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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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