Customer Service Topic Sheets

Customer service standards (and performance against them) are a key component in the delivery of service that achieves customer satisfaction

Benchmarking has become an important methodology for providing a fast-track to achieving organisational excellence. This topic sheets investigates the different types of best practice benchmarking and their relative benefits.

Reward and recognition of employees is an essential part of the culture and practice of a successful organisation

Tracking complaints information against loyalty shows that if a customer doesn't have a reason to complain their loyalty improves. However where a customer is unhappy and has a cause for complaint their loyalty decreases

The term Service Quality is used to describe the degree of excellence of the process of delivering service by an organisation to its customers

People continually strive to achieve the greatest utility they can (i.e. maximise the benefit they gain for whatever cost they incur), they migrate to the suppliers that come closest to delivering it. In other words they search for and stay with companies that do best what matters most to customers. Customer satisfaction is the phrase commonly used to encapsulate this phenomenon.

Where a complaint can't be resolved at point of entry, it will required to be escalated or referred up the line. In some cases, a complaint may reach deadlock.

There are some simple steps that if followed can ensure that complaints are resolved effectively

This topic sheet looks at why communication is so important and offers some crucial principles to bear in mind when communicating with customers, whether over the phone, in person or in writing.