"Customer Advocacy and Intimacy:What must be Paid Attention to?"

It is highly unlikely that the theme on the ‘customer’ will ever be dated or superseded by something else. What seems to be apparent is that we are stressing on the same things that have been mentioned over the last twenty years or so. Customer satisfaction, for instance, is still valid and pertinent, so is the area of customer complaints, customer loyalty, retention, etc. It is however important to remember that we are covering the same points of emphasis but we are covering new ground. As we continue to move into the era of knowledge-based value added, the meaning of the aforementioned areas will change calling for different degrees of emphasis.

Most texts cover the major critical factors of customer care, customer centricity, customer loyalty and retention, pretty well. For instance, it is accepted widely that the following factors are core pre-requisites for modern competitiveness:

• Defining customers at the heart of corporate strategy – This is really what was found to make a difference between World Class organisations and the rest. When a strategy is defined in terms of customer needs and wants, its execution will produce the right results which invariably are measured in terms of customer impact;
  
  
• Developing a customer centric culture – The customer has got to resonate in all employees minds and has to be an integrate value with everything else that shape the organisational culture. Serving customers must be understood, accepted and driven from a behavioural mindset and not as an imposition;
  
  
• Designing a customer oriented work climate – The concept of teamwork is very powerful if it is driven by common goals and shared values. Teams create extraordinary contributions and much higher impact on the customer if the driving force is customer needs and wants;
  
  
• Managing Through Process Orientation – Processes by definition has to start with the Voice of the Customer. The various tasks and activities that ensue will be merely a translation of various customer needs and wants. Processes represent the best means by which customer satisfaction can be achieved. They represent the disciplined approach that can guarantee, quality, consistency, agility and effectiveness;
  
  
• Delivering The Right Results – The previous points on strategy, customer-based objectives and process orientation will, together, call for a measurement approach that tracks value, optimisation and impact on the customer. It is often the case that process-based work will have a blend of measurement (leading and lagging) and a balanced perspective.
  
  

• Commitment – Senior Management must ensure that the real purpose of the organisations’ they lead must be the customer. They have to demonstrate constancy of purpose and lead with vision and a clear direction;
  
  
• Concurrence – Creating a consensus through corporate alignment and goal congruence is an important task for senior executives, in order to mobilise the various energies and so as to impact positively on the customer;
  
  
• Culture – Shaping the right culture that unites and integrates is a must. This can be done through the strong and continuous emphasis on values and their articulation at all levels;
  
  
• Communication – At the heart of customer advocacy is effective communication. There are so many different approaches, formal and informal that can remind people on the importance of the customer;
  
  
• Consistency – Here, operational excellence will play a key role. Consistency delivers customer satisfaction and prevents customer complaints. It is the fluctuations in service delivery and variations from expectation that often cause problems;
  
  
• Care – Care is the proof that the organisation is serious about building a long-term relationship with the customer. External advocacy is often a strong signal about the intent, discipline, and commitment of the organisation to serve its customers and to keep them happy and satisfied.
  
  

• Empathy – Standard relationships, which are based on transactions, will not reach this level of closeness. Empathy can only become viable is there is true integration with customers thoughts, needs, wants, perceptions, plans and feelings;
  
  
• Enlightenment – This is the true measure of closeness and common understanding. When we know precisely who the customer really is and what they want in specific terms, what they value most and what will excite them;
  
  
• Emotional Quality – Work on a quality dimension that goes beyond the physical attributes of products and services and create an attachment to the ‘brand’ by fulfilling a new set of needs, which are the ones that deliver loyalty and retention.
  
  

A decade ago, customer care was essentially viewed as a “bolt-on” department. It was a corporate apologist not included in product development, manufacturing, operations or sales. In the past, whenever a customer was dissatisfied with a product or a service and complained of the same, the feedback was shunted into the complaints process, perhaps never to surface again.

Customer-Care for survival

In present scenario, where products and prices of goods appear similar, what sets your company apart from that of your competitor? Un-debatably, it is superior quality and effective customer care and service. Any company that neglects this important aspect will face irate customers and invite their wrath. Over a period of time, the business may even have to close down.

The Global Network, in its report, Preparing Now For the Next Decade: A Preview of Emerging Trends, has identified customer service as the Number 1 problem. Such is the role of customer care in business survival. The rule for continued existence is simple, care for your customers or perish.

Few Philosophies of Customer-Care/Service

Dr Christopher Lovelock, a distinguished Professor of Service Management at Harvard Business School uses an equation to explain customer service:

"PRODUCT + SERVICE = COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE"
(The ‘Service’ in the equation refers to customer service and care)

Tom Peter (considered a leading management guru by the Fortune, The Economist and The Business Week), reports that customers are not influenced by the price of a product or a service anymore. Low- cost suppliers aren't the most competitive companies. Customer care has by far surpassed both price and image marketing.

A Customer Focus Survey conducted by the Forum Corporation (a worldwide leader in corporate learning, has assisted many fortune 1000 clients to combat their problems) states that customer service includes the entire experience of a customer with a company. Research conducted by Texas A&M University, the forum has found that service quality includes five factors:

• Reliability – It implies providing the customer pleasing, well mannered and informed service consistently.
  
  
• Assurance - The technique to build confidence in the customer about the representative’s ability and competence to take the required action.
  
  
• Empathy – The caring attitude of self-identification with another person’s feelings and situation.
  
  
• Responsiveness – It refers to the “will-do” attitude and enthusiasm to go that extra mile, resulting in effective customer care.
  
  
• Tangibles – This aspect of customer care deals with the customer’s image of the organisation and its representatives.

The research also found that the most important factors for customer satisfaction were empathy, reliability, responsiveness and assurance, in that order. Tangible factors and cost didn't affect service quality and customer perception much.

Interaction – The building Blocks of Customer-Care Model

When it comes to customer care, interaction is the key word. Customer satisfaction depends on the exchanges between an organisation and its customers. The communications can be in the form of queries, feedback, or complaints. Excellent customer-care representatives are essential for providing good customer-care experience to the customers.

Training representatives on the art of evoking the feeling that they are always gaining something valuable in customers is vital. The organisation can prepare a list of probable queries, and ways to handle them. It is also essential to empower sales reps with tools necessary to solve certain problems instantly.

A company has to thus understand how customers see ‘effective service’. It helps them better to understand customers and build business around them. For customers, valuable care consists of:

• Valuable use of time : Simple product presentation followed by logical answers to customer queries will ensure that customers visit the company again.
  
  
• Taking responsibility : The customer-care rep should be good enough to accept failure (in product or service) and should tactfully arrive at an answer that would satisfy the customer.
  
  
• Understanding customer requirements : The organisation’s representative should be quick to understand the customer needs, and be aware of financial and other constraints of customers.
  
  
• Problem-solving abilities : The customer care rep should be tactful and customer-friendly in handling any contingency that could arise before or after the sale. He should solve problems such that the customers would be satisfied.

Customer-Care Model

Quality On-Line, Inc, has developed a successful customer care model. This model establishes a blueprint to efficiently handle the various interactions that take place between the customer and the organisation. The model also seeks to continuously improve the organisation so as to provide enhanced customer care to its customers.

The process consists of four steps: Concern – Address – Refine – Evaluate.

• Concern : The foremost principle to be adopted while interacting with the customer is to listen and understand the underlying issues. A complete awareness and appropriate definition of the query is essential. The customer care rep should display a genuine empathy for customer concerns.
  
  
• Address : The next step is to address and resolve the customer concerns. Clear internal and external communication   is required for this purpose. Customer’s suggestions and expectations should be considered for effective interaction.
  
  
• Refine : After satisfactory customer interaction, the information and outcome derived from such communications should be reviewed and analysed. Any scope for improvement in the organisation’s product/service/process should be refined. This would ensure an environment of continuous improvement of customer service in the organisation.
  
  
• Evaluate : A thorough appraisal and evaluation of the organisation’s customer care efforts is conducted periodically. Continuous improvement schemes are introduced to perk-up the customer’s interaction experiences. This enables the  organisation to render “caring” care to the organisation’s most valuable assets, its customers.

The quality of the customer service that the organisation renders distinguishes it from its competition. As relationships are more valuable than price and delivery standards, fostering them by providing effective customer care is critical. A strong customer relationship also helps resolve problems in a friendly-environment thus positively impacting the business.

As a customer, calling any business today - be it an insurer, a financial service agent, or an airline service, odds are that you would be directed to the company’s website or automated telephonic assistance and asked to fend for yourself. Where is Customer Care?

The lost Era of “High Touch” Philosophy

Customer Care! Is the era of care long gone? The fascination of organisations with customer care management seems to be disappearing steadily and rapidly. What has happened to the emphasis on service? The lost art of customer care needs to be re-discovered, and soon.

One cannot imagine care without the human touch. Machines and technology however seem to have replaced the human element in care management. What was once considered as “High Touch” philosophy has transformed itself into “High Tech” philosophy.

Customers care – Not extinct, yet

The art of customer care has not been completely wiped out. Some organisations still recognise the benefits and payback of the “human touch” caring attitude. They exhibit the customer satisfaction and profitability resulting from following customer-care viewpoints. These organisations set examples and lessons for the rest of the corporate world to emulate.

Lessons

Strategies for effective and efficient customer-care :

• Build an unbeatable bundle of products and services. Take a cue from Amazon.com: Want to keep/retain your customers? Give them what they want without leaving your premises. The company may have started selling books, but today, surfers stay in online store for greeting cards music, videos, tools, toys, software, and with the zShops' initiative, shop in as many small, independently-owned stores as the company can cram into cyberspace.
  
  
• Give your customers an incentive to come back. Be it a gift, a discount, special financing, or a chance to win what's behind Curtain #1, customers come back for incentives. McDonald's cashed in on the Beanie Baby craze by offering a series of specially designed Teenie Beanies with its Happy Meals for kids. The promotion generated so much business that the burger giant ran it repeatedly.
  
  
• Empower your people; back up initiative. At the Ritz-Carlton every employee is informally allotted USD 2000 to solve specific customer complaints. After a goof-up in a room-service order, waiters can make amends by serving a dessert – compliments of the management. Not only does this lighten the mood of the diners, but also wins the hotel goodwill!
  
  
• Stand behind your work and reap the rewards of trust. If your customers don't trust you, they won't come back. If they do, you can survive the rough seas. There is only one maker of refillable lighters left in the U.S., the Zippo Manufacturing Company. What makes Zippo so special? The simple, unequivocal lifetime warranty: "It works or we fix it free."
  
  
• Support good works and your customers will support you. Doing well by doing good is a powerful loyalty builder.
  
  
• Show your appreciation to every customer. Take the time to appreciate customers who give you business. Thoughtfulness counts!
  
  
• Know your trophy customers and treat them best of all. If the Pareto Principle runs true at your company, you will find that the top 20% of your customers contribute 80% of sales. Japan's Oura Oil treated its trophy customers as service station royalty. Customers who purchase over 5,000 gallons of gas per year get a special club card entitling them to plenty of extra services, such as free windshield wiper fluid, whenever they refuel.
  
  
• Make it easier to buy from you than your competitor. UPS realised 'convenience was king' in a busy world. It created an elegant overnight package for customers, like mortgage lenders, who sent lots of documents that required signatures and return shipping. The company made a reusable envelope, so the recipient could simply sign the papers and ship them back in the same package - via UPS, of course.
  
  
• Go and get 'em. The Country Christmas Tree Farm in Sebastopol, CA, knew that it was tough to earn the loyalty of customers. This was especially so of customers who only came in once every year, so it sent a 'thank you' note with a twist. Buy your Xmas tree from them and a thank you note arrives the following Thanksgiving…along with details about this year's tree.
  
  
• Find out what your customers want and give it to them. LISTEN! Worcester, MA's Fallon Clinic began focusing on customer complaints, and found out that many of them centred on the department's doctors. Interpersonal skills training for the staff resulted in reducing patient complaint levels by almost two-thirds.
  
  
• Infuse words with warmth. A phrase that is grilled into trainees at the Ritz-Carlton epitomises the hotel’s image: ‘Elegance without warmth is arrogance’. When a member of the customer service team speaks to a customer over the phone, he first greets him, albeit effusively. In most cases, he feigns warmth that customers are quick to discern! Genuine warmth establishes a person, as one who can be trusted to deliver on a promise.
  
  
• Become a customer service champion. What do Nordstrom, Southwest Airlines, and Ritz-Carleton Hotels have in common? They are famous for building their businesses. Their customers come first! Consumers naturally flock to them. CEOs who are customer service champs lead these companies. They recognise and reward employees that cater to customers; and, they brag about their accomplishments. That’s the catch; you should that too.

Despite all its flaws and not being able to get there, somewhere down the line, customer care still reigns supreme. Marketers are trying tooth and nail to combat technological flaws that hinder excellent customer care. They seem to rightly remember that they need to serve customers better and faster!

What is Customer Care?
This file guides the reader into the world of customer care. Subjects included are, what is customer care, how to understand the customers, customer service levels, using customer care to increase profitability, and dealing with customer complaints.
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?type=RESOURCES&itemId=1074301416

Basics of customer service
The best practice to evaluate the customer care feelings is described in the file. The attributes of empathy, responsiveness, reliability, assurance and tangibles are considered as the most vital customer-service qualities.
http://www.krconsulting.com/pdf_archives/pdf/customer%20service%20basics.pdf

All about customer care and relations
The article describes the importance of customer care in any organisation. It also focuses on the methods which positive customer experience to the customers and resulting in enhanced relations.
http://www.bizhelp24.com/marketing/customer_relations_care_1.shtml

How customer centric is your organisation?
This is an interactive means to find out to the extent of customer focus the organisation has achieved. It represents customer centricity approach through a baseball model. It includes a questionnaire to analyse the current stage of centricity in the organisation.
http://www.round.co.uk/cci/default.cfm?fuseaction=survey.surveyHome

Unleashing the supremacy of customer care
How to incorporate the essence of customer-care philosophy is dealt with in this document. How the organisation can create an environment and feeling of “care” is summarised. The role of employees in providing the caring service to the customers is emphasised on.
http://www.crm2day.com/library/EpFkFVVFZuKdZBsyBR.php


A Glimpse of Customer Care Model in Thanksgiving Dinner
It is an exciting comparison between the thanksgiving dinner and the customer-care model. The similarity between preparing for the turkey feast and rendering excellent customer-care is evident in the article.
http://www.customercarecoach.com/public/thanksgiving.asp


A shining example of excellent customer care
It is a series of three articles, describing Ritz-Carlton’s paragon position in customer service. The Ritz values are embodied in an array of principles that include the Credo, Motto, the Employee Promise, and the 20 Basics.
http://www.expertmagazine.com/artman/publish/article_390.shtml

Strategic Customer Care: An Evolutionary Approach to Increasing Customer Value
by Stanley A. Brown
Book Description :
How to successfully apply the principles of customer care in any company. Most organisations essence unleash power today recognise the importance of improving customer care—the need to go beyond traditional customer service and truly manage customers as assets—but only about 6% apply its principles effectively. This book fully explains the three stages in the evolution of customer care.

The Customer Care and Contact Center Handbook
by Garry Schultz
Book Description :
Customer satisfaction is essential to the success of any and all businesses. At a time in which technological advances, cultural changes, and escalating customer expectations have rendered post-sale customer support more demanding than ever, the need for exemplary post-sale services is greater than ever. Ensuring all customer interactions result in satisfaction is the core target of the customer contact centre.

The Service Edge: 101 Companies That Profit from Customer Care
by Ron Zemke, Dick Schaaf
Book Description :
Management consultant Zemke and journalist Schaaf have produced a unique list of the best service organisations in the country. Before describing their choices, they elaborate upon the fundamental principles underlying distinctive service. They then present their selections for the "Service 101" in categories by industry, ranging from travel, hotels, and health care to manufacturing, entertainment, and public service.


Customer Care: How to Create an Effective Customer Focus
by Sarah Cook
Book Description :
Demonstrates how to develop a good customer service focus that is tailored to today's savvy consumers. A guide to developing a customer-care ethos and motivating staff, gaining commitment, and ensuring successful results of customer service.


Best Practices in Customer Service
by Ron Zemke, John A. Woods
Book Description :
A one-stop resource that brings together the wisdom of dozens of customer service experts who explain & demonstrate how to implement the best practices available in customer service.

Complaints Resolution– the missing piece of the jigsaw