Actual Customer Service, What’s That?

There was a time where you could walk into any establishment, find what you were looking for and walk out as a lifelong customer of that establishment. That was the way business was conducted and was even thought of to increase the bottom line. Since then, economic and business conditions have changed, and the customer service norm now is something most of us don’t recognize.

One of the biggest victims of “strategic cost analysis” thinking is customer service. Providing sound support and service to customers is so alien and simply not the primary concern. Because other so-called projects, politicking, and departmental tasks must take precedence. Another victim of this way of thinking is employees now seriously lack product and service knowledge; because customer service is the fundamental reason for employees to attain that product knowledge as an output for providing better customer service support. Without it, companies are finding it difficult to educate employees and even when they do the results are mediocre. Not enough to make the customer satisfied.

Still the issue remains if the problem exists how do we fix it and what do we to not let it get bad again? To answer that you would also have to ask why or how the issue took place in the first place? some managers reference the issue being too many of their subordinates, even themselves, end up being caught in the day-to-day and basically putting out fires. Which could lead to wonder who really has time to properly listen to the concerns of the customer and provide a resolution-based solution.

That brings it to resolution solving. According to Harvard Business article , most managers understand that their customers will flee because of lack of great customer service. Many organizations will boast top notch reviews and great feedbacks as shining pillar of great customer service to their customer base. However, I would ask how many of them provided a satisfactory resolution for the customer. As in, did you solve the customer’s issue? If the answer is anything but a decisive Yes, then you have not solved their problem. What good is a 5-star review then? The difference would be next time they will go to the competitor because they solved an issue. So, it always really to comes down to a simple question…did my issue get resolved yes or no?

Overall, bad customer service cannot be blamed on the product or personnel or even on a CRM. It can only be blamed on lack of organizational leadership. You see, with strong leadership there is a sense of vision and purpose instilled at every departmental level and engrained in every employee of the company regardless of their position within the organization. With bad leadership, even if you have a great ERP, CRM, etc., great product and / or personnel, it will still fall short in providing great customer service. And that would be simply because leadership has NOT made it crystal clear that what they care about is customer retention through actual customer service.

Jameel Saqib
Co-Founder, McCord Telematics – GoMcCord
November 7, 2022