Ensuring the Delivery of Quality Customer Service

There are certain skills that all staff should develop in order to deliver quality customer service. These skills include:

1. Effective Listening. A major contributor to communication breakdown is poor listening skills. It is important that managers and employees understand that carefully listening to a customer will improve an employee’s ability to deliver great customer service. Being a good listener not only helps with handling complaints, it is also a great way to build trust and confidence. Effective listening helps employees “step into the shoes” of their customers. 
2. Product Knowledge. Many frustrations can occur if staff do not have adequate product knowledge. When a customer interacts with an employee who demonstrates a good understanding of the product or service, then the customer will have more confidence in the organisation and have a higher level of satisfaction. Good product knowledge also makes customer transactions more efficient. 
3. Problem Solving. Delivering good customer service relies on employees being able to solve customer problems quickly and within organisational procedures and policies. Staff need to have the confidence to perform tasks within their power and to refer to management when appropriate. 
4. Rapport Building. The ability to quickly establish rapport and treat customers in a polite and friendly manner greatly contributes to the customer experience. This can be as simple as acknowledging and greeting a customer as soon as possible, calling them by their name and showing professional courtesy. 
5. Complaint Handling. Successfully handling customer complaints is often thought of as an advanced customer service skill. However, how an organisation handles customer complaints can significantly impact the organisation’s reputation. Therefore, it is important that all staff members feel comfortable and confident in all of their customer interactions and in their ability to handle disputes as they arise (Successfully handling customer complaints will be explored in more detail later in this section of the Study Guide).

Additionally, the delivery of quality customer service within any organisation relies on the presence of good leaders who lead by example. Good customer service leaders:

• Exhibit great communication skills
• Reward and recognise team members who do a good job
• Create and maintain a positive work environment
• Efficiently make decisions
• Provide quality and up-to-date training to their team

Staff training is critical for meeting customer service standards. Well-structured training can ensure that staff are fully competent in their roles and understand the customer service standards that they must deliver. Training can take many forms, but can generally be broken into two types: (1) Off-the-job training and (2) On-the-job training.

Off-the-Job Training

Off-the-job training involves any training that is not conducted in the work environment. It is used primarily to teach the theoretical aspects of an employee’s role or to train employees in the technical skills required before work can be undertaken. Off-the-job training is often provided via external providers (e.g., training organisations, TAFE courses, etc.) however it can also be developed by the organisation itself.

The advantages of off-the-job training include:

• A wider range of skills or qualifications can be obtained
• Employees can learn from outside specialists or experts
• Employees can be more confident when starting a job

The disadvantages of off-the-job training include:

• Possible added costs (e.g., training facilitators, transport, accommodation, etc.)
• Lost working time for study leave
• Does not allow for training specific processes/skills within the exact work environment

On-The-Job Training

On-the-job training is the most common method of training new employees. This training involves employees learning within the work environment as they perform their roles. The main methods of one-the-job training include demonstration/instruction (this involves a trainer, manager or senior employee showing the trainee how to do the job) and coaching (this a more intensive method of training that involves a close working relationship between an experienced employee and the trainee).

The advantages of on-the-job training include:

• It is generally more cost-effective than off-the-job training
• Employees are actually productive during training
• It provides an opportunity to learn specific on-the-job skills

The disadvantages of on-the-job training include:

• The quality of training largely depends on the quality of the trainer available at the time – bad habits may be passed onto the new employee.
• The work environment is not always conducive to learning (e.g., high-stress or fast-paced environments)
• Potential disruption to the work of other staff members.

Even with adequate training it is not uncommon for employees to potentially struggle to meet customer service standards. Therefore, it is vital for organisations to continually monitor and manage the delivery of quality customer service.

Organisations should ensure that they have some form of customer service manager in place to monitor the team’s performance against the organisational plans and customer service standards. Monitoring team performance involves a manager getting involved with employees. Managers need to interact with the team and find out how they are going, ask if they have any problems or feedback, and help team members who may be struggling with any aspect of their job role.

Some possible ways a customer service manager can monitor and manage their team’s performance include:

1. “Checking–in” with each team member. Checking-in with employees is one of the easiest and most effective ways of monitoring performance. Checking-in with employees can be as simple as the following examples:“Morning Sarah, how did you go with Mrs Smith’s order yesterday? Were we able to deliver her products on time like we promised?” or “Hi Jack, I know you have a lot on your plate today. Can we sit down in an hour together and talk through how to best prioritise what needs to be done?” 
2. Reviewing Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s).  KPI’s are metrics used to help an organisation define and measure progress towards achieving its objectives or critical success factors. They are quantifiable measures that can be expressed in either financial or non-financial terms. Financial indicators can include things like sales figures, revenue growth rate, and net profit margins. Non-Financial Indicators can include things such as customer satisfaction scores, customer feedback, and customer retention rates. (Farris, Bendle, Phillip and Reibstein 2010). Customer service managers should consider the organisation’s overall performance as well as the performance of individual staff members.
3. Customer feedback. Paying attention to customer feedback is a valuable tool in monitoring employee performance. If a customer reports that they’re pleased with the product, or that the sales staff were exceptionally helpful, this is a good indication that the team is probably on-track. However, negative customer feedback indicates that there are issues to resolve. Such feedback provides managers with an opportunity to pinpoint areas that require further training. Some organisations also chose to employ ‘mystery shoppers’ to perform transactions and then report back on the level of service they received. The advantage of this monitoring technique is that the mystery shopper provides specific, measurable information about the transaction.
4. Regular Team Meetings. Team meetings are a great way to manage team performance, check and redistribute workloads, and increase employee motivation. Time should be taken to ensure all staff are aware, and motivated to meet, customer service goals and standards.  
5. Monitoring customer interactions. Customer service managers should also regularly monitor individual staff members and how they interact with customers. Monitoring staff performance in this way can reveal if any additional training is required.

If monitoring reveals that an employee is not meeting their customer service delivery standards then it is important to act quickly to resolve the underperformance. The methods a customer service manager should use will depend upon the nature of the underperformance. For example, if an otherwise exceptional employee missed one minor point on a ‘mystery shopper’ checklist then it would be appropriate to simply give the employee feedback about the missed point and remind them of its importance. However, if an employee is regularly underperforming it would be appropriate to determine whether they required additional training.

Providing Feedback

It is vital for customer service managers to be able to provide effective feedback to staff. When delivered correctly, feedback can be an excellent way to improve the delivery of customer service standards. Ovson (2013) outlines three types of feedback:

1. Positive Feedback. When a staff member has done a good job in performing their job role it is very important that it is acknowledged by their manager.  Positive feedback is important because: 
   • It shows staff that their work is not taken for granted or goes unnoticed
   • It helps staff fully understand what is expected of them
   • It enforces and encourages high quality performance
   • It keeps morale high even in the toughest situations
     
     Example Positive Feedback
     Do: "When you emailed client XYZ, I noticed that you did your homework on the type of product she had purchased before, you then were able to recommend her a new product more accurately. That was great – you really exceeded her expectations.”
     
     Don’t: "Good work communicating with that client.”
     This example demonstrates how important it is to be specific when giving feedback. By being specific this the employee will know that doing the background research helps exceed the customer’s expectations (Krizan, Merrier, Logan and Williams 2011).
2. Negative Feedback. Feedback should provide a constructive critique of the quality of work rather than take the form of a personal attack. Poorly constructed negative feedback can be perceived as simply aggressive (e.g., “Why can’t you ever get this right!?” or “You’re no good at this.”) By using the word “you” the feedback becomes about the employee rather than a detail about their work (Krizan, Merrier, Logan and Williams 2011).
3. Constructive Feedback. Customer service managers should aim to provide constructive feedback. This feedback gives recipients specific, concrete steps to improve performance on future tasks. As Ovson (2013) explains constructive feedback is important because:
   • It replaces negative feedback.
   • It specifically addresses the task or behaviour that needs improvement without personally attacking the employee. 
   • It has the potential to improve rapport between a manager and employees if done correctly.

Oveson (2013) further explains that for constructive feedback to be effective, managers should:

• State the purpose of the feedback. It is important to state the purpose of the feedback and what exactly is going to be covered to keep an employee focused. For example: “I’d like to discuss the customer response time with emails.” 
• Be Positive. It’s important to give at least as much positive feedback as you do negative. For example: “I’d like to discuss the customer response time with emails. The tone in your emails to customers is really professional, yet friendly – really great.”
• Be Specific. Vague words, even if positive or constructive, will not achieve the results managers are looking for. For example: “I’d like to discuss the customer response time with emails. The tone in your emails to customers is really professional yet friendly – really great. What I would like to see going forward though, is a response to the customer from you within 24 hours not 48 hours as it is currently.” In this example what needs to change is very clear and specific. As opposed to simply saying “You need to respond faster.” 
• Be Timely. Constructive feedback should be given as soon as possible once the area of improvement has been identified. The longer an employee carries on with a particular way of doing things the harder it is for an employee to change their behaviour. 
• Allow opportunity for response. After feedback has been delivered it is important to give the employee an opportunity to seek clarification and to obtain their ‘buy-in’ to work on the identified behavior. For example, the manager may ask: “Do have any questions at all?”, “What are your thoughts on this?” or “Will this be possible?”
• Summarise with support:  Summarising the feedback avoids misunderstandings and once again gives opportunity to clarify any points. It is also an opportunity for the manager to show support to the employee (Krizan, Merrier, Logan and Williams, 2011). For example: “So as I said, keep up the great work with the tone in your emails, now let’s just make sure we get back to our customers within 24 hours. If you have any problems with this just come and see me, I’ll be more than happy to help out.” 

No matter how well developed customer service standards are or how well trained and customer-focused employees are, it is inevitable that at some point a customer service problem will arise. Therefore, it is paramount that procedures are put in place to help the business (and its employees) resolve problems in a quick and effective manner.

At an organisational level, management must develop specific policies and procedures for handling customer complaints. Just like service standards, it is important that these policies and procedures are clear and easy for both customers and staff to understand and follow. Policies and procedures should clearly communicate the steps that a customer should take when making the complaint as well the steps employees should follow to address and resolve different types of customer complaints.

Example of a Complaints Handling Policy – Optus

In this extract we can see that Optus has clearly explained how they endeavor to handle customer complaints as well as their dispute resolutions process.

Skills for handling customer complaints

Developing specific policies and procedures is only the first part of the process for planning for effective complaints management. It is also important to ensure that all staff are familiar with these policies and procedures and possess the skills to be able to clearly and confidently address customer service problems. Training should be provided to staff so that they are able to effectively deal with an angry or upset customers. Poorly trained staff often respond emotionally and can make problems worse. Delivering effective service requires employees to look beyond the emotion of anger and discover the reason for the anger.

Some effective customer service strategies that Lucas (2008) proposes to assist employees engaged in difficult customer encounters include:

• Remaining Positive. It is best for an employee to focus on what the organisation can do rather than what they can’t do. For example, it’s better to say “We’d be more than happy to offer you a store credit for the value of your purchase.” Instead of “We don’t provide refunds.” Employees should be particularly mindful of the language they use while handling customer complaints. Using positive language can help prevent a situation from escalating.
• Remaining Objective. It may be difficult for an employee to remain calm in a situation where a customer is raising their voice or using profanity, however it is important to remember the customer is angry at the organisation not at the individual. The employee should remain calm and objective and seek to assist the customer in any way that they can. 
• Remaining Compassionate. A common approach for remaining friendly, empathetic and compassionate is to use the “feel, felt, found” strategy. For example “I can relate to how you feel Mr Jones. When other customers have felt this way before, we have found that the best course of action is to….” This method helps an employee empathise with a customer, while helping them know they’re not alone but that there is a solution to their problem.

Customer service experts have identified that particular steps or attitudes should be adopted in order to handle customer complaints smoothly. These steps include:

1. Adopt a Customer Service Mindset. A customer service mindset simply means ignoring what you personally believe might be right or wrong and instead focusing on a resolution that leads to a happy customer and ultimately a more profitable company (Toporek 2012). For example, when faced with an angry customer it is easy for an employee to feel as though they are getting blamed for other people’s mistakes, become defensive, and respond emotionally. However, by adopting a customer service mindset, the employee knows that the first priority is to satisfy the customer. 
2. Engage in Active Listening. Active listening requires a person to be fully engaged with the other person. Most importantly it involves remaining quiet and letting the other person feel like they have been given a chance to fully explain themselves. A large part of active listening is also body language, such eye contact and nodding to communicate to the other person that you are in fact listening (Toister 2012). While an employee often feels compelled to try to solve the problem right away, or jump to conclusions about what happened, the customer wants to feel as though their concerns and frustrations have been acknowledged and understood. Therefore actively (and patiently) listening to what happened from the customer’s point of view is a priority. Actively listening is one of the most important steps to overcoming customer service problems. 
3. Relay The Customer’s Concerns. This step involves confirming your understanding of the situation. Confirming or relaying the customers concern is about paraphrasing what they have already said (Toister 2012). It is important to use calm, objective wording. For example, "So as I understand it you are upset that you may miss an important sale as a result of the organisation not delivering the product you asked for on time - was there anything else we missed?” Repeating the problem shows the customer you were listening, which can help lower their anger and stress levels. More than this, it helps you agree on the problem that needs to be solved.
4. Empathise and Apologise. This step relates back to demonstrating active listening skills and getting into a customer service mindset. It is about making the customer feel like their concerns are being acknowledged and that they are important. For example, an employee could say, "I understand why you're upset. I would be too. I'm very sorry that we didn't get the samples to you on time, especially since it’s caused these problems."
5. Present a Solution. There are two primary ways to do this: (1) ask the customer what they would like and, if it is within reason, this can be implemented; or (2) the staff member can suggest what they can do to solve the problem (Lucas 2009). For example, an employee may be able to anticipate what will make her client happy and present the solution: “I know you need these samples by lunch time to show to your own customers. I will drive to our other warehouse where I know there are spares and personally deliver it to your office by 11:30am”. The staff member could also ask the customer to identify what would make them happy. For example: “If this solution doesn't work for you, I'd love to hear what you’d like. If it's in my power I'll get it done, and if it's not possible, we can work on another solution together.” 
6. Take Action and Follow-up. Once a solution has been agreed upon, it must be actioned immediately. The employee should explain every step that they will take to fix the problem and then complete those steps (Lucas 2009). Additionally, once the situation has been resolved, where appropriate, it is important to follow up with the customer over the next few days to make sure they were happy with the solution. 
7. Assess the Feedback. The last step of the process is to reduce the risk of the situation happening again. Consider how the problem arose and what can be done to prevent that situation happening again in the future (Cook 2012). Complaint monitoring should be incorporated into an organisation’s strategies for continuous improvement.

How customer service problems are dealt with can have a significant impact upon an organisation’s reputation and their bottom line. It is vital for all customer figures and feedback to be considered and organisational practices amended as required. For example, customers who complain are providing the organisation with information about what it needs to do to improve. If the same feedback keeps being given it would be appropriate to make changes. This might involve eliminating product or services that are faulty or inadequate, improving operating procedures, improving performance standards or increasing staff training. Essentially, aspects of the organisation that might be altered based upon customer feedback include:

• Operational plans and procedures
• Staff training procedures
• Resource procurement procedures
• Service delivery procedures
• Processes
• Work practices
• Product/service design
• Service delivery procedures

In this section of the module you have learned some of the key skills required to deliver quality customer service. You also learned about the importance of staff training, monitoring and constructive feedback. Finally, you learned how to properly handle customer complaints.