teams possess the required skills to manage the needs of the customers effectively. In improving customer service skills, the companies should make sure that the customer reps contain consistency, patience, and empathy skills (Juttner, Schaffner, Windler, & Maklan, (2013). Some of the customers are enraged, full of questions, while others are always chatty. Therefore, the customer service team should know how to handle diverse customers and provide the same level of service every time. Since customers are different from one another, the management should ensure that the company can adapt accordingly and sense the customers' moods. There should be clear communication as a skill to improve customer services. In this case, an authentically positive language should be used to make sure the customers get the intended message. It also hinders miscommunication within the business context. The customer service personnel should make sure that the customers are fully satisfied with their answers before ending the conversation. Thus, to have better customer service, the firms should regularly strengthen customer service skills.

Customer care service personnel should ensure positive customer interactions. The reps should adhere to their responsibility of identifying a common ground-like shared interest with clients. Through possessing the understanding, it is then easier to overcome the possible conflicts by humanizing the relationships and thus endearing customers to the company. The management should ensure that there is active listening practice towards the clients. Rephrasing and clarifying what the customers say should be emphasized to make sure their messages are appropriately decoded. To improve the customers' interaction, organisations and mostly the top management should admit their mistakes immediately after discovering them even when their customers do not have a hint about the issues (Juttner et al., 2013). This strategy builds a strong trust as well as restoring the lost confidence of the customers towards the company's services and products. After identifying a problem, the management should make sure the problem is solved and have a follow-up to know if the customers are satisfied with the fixed issues. However, no matter how a firm is proactive, it is challenging to listen to every single customer. Thus it is imperative to develop an easily accessible platform to ensure that the company learns about the ugly, the bad, and the good experiences of every single client through their feedbacks.

Enhancing the customer service strategy is also another skill that is significant in building a strong customer service relationship. The concerned staff should develop an effective organisational strategy to please the customers since they are the priorities in any business. If the customers do not feel glad by services offered by a particular company, then there is a higher probability that they may shift to the other competitor firms. Therefore, there should be proactive customer service practices by making the clients happy before presenting their problems. This strategy will make customers have the courage and have confidence that their issues will be handled in a friendly manner. The service givers should make sure that they are always available to their customers. They should give more than just automatic responses to ensure that the customers feel like they have the real people for their problems (Juttner et al., 2013). The social media advantages should be utilised to the fullest to meet and update the clients occasionally in platforms such as Facebook and Skypes. Through social media, one can bring customers together as well as through webinars, trade shows, and conventions to facilitate surprise with offers such as VIP treatment, especially to the best and regular customers.

The use of CRM platforms should be emphasised to ensure better customer services. Many firms are in a struggle to establish strong coordination among various teams, which mostly results in dissatisfaction of the customers. The companies should, therefore, streamline their workforce process by focusing on the CRM platforms. These systems are crucial in ensuring that all the individuals are on the same page, which is significant in the establishment of high customer service standards. The smart CRM software will enhance the provision of useful insights regarding the clients and facilitate understanding of their needs hence boosting the selling rate. Companies should focus on leverage multi-channel services. According to Payne and Frow (2013), about 69% of the US adults prefer buying brands offering consistent customer services across more than one channel; thus, the brands need to offer omnichannel communication options. The companies should enable their clients to switch between a variety of channels and yet enjoying a consistent quality of services. This technique is crucial in boosting the credibility of the reputation of brands. An example of the practices essential in providing excellent multi-channel services to clients is self-service, whereby the brands should be able to help the customers fix minor problems by themselves. Therefore, CRM platforms and multi-channel practices play a significant role in building better customer service.

Key steps in a successful practice staff retreat and brainstorming session

Identifying the objectives for the staff retreat and brainstorming session

Before making up a team-list and sending out invites, it is vital to come up with a clear goal or purpose of the retreat and brainstorming session by laying out the problem that needs solving. Developing the agenda for the session will aid in asking the right questions; hence the invitees will have a chance to brainstorm individually before the actual retreat and brainstorming day. It is paramount to identify salient issues and systematise them to fit the time allocated. A survey of random staff samples can be made using a practical and straightforward electronic study to help in coming up with the agenda.

Deciding who to attend the session

Deciding who to attend mostly depends on the purpose of the retreat and brainstorming session. Some employees would most probably see the agenda from a different perspective or come up with ideas that cannot be taken into consideration. It will, therefore, make sense of inviting people who the agenda directly involves. Depending on the purpose and if fresh ideas are needed, outsiders may also be invited so as to bring about diversity. Outsiders may include people from different departments, groups, either by generation or gender or nationality

Choose a friendly and comfortable site

Generally, the best performing teams are those that work hard as well as play hard. Having fun will help vent out tension and pressure. Coming up with an appropriate spot ensures the actualisation of the "work hard- play hard" ethic (Alkhatib, 2015). A retreat site is literally - withdrawing from a regular workplace to a place where people are free from the routine work condition and pressures. The informal climate will work as an encouragement for the people to be more precise and more open in ways that discouraged by the office environment. The ultimate goal here is to make the team on the staff retreat, and brainstorming session feels comfortable and free enough while sharing their ideas. A relaxed environment allows people to be stress-free hence coming up with fresh ideas and the best possible ideas (Cluff, & Webb, 2019). It will also motivate people more if snacks and drinks are brought on board. Coming up with exercises and several games will also prompt people to share more ideas without even realising the extra mile they are going.

Implementing the agenda

After the introduction, and once the brainstorming exercise starts, it is advisable to go in systematic order. Each person should be given a chance to feed the idea and add suggestions to it before getting on to another subtopic. The team leader should encourage as many ideas as possible by giving people the room to think and discourage silence, which means each one should be contributing to the aligned agenda. However, should the silence last long, it is the job of the leader to steer the conversation in a new direction, either by moving on to the next item.

Ending the session

The session should take only the necessary time as allocated. The team leaders must follow the schedule of the process and end the meeting at the required time. According to the Brazel, Carpenter, and Jenkins (2010), brainstorming sessions should not take longer than expected as it may frustrate the team leaders and lower their concentration degree. One should know when to take breaks to avoid the exercise turning monotonous. In the end, it is essential to review the ideas once more to see if any additional ideas are sparked up.

Ensuring appropriate follow-up

It is important to follow-up on action items emerging from retreat and brainstorming sessions. These events are hard work and represent significant investments, which most often raise expectations about organisational progress and change for the better. If such growth does not materialise, staff will get disheartened. Action items that get accomplished should be noticed and celebrated through appropriate cheerleading. Such positive accomplishments should be pointed out in public forums. Follow-up will track progress and reinforcing action items, which will lead to improvement.

References

Alkhatib, F. A. I. S. A. L. (2015). Using social media for citizen engagement: Lessons learned from the UAE national brainstorming session. Mohammed bin Rashid School of Government Policy Brief.

Brazel, J. F., Carpenter, T. D., & Jenkins, J. G. (2010). Auditors' use of brainstorming in the consideration of fraud: Reports from the field. The Accounting Review, 85(4), 1273-1301.

Cluff, E. D., & Webb, G. (2019). Staff retreats in ACRL libraries. College & research libraries news, 49(8), 517-522.

Goodman, J. (2019). Strategic customer service: Managing the customer experience to increase positive word of mouth, build loyalty, and maximize profits. Amacom.

Juttner, U., Schaffner, D., Windler, K., & Maklan, S. (2013). Customer service experiences. European Journal of Marketing.

Payne, A., & Frow,...