Customer Service KPIs Help Improve The Overall Performance

Posted on 06. Sep, 2010 by admin in Customer Service

Customer service is the most important factor of any organization. This is what will speak about the overall look of the company. Only when the goals are mentioned with the good definitions, good steps can be taken to progress towards them. Measurements however should be taken in the right direction, and these measurements are the KPIs.

Most of the time, one of the main key performance indicators taken into consideration with the customer service organizations, is the number of calls that answered during the first minute. No matter what the indicators are, all of them should help with the goals of the company. They should not only be considered for a long time, they should be measurable as well.

Goals could change, and it could also help achieve great heights for the company. This would be done only with the right KPIs related to customer service. Important metrics need to be tracked, as only then the problems can be sorted easily. When it comes to customer service KPIs, it is a good idea to look at the ways that the service is being offered.

The first thing that should be taken into consideration is the average cost that would happen with each option of service being used. It could be via call centers, email or some other services. A lot of companies will move the customer service options to those that are less expensive. Every year all the definitions of the KPIs should stay consistent.

Using the KPIs related to the customer service, the company should be able to make a lot of profits. If there are any KPIs which talk about repeating same customers, it will not be worth it. The idea is to serve new customers as well, and to get a great deal of benefits out of it. The indicators from the KPIs should definitely be quantifiable.

If the customer service is improved based on the KPIs, there is sure to be an increase in revenue, and there will be new sales. The staff which provides the customer service must be evaluated, and they must be taken into consideration. The overall level of their performance is very important to look at.

The outcome as well as process for improvement must be looked at closely after the results of the indicators are taken into consideration. Even with customer service, great focus must be there on the areas so that the company can excel. By looking at this, there could be a great chance to make the face of the company better.

Though products and services should be served according to what they need, they should be of proper quality. The company should also have a good knowledge of customers, and the environment should be pleasing. There should be great expertise with the product, and the responsiveness should also be good.

Being customer focused will be the highlight for any company, and if the indicators are right then it would be all set to give the company revenue in great amounts.

Work From Home As A Customer Service Operator

Posted on 05. Sep, 2010 by admin in Customer Service

The number of work-from-home customer service operator job opportunities is on the rise all over the world. These jobs involve crossing language and time barriers as local agents for dedicated companies from home. The work from home customer service operator job enables companies to reduce attrition in customer service jobs and save precious money on office utilities and equipment. This, at the same time, enables the home based business-person to make a living from home. Remuneration is based on different basis amongst different companies. This may take the form of a pay per call remuneration package, a fixed monthly earning or even in the form of hourly wages.

The advantages of work-from-home customer service operator job opportunities include flexibility of work hours. This is advantageous especially if you are dealing with a new born or physically-handicapped family member. The job scope of a work-from-home customer service operator includes general call handling, providing technical support, and handling all customer queries on behalf of the company. All you need to get started are the following basic essentials:

• A computer, either a lap top or desk top
• Basic computer skills, use of the programs within the software loaded
• Internet connection for quick connectivity and messaging
• Connecting to the computer operating system/system that the company provides
• Dedicated Internet and email applications for assured communication of vital data
• A phone line for the home-based call centre
• Good communication skills that ensure success with every call

Many work-from-home customer service operator jobs are provided by companies who provide you with the essential tools. Many stress on the completion of a crash customer service training course. Your experience in customer support, help-desk or any customer service helps a lot. There are a number of companies that hire customer service operators who are home based. The employment sections of these websites are always filled with advertisements. When you choose to work as a work-from-home customer service operator, the job responsibilities include taking care of customer queries as best as possible, on behalf of the company. You would have to dedicate a time and space within your home to fulfil the job’s requirement each day. Work-from-home customer service operator job opportunities are many and with low barriers to entry, competition is stiff.

Resources that offer work-from-home customer service operator job opportunities include online and offline recruiting agencies and newspaper advertisements. It also pays to network extensively and research for the best remuneration. Work-from-home customer service operator jobs enable you to tap the potential of your natural skills while tending to family responsibilities. With a little research and social networking, you can get started immediately. It does pay to plan before beginning work. Being methodical and charted is the only way to ensure the success of your home business venture. It will also do you good to maintain a space within the home from where you can take care of your of work-from-home customer service operator job. This ensures you greater ability to work productively without mixing work and home responsibilities.

Poor Customer Service – There’s No Excuse

Posted on 03. Sep, 2010 by admin in Customer Service

Businesses fail because of two main causes – they can’t generate enough sales and they are poor at customer service. The inability to generate sales can be influenced by many human, physical and environmental circumstances; but poor customer service is a human issue, full-stop.

I have had 4 occasions over the past week where I have personally experienced bad customer service. Let me briefly touch on two.

Situation one – We had run out of products from one of our suppliers due to an unexpected large order. It was Friday and I wanted to resupply before the weekend.

When I phoned the overseas supplier I discovered all the team were off on a conference. The one person left to “hold down the fort” couldn’t supply me as he was not too sure of my “arrangement”. Makes you wonder why he was left back at home base.

I finally tracked down the hotel the conference was at (San Diego by the way!) and eventually got hold of the manager who fixed the situation. 

Situation two – My oven door was broken. I got the local service representative to call around. The oven door required three small bolts. He said he would have to order them. That was the last I saw of him. Another phone call, he advised he couldn’t track down the model number, but was trying; never heard another thing.

Where too from here? I know I’ll call the local agent. They directed me back to the service agent. I held my ground, saying, “The agent was as useless as tits on the side of a piece of bacon, can I buy the parts from them?” “No you can’t”, was the reply.

In frustration, I then went to the head agent in Australia. What a difference. The parts were in the evening mail at no charge.

Naturally I have précised the above experiences. Believe me; in both cases the phone calls, the frustrations, the waste of personal time was akin to pull the eye teeth out of a rattlesnake. 

What’s the one thing that sticks out here? It’s INITIATIVE

In the case of my supplier, the man in charge could have said, “Rob, all the team are at a conference, you are a valued customer, I want to help. How about we solve the immediate problem by supplying you with enough to get you by over the weekend – we can sort out costs and final numbers next week when the conference goers return.”

In the second situation, what about, “We appreciate you buying a St George oven. It is not our policy to deal direct with the public as we do have service channels, however, owing to your difficulty with our appointed agent(s) we will look after you in this instance.”
I believe service culture, like all organisational culture, is driven from the top. When I meet bad service I immediately draw conclusions about the top management team – if the frontline is like this, what’s the brains thrust like?

In most cases I think management does understand the value of exceptional customer service. The problem is they haven’t empowered their frontline troops to deliver it, or been diligent in hiring people who are customer service orientated.

Retail stores and fast food franchises are particularly bad. I’m constantly amazed at the bimbos who work behind some of these counters. Its like, “Have pulse, will hire.”

A future employee’s initiative and customer service orientation is VERY EASY to assess. These traits are innate; you are not going to assess them by getting them to fill out an application and having a general chit-chat.

If you want to understand if the candidate has a customer service drive and initiative, start doing some basic psychometric profiling. At this level it is quick to do and very inexpensive. Psychometric profiling is the only way to scientifically assess the candidate’s personality in respect to customer service and initiative.

Sorry, I don’t accept the excuse that people are hard to find, or because an organisation doesn’t pay top dollar; they need to accept poor customer service.

There are plenty of good people out there; you just have to work at reaching them. Good employees don’t just fall out of the sky. You have to seek them out. Don’t expect them to come flooding into your front door – those ones are usually the ones you don’t want to hire.

If you keep on doing what you are doing you will keep on getting what you’ve got.

With some personal initiative and a very small investment in money and time, you can set up a simple bullet-proof hiring system that will insure you choose frontline people who are driven to serve. Or another way to look at it, ensure you don’t hire any customer killers.

I know when you deal with our team here at Assess you will be killed with service. We pride ourselves on this. It is the life blood of our business because without satisfied customers we don’t have a business.

At the end of the day, people are your only competitive advantage, so start hiring tough and managing easy!    

Be a Work at Home Customer Service Officer

Posted on 01. Sep, 2010 by admin in Customer Service

Managing difficult customers and answering never before heard questions are some of the toughest challenges faced by customer service officers today. If you are one who finds such work thrilling and rewarding, then you are just the person thousands of companies are looking for. Companies are outsourcing or off shoring their customer service work so as to save on costs needed to run an office for customer service officers. In this way, they will not have to pay for expensive electrical bills or provide employee benefits such as medical insurance. Thus, the demand for work at home customer service officers have increased dramatically over the past couple of years. As such, there are tons of opportunities available over the internet that almost anyone can take advantage of. Being a work at home customer service officer has many benefits, but also requires a lot of hard work and energy invested in order to be successful.

A work at home customer service officer should ideally possess qualities such as: Patience, great listening skills, good persuasive skills, ability to react and respond to tough situations quickly, ability to tolerate challenging problems, ability to control his or her emotions, and ability to multi-task and be flexible. All these qualities are critical when working in a field that sees many tricky customers making demands on a daily basis. Also, having a good memory and a knack for managing relationships well will be an added advantage, as one would definitely be impressed by an operator over the phone that is able to provide excellent personal service. In fact, if you have had past experience working behind the counter providing such services, or are used to convincing difficult customers to buy products at a retail store, then you must know what to expect and what you should do. Having prior experience working as customer service provider, will make the transition of working at a store to your home an easy and seamless one.

Job responsibilities of a work at home customer service officer include handling customer complaints, answering questions related to a product or service the company you are representing sells, persuading customers to buy products or join programs and so on. Some companies may even make it a requirement for you to do all of these jobs at the same time, hence making the ability to multi task an important one. If necessary, companies may also provide training and materials for more advanced customer service work. This is usually the case when the products you are selling is completely new or different, and therefore would require you to be equipped with the necessary knowledge to handle customers well.

The company you are representing may choose to pay you on a per hour basis, monthly basis or per project. So, depending on your area of interest and expertise, you should choose the job that is able to fulfill your financial needs effectively. Conducting research over the internet to search for the best deals available is important to ensure that your home business is a successful one.

The Benefits of Customer Service Training

Posted on 31. Aug, 2010 by admin in Customer Service

There are a growing number of business services that offer customer service training for other companies and establishments. Some of these trainings are done in an actual institutional setting. Others are available as a purely virtual learning experience via the Internet. While most companies might likely have their own in-house trainings for their personnel, utilizing external services for customer service training may provide additional benefits, which should complement their internal training initiatives.

Whichever the case, be it internal or external through actual training sessions or online learning programs, the value of customer service training cannot be underestimated especially when firms take into consideration their participation in the global marketplace. Customer service is the crux of doing business in today’s modern era. A well-trained customer service department can become a fundamental determinant for a company’s overall business performance.

Staff Development

Businesses rely on how their respective personnel perform. From the human resource perspective, acquiring a well-performing customer service team can be achieved either through extensive hiring of highly experienced, customer oriented, staff or by having existing personnel undergo a comprehensive and effective customer service development program. From the standpoint of finance, the latter is the least costly alternative and is probably the option that can provide a significant and lasting return in terms of performance and consequently in revenue gains.

It is commonly observed and accepted that employees work better when management provides their needs. Employee training is one such need. Those workers that qualify for training programs become better equipped to do their jobs in a manner that benefits customers, and in turn the company itself.

By implementing an adequate customer service training program, employee morale and confidence goes up, job satisfaction increases, worker turnovers are reduced significantly and in general builds a service oriented workforce that is responsive to the needs of the customers.

This also improves the image of the company, not only from the clients’ perspective but also from the point of view of the employees. Simply put, a company that invests on customer service development demonstrates a tangible concern for its clientele as well as for its employees.

Knowledge Transfer

Going back to the point on utilizing external training programs, we have to realize that internal training activities may not provide the best opportunities for learning considering the fast-paced changes that are happening all the time across all industries. Training companies on the other hand specialize in training methodologies and results-oriented learning, many of which are specific for particular industries.

By allowing staff members to undergo training outside of the scope of the office opens up an enriching learning experience for employees. This also puts key personnel in a position to acquire sufficient knowledge or proficiency that adds on to the company’s own inventory of techniques and practices. This transfer of knowledge and skills becomes pivotal in engaging the workforce to introduce new technologies, and out-of-the-box solutions for the business especially in the area of customer relations.

The fact that customer service training is essential and beneficial to any business cannot be overemphasized. Leveraging the many benefits of customer service training will produce a knowledgeable and responsive workforce that is truly an asset for any enterprise.

Call Centre, Contact Centre, Telemarketers, Telemarketing Staff, Customer Service & Csr Career Guide

Posted on 29. Aug, 2010 by admin in Customer Service

Call centre, Contact centre, Telemarketers and Telemarketing staff, Customer service and CSR has largely boomed in many developing countries mainly due to lower labor costs. Many Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Providers specialize customer service, telemarketing and all of them have huge numbers of call centre and contact centre agents or customer service staff, telemarketer staff, CSR that works to provide efficient call centre service.

Call centres are groups of people responsible for handling incoming calls from customers. Many multinational companies and large corporations provide customer service staff to handle inbound or outbound calls from their clients. Typically, companies receiving larger volume of incoming calls will utilize a call centre or contact centre. Call centre agents are also called Customer service staff, Customer Service Representative or CSR. Contact centre is another term for a call centre. In a contact center, handling emails and letters are also part of the call centre service. Also customer service rep or CSR may utilize online chat to interact with clients.

Telemarketers and other people working in a call centre are generally called agents. These people use headsets to keep their hand free to work on other tasks while handling calls from clients. Headsets also avoid neck injury from cradling a phone all day. Usually agents are provided with cubicles with their own computers aside from the telephone. Computer skills are a must in call centres since call details from clients are needed to be encoded in a system. A call centre rep or CSR is also tasked to report to supervisors or team leaders who then will give periodic performance reviews to help an agent enhance their call centre service skills. The calls handled by customer service reps or CSR are monitored and recorded to ensure quality or if the complaint needs to be reviewed.

You may be worried about the sound of ringing phones in a call centre and contact centre, but actually there is nothing of that kind anymore. Technology has made it easier for call centre and contact centre to use a queuing system to fairly handle calls from their clients. Customer calls are placed in queue in the order in which they are received. If the customer service rep or CSR are busy, the call will be placed on hold usually with music, then the first available agent will receive the call that has be holding on for the longest period. A screen showing the number of calls on hold and the length of holding period are usually showed on a screen in call centres. Goals are set to determine that the maximum amount of time a customer should hold, the length of calls and the number of calls handled by each call centre rep or CSR should have in a day are realistic. These set of numbers guides call centre management to plan on the number of staff they will need each day to handle the number of calls expected on each given day.

Since call centre and contact centre use telephones and computers rather than having to personal contact, a call centre agent, CSR, telemarketer or customer service agent may be placed anywhere geographically. Some contact centres for a large company maybe spread all over the country, some agents even have the option to work from the comfort of their homes. And many times, a call centre will be established by BPO companies in foreign countries such as Philippines, China and India to cut labor costs. This is now commonly called as outsourcing.

Call centre and contact centre services are not only limited to telemarketers and customer service agents. Job opportunities are also open for supervisors and managers to guide the staff. Trainers are required to train new employees. Business analysts are hired to check on the business statistics, and quality assurance personnel are needed to improve the processes and procedures practiced in the company. If you are considering being a call centre or contact centre agent, Telemarketer/s and Telemarketing staff, customer service rep or CSR, then it could be your stepping stone to a successful and fulfilling career.

Customer Service Jobs Require More Than A Smile

Posted on 27. Aug, 2010 by admin in Customer Service

In the world of customer service, there are no strangers, just friends you haven’t met yet. And unfortunately, some of those new friends are mean, rude and just weird. But no matter the disposition of your customer de jour, your demeanor should always be poised and professional.

You”ve probably heard the expression, “The customer is always right.” No one is always right, not even customers, so we’ve slightly amended this phrase to read as follows, “The customer is always right…if you want to keep your job.” And you do want to keep your job, right? In this economy, jobs are precious resources.

So if you want to excel in the customer service field, there are a few things to remember. A smile goes a long way, but attentive, professional service goes even further. Not every customer is going to leave your business happy, but by treating people with the same respect you expect from them, you can at least minimize the damage a miserable customer can do to you and your company.

Here are a few customer service tips broken down by the most popular customer service industries:

”Counter” culture and retail jobs

When people think about customer service jobs, they often think about the cash register jockeys breaking change, and the sales floor employees folding sweaters and stocking shelves. These retail jobs can be stressful, especially during the holiday shopping season. (And if you haven’t already started your seasonal job search, this is a great place to look). One way to ease the stress of these retail gigs is to embrace the diversity they offer. Ask your manager if you can move departments, or see if you can cross-train to learn a new skill set. For example, if you’re a store greeter charged with making a positive first impression with customers, see if you can be a changing room attendant.

Manners are on the menu at restaurant jobs

Restaurant jobs may be the most demanding of customer service jobs. You’re always on your feet, hungry people aren’t always the most polite, and the late-night and weekend hours can be demanding. But these jobs can be especially rewarding because they’re one of the few gigs where your effort and positive attitude are directly linked to your earning potential. That’s right; tips represent the bulk of the pay for servers, bartenders and even bussers. So remember: Grabbing that extra serving of blue cheese dressing or bringing the undercooked steak back to the kitchen after a sincere apology can reap you big rewards on the flip side.

Dialing in call center jobs

Taking a steady stream of calls from angry and confused customers would be tough to do for 30 minutes. But imagine doing it for eight hours at a time. Many customer services jobs involve never seeing actual customers, but instead talking over headsets while typing up a storm. If you don’t have an onsite ergonomic expert at your telemarketing camp, here are a few basic guidelines to make sure that you won’t get carpal tunnel syndrome your first week on the job. Be sure to keep your eyes at least 20 inches from your computer screen, adjust the monitor to your eye level and keep your feet positioned firm on the ground. And don’t slouch. Working at a desk or cube all day can make you feel cramped and restless.

There are, of course, customer service jobs in a number of additional industries we can’t fit here. Just remember: When conducting your next job search, make sure to find out how you’ll be interacting with customers – and whether or not that fits your personality.

Why Provide Good Customer Service

Posted on 26. Aug, 2010 by admin in Customer Service

Have you heard people say that if not for customers, work will be a lot smoother? They ask questions for which the answers are so obvious. Or they can find the answers if they will just read the instructions that are provided with the product. They just have to call and ask all kinds of questions and sometimes you are not even the person who is supposed to handle such questions. Are you looking for good reasons that will help you feel better about this?

First thing is if there are no customers, then there is no business. If there is no business then you do not have a job. It does not even matter if yours is not a customer-facing job. Customers are needed. Question now is how you can look at the situation differently so that providing good service to the customers is something that you can be happy doing.

Basic reason, of course, is that you get paid to do the job and providing good customer service is part and parcel of the job. It does help to remind yourself that the organization promptly pays you and it is only fair to deliver your responsibility.

Next reason is that good customer service is the best pre-sales effort for the next purchase by the customer. People go all the way out to run promotions and write great copy to entice customers to buy their products. Nothing though can beat good customer service. There are customers who will repeatedly buy from the same company because they are happy with the service provided.

Good customer service is not about falling over yourself providing everything the customer asks for, but it is providing the customer what they rightfully should get for having bought a product from your company.

There is also a completely personal angle that you can look at where service is concerned. Most people nowadays are conscious of their social responsibilities and like to donate or make contributions to worthy causes. Why not make good customer service as such a contribution? In this case, you also get paid for it. In the words of N. Eldon Tanner, “Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth”. The moment you can start thinking that service is something that you want to do, then every customer request will be much easier to respond to.

Is it going to be easy? Not all the time. There will be difficult situations but there will also be customers who will be very appreciative of the service that you provide. For those difficult situations, say to yourself that this is why you are paid a salary and just do it. The moment you stop fighting it, handling the situation gets less difficult.

Now, how do you handle difficult situations so that they do not upset you? The best way to handle this is to calmly listen to the customer. Many a time service representatives have a solution even before the problem has been described. Stop to listen first. Then ask clarification questions if necessary before providing the resolution.

Theodore Roosevelt said, “Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care”. It will do well to remember these words. If you can listen with a sincere desire to help and be happy to help the customer, you will feel good providing service. Some people even enjoy it. In addition, your whole attitude and listening with care will come through and even the customer’s demeanour will change.

Good customer service is not about having a good customer service week once a year. It is about providing good service every day. As you start work daily, if you can accept that your purpose for being there is to respond to customer needs with concern and a desire to help, it will be a lot easier to get through work. You can even start enjoying it.

Remember at a minimum you are getting paid to respond to customer requests. You are also helping to drive more sales from customers because of the excellent service you help provide. Besides this, from a purely personal perspective, you get an opportunity to be of service even without getting out of your normal routine.

Start having a different outlook to providing good customer service. It will make a great difference to how you support your customers and importantly to how good you feel deep inside you.

Courteous Customer Service

Posted on 24. Aug, 2010 by admin in Customer Service

Customer service and courtesy always go hand in hand. Customer service is not customer service if it is not courteous. Courtesy is usually defined as politeness originating from kindness and exercised habitually. This is what actually encompasses quality customer service. Basing from this you can actually say that the measure of good costumer service is courtesy towards customers.

The Importance of Courteous Customer Service

So how do you practise courteous customer service? First, determine the needs of your customers. By needs, we refer not only to the needs that they will pay you for but to any need that will provide them convenience while under your care. Just take for example when you are going to a hotel.

When you rent a hotel room, you primarily pay for the room, water and electricity or even food. However, the best hotels in the world are not renowned only for their rooms but for the very service that they provide. You certainly do not pay for the security guard to open the door for you but you consider it quality service when he does.

This implies that courteous customer service entails going beyond the job description or the need. Customers do not pay for politeness; they pay for their room and its facilities. However, if the establishment’s personnel have been polite and courteous, it is fairly certain that customers would go back and avail of the service from the said establishment again. For customers, satisfying customer service is a bonus that they get from an establishment. For the business, courtesy to customers is a crucial selling factor.

Courteous Customer Service Defined

Courteous customer service personnel are willing to help. As stated above, practicing good customer service means identifying the needs of your customers and venturing even beyond your customers’ needs. Once you have identified the need, address it right away without any further command or instructions. If you see a guest carrying too many bags, offer your help to carry the bags for her. That’s what differentiates exceptional businesses from mediocre ones. Five star hotels did not earn their place by merely providing their guests a place to stay. They are visited by customers because they are willing to perform a service that is beyond the formal scope of their business.

Discrimination does not have a place in courteous customer service. Courteous customer service knows no race, color or religion. A good customer service representative is blind to these differences in as much as he does not let these differences color his perceptions. However, a good customer service person is not blind to differences that affect how people would like to be served. In fact, he recognizes the needs of different people and provides it to them accordingly.

A courteous customer service agent is always on time. Being late is tantamount to being rude. Just think of yourself ordering a pizza only to find out that your order is an hour late. Think of the frustration that you will experience just because your pizza delivery is late. In some businesses, lost of time is lost money.

You may think that bringing the quality of your customer service up to this level will only mean added costs and may even result to more expensive products. It is a yes to both. Initiating changes for better quality service to your customers will involve expensive training of your frontline people. Now if you can’t afford to pay for these through existing operational capital, then you’ll have no choice but to increase your prices accordingly.

However, it is wrong to think that both of these are detrimental to your business. First of all, the training cost will pay for itself when word spreads about your exemplary service. As for price, look around. Any study will tell you that it is not only price that makes a person decide where to eat, where to shop and whose business to patronize. If you have a product that’s well worth the price and good, courteous customer service that make people want to come back, then you will definitely come out ahead.

Customer Service And The Bottled Water Industry

Posted on 22. Aug, 2010 by admin in Customer Service

Almost every company discusses, at length, the need for customer service and the significance of supplying true excellence to its customers. However, very few actually follow through with what it takes to attain this excellence. This is particularly true in the bottled water business since not all providers share the opinion that customer service is of the utmost importance in any business.

The bottled water industry services a wide customer base with numerous companies and individual clients. The industry is characterized by a small number of very large firms and a substantial number of relatively small consumers with specific geographic niches.

The Nature of the Business:

The bottled water business consists of the manufacturing and delivery of spring or purified water in small packages or large containers such as 5 gallon bottles. The product is delivered directly to the customer’s site in either company owned delivery vehicles or through common carriers.

Each individual bottled water company provides an implicit promise to its customers that it will manufacture the highest quality product and deliver that product at the agreed upon time.

Many, Many Customers:

The customer base in the bottled water industry is very diverse and ranges from individual consumers with single bottle requirements to large multi-cooler business accounts with significant water needs. Each client has its own specific requirements, which are met by the company providing the services and product.

The Customer Service Promise and the History of the Business:
In the past, various bottled water companies have focused on process rather than customer service. Many firms acted on the belief that the delivery of a superior product completed their obligation to the customer.

However, the customer service promise includes much more than a simple delivery of a quality product and requires additional services such as on time delivery, proper pricing, responding to additional delivery requests and other specific needs. One of the most important customer responsibilities is the ability to communicate their concerns not only to the customer service departments, but also to the heads of each company.

Current Status of the Industry (The Unfulfilled Promise):

Although the bottled water industry may seem rather simple, in reality, it is a very complex business. High quality water must be produced and delivered to the customer’s location on time and as ordered. Often enough, customer requests change without warning, which is one reason why flexibility is important to the success of the bottled water company.

Frequently, the water needs of the customer exceed original expectations, which causes for shortages occur. However, in order to avoid such a situation as this, the supplier would have already invested in the communication and stock infrastructure to meet all of its clients’ demands.

For those suppliers who private label water as a means of customer advertising, the design, printing and durability of the label on the bottle is a critical factor. Therefore, companies creating labels of lesser quality in the design and printing of the labels clearly provide a substandard product to their customers.

Communication and the Customer Promise:

Many bottled water suppliers neglect the reality that proper communication channels serve as the basis for fulfilling the customer promise. An overall reliance on voicemail and/or e-mail, an inability to respond quickly to customer needs and the absence of true customer service assistance has created a negative impression of the industry for many customers.

A proper communication system has many technical elements but it should begin with a willingness to include human contact in the communication link. No customer enjoys being dropped into the voicemail void, therefore, the bottled water suppliers that continue to prosper are the companies that uphold the customer service promises and guarantee personally answered customer service calls, which they promptly use to respond to client inquiries and concerns.

Accept Responsibility and Do What It Takes to Provide Customer Satisfaction:

There are many excuses for failure to perform but the bottled water suppliers who are truly world class are those who accept responsibility and persevere with their customer satisfaction guarantees. This often includes obtaining little or no profit on a particular transaction in order to fulfill the customer service promise.

Size is not the determinant in the customer service equation. Often, smaller companies are ready, willing and able to better fulfill the customer promise.

Look for a supplier with a track record of not only achieving the customer promise but also one with a history of fulfillment of the promise.