The Customers Revenge

3. For your current organisation (or one that you are familiar with), describe the policies and procedures that relate to customer service. Why is it important to follow these policies and procedures?

Most successful businesses today actively develop loyal customers who buy their brands again and again. After all, getting current customers to buy more is much easier than constantly seeking new customers. Think of three brands that you buy on a regular basis. Why do you stick to these products? How could another company dislodge you?

Customers want the business to produce quality products at reasonable price. You have different types of customers. There are different types of customers there are loyal ones, young ones, elderly, family or one-time customers.

These customers value both low cost and excellent customer service. Providing both generates both branch loyalty and advertisement through word of mouth.

Customer complaints have over doubled in the last few years. This shows some big issues in the customer service management. Research which areas customers are most dissatisfied with and support the staff in gaining new skills to meet the customers ever changing needs.

Customers want quality goods for low prices, they basically want to feel like they got more than their moneys worth

Listening to complaints and explaining the options in a clear and concise way when dealing with customer enquiries.

High Quality Customer Service: By providing superior customer service, there will be positive future growth. This is done by focusing on customers and providing services and products they want. The sales initiatives are specifically designed to meet the needs of their customers. This is why they are ranked in the top 20 best performing companies and Home

A policy is a definite course of action adopted by an organisation. Policies guide employees through the decision-making process. Within Bury College virtually all of our policies relate to customer service, at least in part. For example, the Health & Safety Policy is in place to ensure that all of our customers/stakeholders that come into contact with Bury College remain safe at all times. The policy also includes instructions regarding identification which is to be worn, visibly by all staff, students and visitors

While savvy marketing and a targeted sales pitch may lure customers, it is how a company relates and responds to customers’ needs and concerns that determine successful customer retention. In the current social media age, consumers have a multitude of platforms, to include Facebook, Twitter, or Yelp, through which they voice their satisfaction and/or dissatisfaction with a particular company’s policies, practices, or products. Such feedback is not only instantaneous, but far-reaching as the social media explosion allows for mass promulgation of unfiltered comments, concerns, and reviews. Thus, the need for exemplary customer service practices is more pronounced today than ever before. Sound customer service can include many different services and activities, and can vary from company to company, depending on the sector and size of the organization. The onus is upon managers to formulate effective policies and attainable goals through which customer service is enhanced for their respective company, thereby improving supplier-customer interaction. (Tucker, 1994, pp.32-40)

Decide whether to advise all employees of the policy, what ones progressive discipline steps are, how the policy is to be applied, and what the policy does not address.

Customers want to be treated in a friendly manner with honest, straightforward information and responses. They appreciate a customer service representative who is willing to admit mistakes and work to correct them. Customers who believe they have been misled stop doing business with the company. These ‘critical incidents’ are experiences that make the customer walk away and never return. They don’t complain, they just leave and share the negative service experience with others. The bad news spreads, leading the organisation to lose more customers and deterring prospective customers. Critical incidents can include broken promises that annoy and anger customers. Customers expect to be informed if a promise cannot be fulfilled. Finally, customers expect understanding and empathy from a customer service representative who is willing to see things from their point of view, especially when there is a problem.

Doyle (1998), explains as follows “Customers can choose from whom they buy, and unless the firm satisfies them at least as well as competitors, sales and profit will quickly erode. More companies are putting at the top of their agenda winning and retaining customers via increasing customer satisfaction.” In the statement of Whitbread it is additionally mentioned that they listen to their customers. Murray and O’Driscoll (1996) outline that it is a challenge to the producer to respond to customers’ needs, and competition between producers is based on their success in understanding and fulfilling those customers’ needs.

Employees must first align their perceptions of service quality to what the customer’s perceptions are (Becker & Wellins 1990). Understanding what drives the customer establishment relationship is important to turning one time customers into loyal

The term “Brand Loyalty” also called as “Customer Loyalty” has been in the business industry since a very long time as a model to be used in conducting business. But it wasn’t until the mid to late 1900’s that the term was actually given its due importance by making it a vital part of advertising and marketing. The concept of marketing evolved substantially from being focused on sales of a product to having Customer satisfaction to be its focal point. Studies further revealed that there was a positive correlation between customer satisfaction and Brand Loyalty.