Managing and delivering world-class services: the value of customer service skills (2010)

Description

Published October 2010.Written by Mark Gatenby, Kingston Business School, Kingston University and was sponsored by Inspiring People.

Customer experience of service encounters is widely recognised as a main determinant of the success of service organisations. The term ?moment of truth? is often used to describe every point of contact between the customer and service staff. This moment is important for all services ? whether in health, retail, finance, hospitality or tourism. Customer service skills are fundamental to understanding what makes a successful service encounter.

This literature review explores four customer service skills areas:

– What are customer service skills?
– Is the customer always right?
– Managing the customer during the service encounter
– What can managers do to increase customer service skills?
– The value of customer service skills