Internal "Partnering" in Support of Front Line Customer Contact Personnel
by Donna Earl

This is a reminder that an organization's ability to deliver outstanding customer service is a product of a company culture which demonstrates internal "partnering" in support of front line customer contact personnel. Since the "acid test" of a customer service driven company culture is the way in which complaints are handled, the theme of this update will be dealing with complaints.

IBM rep. John Davis says "The selling edge trick is to establish a continuously flowing pipeline from the customer's mind to the salesperson's ear. When you keep track of what customers want and do not want, what pleases and gripes them, you can adjust your sights and stay ahead of the competition." With that in mind, here are some points to remember:

•A lack of communication between the front line and upper management is the biggest reason companies don't understand customer expectations. Yet customer complaints are the most effective and cheapest means of understanding customer expectations and gathering information.

•Employees hesitate to pass along important information if they feel the company culture punishes internal complaints.

•When surveyed, all managers emphatically state they encourage employee and customer feedback, yet most employees report that management either ignores or resists hearing feedback, especially bad news.

•The best leaders of customer service focused organizations treat complaints from employees in the same way they expect customer contact personnel to handle complaints from the customer!

•Customer contact personnel need guidelines for dealing with customers and a process for reporting feedback/complaints.

•Leaders of customer focused cultures remember that every TQM strategy relies on employee and customer feedback, and respects these two groups as the organization's biggest assets.

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