Customer Service || Focused field for next five year business

During this unexpected pandemic situation globally business strategy has changed a lot. Different MNC and big conglomerate are thinking about their next five years business expansion process considering priority development areas where they have to look after keenly in order to obtain planned profit gain. In a dependable survey among customers it is found that most customers’ focused fact is Customer Service. Major customers’ behavior as a long lasting product consumer depends on Customer Service first rather than product price or quality.

Actually customer is the king. So any company or organization should take round the year customer engagement programs targeting happy customer service.

Unfortunately in our country most the big conglomerates don’t like to invest on after sales activities as much willingly as they usually do for before sales activities. But for long time business plan now a day’s most of the world class top brands focus on after sales activities. Because they realize that to get everlasting profitability existence there is no other option than happy customer service.   

Management expectation to the team “After Sales Service”

 In every business, generally management’s expectation is profit. It is very natural as all the financial hit is carried out by management so there is no alternative of expecting profit in business. Most of the sale driven companies give priority on sales, because it is the direct profit center whereas after sales service team can work as indirect profit center. Actually efficient and cost optimized after sales service can be recognized as cost savings tools of company.

Now question is how it works to get output?  Very first step of improved after sales service is to ensure Repair Turn Around Time (RTAT). There must be a realistic target what to be achievable considering relevant circumstance. Repeated service must be avoided. Use of replaceable parts is to be optimized. It’s only possible when technicians’ repair skill and knowledge is to be outstanding. And one important thing is to keep honest diagnosis reporting.

Comparison data analysis is a must to take actual development decisions in after sales service what may help to do efficient cost optimization and act as like indirect profit center.

In Bangladesh, one of the winning after sales service team is Service department of Butterfly Marketing Ltd. (LG-Butterfly) who did above KPI comparison analysis and does it regularly to be more improved.    

It’s all about team work. Without combined effort nobody can expect success in after sales service.    

Customer Service KPI || RTAT and Ratio of repeat service

Generally, most of the hectic customer is seen in after-sales service what is one of the most important branches of customer service. It’s such a working area where customers never allow the service team to do work a long time along with repetition. So it’s an obvious need in after-sales service to complete service work as soon as possible keeping the highest quality, as it will help to avoid repeat work within a short interval, in order to ensure a happy customer experience.

Customers get a happy experience when the service team works properly. To judge the progress of service work evaluation is also very important. Repair Turn Around Time (RTAT) and Ratio of repeat service are the most effective KPI here to do an actual evaluation of service work as RTAT is related to work completion time and Ratio of repeat service can portray the quality of service. 

Targeting to ensure proper customer service in Bangladesh, Butterfly Service Department (LG-Butterfly) is trying its best to be more improved day today. As per the last two months KPI evaluation, it is clearly visible that the team has shown remarkable progress in RTAT and the Ratio of repeat service.

We can give big THANKS to them along with their management.

Good luck.  

 

Service Super Heroes

 It was a sunny day in mid July when the sun usually tries to burn our skin with his maximum heat & shine and we, people, become very much anxious & do pray always to almighty for rain. In such day it’s very tough to anyone to go outside without umbrella or any other protection over head to avoid unbearable heat and disgusting sweating. But anything from nature could not stop Mr. Nahid, who is a Refrigeration and Air Conditioning (RAC) passionate technician, to service his duty when one hour back he came to know an old aged customer who was facing unexpected suffering in this hot humid day due to malfunctioning of his Air Conditioner (AC). A true technician Nahid reached the customer premises without delay and at first he checked indoor unit inside customer’s room and then went to roof of a 15 storied building where outdoor unit was kept at 12^th floor hanged outside.

 Mid day sun burnt the dedicated technician’s body as if he just had finished his bath by unbearable sweating. No leaves were moved. No cloud in the sky.  Sudden breeze seemed as hot air created from burner! All moving vehicles and passerby at road looked like small doll from the top of that multistoried building. The man who has weak heart never thinks of working by hanging at such high rise building! But duty is duty. Customer is the king. As a customer service brave warrior Nahid has the responsibility to satisfy customer targeting to achieve happy customer experience. And he did it. Using safety belt he claimed down from roof to do repair work for Air Conditioner (AC) outdoor unit ignoring all unexpected obstacles from nature and environment.

 This is one the example of winning stories of RAC technicians.

Actually various field technician take different challenge to ensure happy after sales service. Even sometimes they bet their life to get happy smile of customer though they take safety measures during work. Air to wind, pandemic to ferocious nature & environment –nothing can stop service warriors to do service work. Their only motto is to satisfy customer. If customer is satisfied, then company sale growth along with band value is increased.

These hard working technicians are our real life Service Super Heroes.

Best wishes to them.     

Team Management in After Sales Service

After sales service is such a branch of customer service, where team management along with synchronization is very much important & essential rather than other branches considering fact and figures of business environment and practice as the footfall of angry & impatient customer is a regular scene here.  

Here customer service manager should play the role of striker heading to achieve expected customer experience. First of all, information flow is a must need. What is the actual demand of customer? How to achieve smiled face of them? Expectation of customer should be flowed without any type editing from technician or junior execute level to management level to get satisfactory quick solution. If manager can keep deep bondage with team and is open for all to listen then there would not be a blockage of information flow actually and timely. To reach out the goal, manager should keep in touch with team top to bottom practicing regular team meeting, problem tracking and regular effective result oriented following up.   

A customer service manager can expect to be successful when he or she to be a leader first not boss for his or her team. Manager should have mind of work to reach in deep of problem in order to do proper analytical research and to show problem solving attitude. A good customer service manager should not have an attitude of only forwarding problems to subordinates without guidance.

There is no customer service problem in the world that has no solution. So, we have to sit, we have to discuss, we have to work together as a team, and of course, we have to do on time escalation to management.  

Team management is better when team engagement is best.

And obviously it’s a must need to ensure expected customer experience through happy customer service. 

Service is Thanks Less job!

Those who have established their careers in customer service know very well as, ‘Service is Thanks Less Job!’ The statement is truer in the field of after sales service. Actually when a product doesn’t function properly and customer faces lack of fill up of his or her expected demand from it during emergency or regular time of life what mostly helps them to lose their control on anger and insists to come respective company service center with gloomy face! At this situation, service staffs get the chance to show their skill to handle angry customer following three P tools, i.e. Polite, Patience & Practical. 

It’s a common scenario that the customer who already got previous several times happy service for various products at various times, but when a new product of him or her needs service generally he or she forgets previous happy service moments and most of the times gets busted into anger for present need. At this situation service person have to be more practical taking on demand decision to keep control inner patience showing polite behavior with customer saluting maximum respect. As a result service person can win the heart of customer. 

Most of the service professionals have the experience to be rebuked by management or customers for single service issues though they have already ensured happy services for a lot of thousands customers. It’s a hard truth. Especially in economic dull season when sales team fall in a deep pressure to achieve sales target of products, usually that time they blame after sales service as one the reasons to miss sales target though most of time, after investigation, generally one or very few actual service issues are found among thousands of happy services what’s ratio is truly negligible. 

 Whatever the situation is duty is duty. Responsibility should not be avoided. A real professional honest hearten customer service professional should not wait for ‘Thanks’ always. If he or she can complete his or her task as per customer’s expectation then there will be no lack of ‘Thanks’ in life!

Customer Service || Importance of System Automation

Now-a-days system automation is a must need to make our life easy. In customer service it’s also mandatory to run operation through automated system. The system should be incorporated in such a design as to cover end to end communication. It means from starting as customer complaint receiving to service delivery including invoice generation, inventory management, billing and ending happy calling to customer to get service review to find development area. There are lots of developed tools in this world to be used in order to do system automation and big data management. Server based ERP (Enterprise resource planning) is mostly used. But now cloud based ERP system is being popular those have various modules including sales, service, accounting, billing, logistics, compliance etc. The company or team who can actually utilize properly ERP with a most user friendly, accurate and transparent design, have possibility to win customer faster than that of others. If CRM (Customer relationship management) module is integrated in used ERP with expected customer, product, parts etc data flow than system automation may be successful easily. Customer service data is very important to create a long time relationship with customer and service data is one of the best sources of product and service development. So it’s very clear to us that in customer service system automation plays top important role.

Customer service || the role of head of service

In customer service the role of head of service is such a vital along with burning coordinating position where management expectation, sales expectation, audit expectation, SCM expectation, Factory expectation, SQA expectation, QC expectation, R&D expectation, Accounts expectation, Finance expectation, IT expectation, operation expectation, Technology expectation, Call center expectation, Marketing expectation, Product expectation, others relevant stakeholders’ expectations and definitely customers’ expectation merge together. No doubt it’s a challenging functional position as at a time to satisfy all stakeholders is really tough. But responsibility is responsibility where no other option than trying continuously to solve customer complaints! Logically head of service should be a strategically position whose main work would be focused on planning & designing rules and regulation with proper synchronization with budget and to motivate teams targeting company profit. In customer service sometimes some decisions are to be on demand based. So in practical, head of service has to engage in work not only in strategic level but also in operational work. Obviously that’s a loaded duty! A passionate, practical and cool brained customer focused strong leader can be successful as a head of service if he can manage good correlation with all stakeholders showing always positive attitude. Otherwise, the position may be turned to a dangerous position to be ashen anytime!!

Customer service || Important KPI RTAT improvement

 

One of the most important KPI in customer service is RTAT or TAT. RTAT refers to Repair Turn Around Time. It can be addressed as TAT (Turn Around Time) also. As a definition, we can say that it is the time it takes you to complete any given task or proper repair work. Obviously the quicker you effectively solve an issue, the sooner you can move on to the next issue.

RTAT or TAT is one of the most important KPI in customer service to judge after-sales service or relevant customer service of any company or band or organization considering negligible repeat jobs.

In customer service effective and efficient reduction of RTAT or TAT resembles that customer service team is working with continuous improvement targeting to gain a happy experience of customers.

Recently in Bangladesh, the customer service team of Butterfly Marketing Limited (LG-Butterfly) has shown remarkable improvement in RTAT. Definitely, their management and team deserve Big Thanks for this development journey.

Year	RTAT (day)
2018	13.40
2019	7.37
2020	3.31

Honesty in customer service || importance & impact on business

We all know that honesty is the best policy what has highest importance in relation building whatever the field is personal or professional or even in commercial. Globally long lasting brands are always in trying to keep promise to customer in terms of product quality and after sales service as they know customer’s faith plays vital role on business growth. So there is no doubt of importance & impact of honesty in customer service targeting to keep positive & influential business strategy.

First impression is the last impression. So when a service person is going to attend to ensure a service job to customer premises, he/she must keep promise to reach there in time. If there is any unwanted situation, i.e. traffic jam, previous job completion delay etc. occurs, and then true situation must be escalated to customer in apologized tone.

Service provider agent or executive or technician must be honest to do actual service billing mentioning actual service charge & parts price as designed by company. Here any type of discrepancy is a serious disciplinary offense.

Sometimes customer complaints to call center as his/her problematic product’s after sales service cost goes higher than present price of similar finished good product. Renowned bands are very much conscious about this complaint. After sales service and parts price should be designed in such a way as company will not be financially loser and customer must be happy and can keep trust on used brand.  

After service product delivery should be done on time as customer expects to get back his/her full functional product after facing unexpected difficulties in usual daily life. So service team should not let customer to be disheartened. They must be good to their word. If there is any unexpected possibility of delay reason appears then it must be portrayed to customer before delivery date that will help customer to keep patience.  

Expected professionalism of customer service enriches trust of customers on their used brands. As a result company can get a fixed mind setup of customer in fever of their product. Definitely then company can expect positive business growth.

At the end we can say that honesty, customer service, brand image and business growth go together hand to hand.

Customer service || Sales VS Service Conflicts

Sales VS Service style conflict is a globally practiced essential battle, in business, what should be in a certain level of severity always as it has some positive as well as negative aspects. If it is positively used then products and service quality can be upgraded. On the other side, if this battle crosses the limit from virtually to reality then a good market of a company can be destroyed. Considering universal practice as Sales VS Service style conflict, combined action exploring proper information flow, ethics & responsibilities to be taken in order to satisfy all stake holders targeting a happy ending!

Many customers call service center with a common complaint as when sales person sold a product or service to them, they promised to them for enormous facilities or discount from customer service though those facilities or discount process actually service department doesn’t follow!

A true sales person should not do such unethical practice though he/she may fill up sales target for the time being by this unacceptable practice, but for long run he or she will lose the faith of customer forever and company will fall in decrement of goodwill.

In order to avoid similar unexpected situation, sales and customer service should have a good communication and must be aware of each others’ limitations and scope of support. They must have proper documentation and direct contact for the responsible sales person who sold the service or product. Also they must be joined together as a big team, instead of separating two departments in different rooms, which can minimize conflicts and misunderstandings.

Sometimes sales team claims that, for a single after sales service issue, they are losing huge customers. Hearing this type blame management may become very rude to service. Normally service is a thankless job, when management and sales both create such unexpected pressure on service then positive speed of work may be hampered. This type of direct blaming from sales has no positive outcome unless company growth decrement. Both sales & service must have to avoid such type of illogical blaming practice. They have to feel depth of responsibilities & honor each other with a cooperative mind.

Service team should keep their mind setup in such a way of taking every negative issue as opportunity of work in order to make it positive.  

Note that, whatever the conflicts arises, first of all customer service must be ensured then other internal practices of company should be deployed as there is no other way of thinking as customer is the king.

Customer Service || Top five qualities to be practiced to be good customer service manager

Actually in practical globe most successful business conglomerates and MNC have given highest priority to ensure expected customer service. It is the field where success depends on a total team work. Among the team customer service manager is the biggest catalyst. This catalyst can reach highest pick of happy customer experience if the role is being sharpen by following top five qualities to be good customer service manager.

Customer-Centric Behavior:

Manager must be customer centric. From salutation to service ending of a customer, manager along with total team have to keep in center of their mind the need of customer. Customer centric behavior is the first condition to be good customer service manager.

Influential Communicator:

In customer service nothing is important than influential communication. Manager must be cool in hearing, smiley in speech delivery and of course be passionate in team management. As good customer service manager can create opportunity of sale, so this quality should be practiced effectively.   

Compassion to Burn:

Great manager should have full bucket of this sensitive quality compassion to burn the unhappy feelings of customer. It is needed to solve the difficult customer situations when managers are often called on to resolve and it is also crucial to managing teams.  

Master of Priorities:

Customer service supervisor should be a master of priorities in work balancing among team targeting good customer experience. Manager should know the team strength to execute on time product receive, service & delivery in a segmented time bound designed way to make team and customer both to be happy.   

Positive Motivator:

A service staff can be a good manager when he or she can handle both team & customer in such a way as expected outcome can be obtained. Good managers know how to motivate themselves and motivate their teams in order to create a culture that doesn’t wait for things to happen but that proactively makes them happen. Great managers always try harder themselves and inspire their teams to be looking for how they can make a difference for their customers, their colleagues, and the organization.

Customer Service || How good customer service can boost up sales

In the modern world most the successful companies have given highest importance on customer service targeting to achieve expected happy customer experience as they already realized that good customer service can play vital role in business as marketing as well as sales engine.

Similarly in our country many MNC and big conglomerate, i.e. LG-Butterfly, Samsung etc. have already designed their business operation focusing good customer service in order to keep faith of customers on their products respectively to boost up sales.

Now question is how good customer service can boost up sales. There are five important ways what are as follows:

Good customer service increases trust.

It can turn purchasing from you into a habit.

Great customer service provides personal recognition.

It influences customer mind with an everlasting positive conviction.   

Happy customer experience creates success stories.

Good Customer Service || Language Matters

In good customer service used language of service staffs truly an important matter that plays a vital role to affect directly a customer’s purchasing decision and the impression that a customer has of your company. 82% of customers left a company because they had a bad customer service experience. We service people must be more tricky to impress customer by using effective language.

We can use below 07 customer service phrases those are powerful enough to win the mind of customer.

“I don’t know, but let me find out.”

“Thank you for bringing this to our attention.”

“I certainly can check that for you.”

“I apologize for the inconvenience.”

“I will update you by [time].”

“Happy to help.”                       

“As much as I would love to help…”