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- Jan 31, 2012
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Customers have been described by different experts as the reason for any business to flourish or become extinct; after all there is no reason for a business to continue to exist if there are no customers to serve. Customer care is a service that seeks to acquire new customers, provide superior customer satisfaction and build customer loyalty. As times change so do customer-care aspects. A customer is a person who enables people to earn a living and also enables government to exist and function. I spend a lot of my time meeting my clients in various cities across Africa. I meet with them to listen and understand the challenges they're facing and provide them with best solutions to return them on the path to success. Seeing my clients succeed gives great joy and satisfaction. Tanzania's economy is growing rapidly and creating a growing middle class, which is great news for business. This growth in the economy and the middle class, however, brings more complex challenges and stiffer competition.'A couple of months ago, I invited one of my clients to a lunchtime meeting at one of the finer restaurants in Dar Es Salaam. When I was at this beautiful restaurant, I came across a very strange and unexpected experience and an unpleasant one at that. From the moment we arrived, the customer service was poor; the receptionist looked bored and disinterested and the waiters slow and lethargic, to the point that they kind of infected you with their negative energy. As if that wasn't enough, my lunch order took over an hour without arriving while a table beside us with some white people who'd ordered THE SAME MEAL as me having arrived behind me got their order in about 10 minutes! I was so disgusted by the whole thing I asked my client, who also happened to be white, to go to one of the 5-star hotels instead. It seemed that I was possibly getting poor service at this restaurant because of the colour of my skin, which is strange given that this is Africa, Tanzania is my country and Dar Es Salaam is my hometown. Unfortunately, this is a problem I have seen across Africa, and such poor customer service is the reason African businesses lose clients and billions of Shillings every year to foreign competition.
Due to high demand for certain services, the providers become arrogant and adopt a take-it-or-leave-it attitude. But as substitute goods become more abundant, the power has shifted from seller to buyer. One can therefore assert that the customer is now a king; any market that ignores the customer stands to regret in terms of loss of sales and the demise of such a firm will definitely come sooner rather than later.
In my line of work, I can confirm that communication issues are one of the biggest obstacles affecting businesses today. This is why over the years I've helped businesses through Mikono Speakers [subsidiary company to excel company]to improve communication practices which improve employee performance, engagement, and brand loyalty. Improving organizational communication also increases innovation, agility, and responsiveness. This all leads to increased customer service, enhanced customer satisfaction, reduced customer acquisition costs, and increased repeat business and brand loyalty! All these aspects lead to increased profit. For most businesses, increased profit is a top priority.
The reasons for bad customer service are many and varied. Knowing what causes these problems is the first step to resolving them. That's why last year's Tolero Solutions conducted a survey and one key problem they see is:
53% of people said unclear communication was the biggest issue preventing them from having a good customer service experience!
Customer care plays an important role in an organization's ability to generate income and revenue therefore customer care should be included as part of an overall approach to systematic improvement. A customer service experience can change the entire perception a customer has of the organization.
Customer care includes putting systems in place to maximize customers' satisfaction with the business. It should be a prime consideration for every business because sales and profits depend on keeping customer happy. Customer care is more directly important in some roles than others, for receptionist, sales staff and other employees in customer facing roles, customer care should be a core element of their job description and training a core criterion when you are recruiting.
Experts say thatin Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania alone business lose more than Tsh 40 billion due to poor customer care practices. This shows that peopleindeed have money in their pockets but poor customer service by company staff stops businesses from getting that money!After all, if you don't treat a customer well, why would they spend their money on your product?
"Genesys, with research firm Greenfield Online and Data monitor/Ovum analysts, measuring the cost of poor customer service in the U.S., found that enterprises in the U.S. lose an estimated $83 billion each year due to defections and abandoned purchases as a direct result of a poor experience. Nearly two-thirds of consumers said they had ended a relationship due to customer service alone. The survey participants said that when they end a relationship, 61% of the time they take their business to a competitor.
Customer care services in organization include reliable services, security, parking space, front desk services, attractiveness, speed in service delivery, after sales services, customer attention and sensitivity to their needs, honesty, and good attitude towards customers. Customer care services are focused on making the customer comfortable, creating memorable interaction in the minds of the customers and making them feel better, satisfied than they were before the transaction and stimulate customer retention. The motive of any business is to create and serve their customers, but the biggest challenge is how to satisfy them for the life time of a business
Businesses should always look for ways to serve their customers more than they expect. In doing so, it helps them to know you care and it will leave them with the feel "Feel Good Factor".
There is number of factors that can contribute to customer satisfaction but customers both consumers and other business are likely to take into account the following;
- How well your service matches to customer needs
- How well you keep your customers informed
- The professionalism, friendliness and expertise of your employees
- The after sales service you provide.
Benefits of customer care:
Hasket Otal says that growth and profits are stimulated primarily by customer satisfaction which has a large bearing on customer loyalty. Customer loyalty is a direct result of customer satisfaction that is largely influenced by the value of customer care provided along or with product or service to the customer. A satisfied customer is one whose expectations have been met and with such a customer organizations tend to benefit in the following ways:
- Positive word of mouth: customers are more likely to recommend a high service to their friends, relatives and colleagues. The business will thus thrive on credible and positive image.
- Creates a competitive edge: excellent customer care offers a much greater competitive edge than competitors largely because positive service differentiation entails improving all the people aspect of business like training, and motivation which are all difficult to copy and achieve.
- Job satisfaction: a pleasant and conducive atmosphere emanating from good customer care will not only result into improved moral commitments but also improved customer satisfaction hence fewer complaints. Good customer care would reduce labour turn over.
- Refund. This means that in case the customer is right about the complaint, as a company caring about its customers, you should either explain the claim or refund the money in case of a financial problem.
- Take staff disciplinary action. Take the necessary staff action in case you identify the poor service delivery performance.
- Looking smart and efficient. Employees should always try as much as possible to explain problems and solve them amicably without much time being spent.
- Apologize. In case you find out that it's the corporation's mistake, it will be necessary to apologize and make amendments where possible.
- Equal treatment of complainers. As people interested in providing sound customer care, it is important to handle them with care and solve all their problems as regards your product or service.
- Replace/ make corrections by either part or whole of the product or service by providing a better solution that will create a good image. Remembering that it is easy to get customers but very difficult to retain them and more difficult to get them back. In any working environment that involves human interactions, complaints are bound to feature on a regular basis since they are part of business; one has to address them in more rational and realistic manner.
- Will tell good about the product on market
- Will buy again
- Will pay less attention on other competing products
- Will leave other products and starts consuming one with more satisfaction.
- It costs 6 times to attract customers than it does to keep an old one
- A typically dissatisfied customer will tell between 8-9 people about his problem with the organization.
- Seven out of ten complaining customers will do business with you again if you resolve the complaint in their favor
- If the complaint is resolved on spot, 95% will do businesses with you again
- Of the customers quite, 68% do so because of an attitude of indifference by the company or the specific individual.
Apple #
This one may turn out to be apocryphal, but the story was all over the place after the launch of the iPad 2 last year. Apparently a man bought an iPad online, then returned it to the company almost immediately, affixing a Post-It to the front of the device that simply read, "Wife said no." Returns processors must have gotten a kick out of it, because the story eventually made its way to a couple of Apple VPs, who refunded the customer and returned the iPad with an attached Post-It that said, "Apple said yes."
Why are we as consumers so captivated by stories of great customer service? Perhaps it is because they serve as a much needed reminder that there are companies (and amazing support reps) who still care about their customers.
Every company says that their customers are their #1 priority, but stories show us that many businesses are ready, willing, and able to go the extra mile for each and every one of their customers.
Excel Management and Outsourcing Limited:
Our clients depend on us to provide the best service possible. A case in point, one of the prominent hotels in East Africa needed a PA immediately. We received the call on Friday evening and by Monday Afternoon we had gone through 50 resumes, conducted an aptitude test and an on-spot interview
To better understand the needs of my client I took a taxi from Segerea to Mbezi beach. After talking to him for 1 hour I promised him the appropriate staff for him and his organization by Tuesday Morning. During that hour with him I came to understand what sort of challenges they were facing in term of human capital. As a show of good will I offered him 3 months to request a different candidate if he was not satisfied with the one I selected. And you know what she (the PA) has been with that company and my client for 5 years today.
Always your fan,
Deogratius Kilawe
C.E.O
0717109362
Excel Management and Outsourcing (T) Limited
IT PLAZA 1[SUP]st[/SUP] Floor
Ohio Street, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
