Customer Service Doesn't Mean Just Being Nice

The UK media has latched on to customer service as a hot topic – with prime time shows on Channel Four and the BBC – but industry professionals are asking whether this populist portrayal short changes the issue.

They say customer service is now a boardroom issue as companies realise that, in a tight market, it is an essential way to add value to their brand – without raising prices.

Companies like Oxford-based Retail Active, which sends out thousands of mystery shoppers every year to assess levels of customer service, say there’s more to creating genuine improvements in customer service than just highlighting shortcomings and naming and shaming.

Retail Active’s Managing Director, Julian Chamberlain says:

“We are delighted that customer service is on the agenda. Our undercover agents do reveal a lot of areas where customer service can be improved – but what happens next is to apply a proven approach to delivering service excellence.

“First class and sustainable customer service is a structural issue within companies – not simply a case of identifying a few individuals who fall short of expected standards or of picking out poorly managed facilities.

“Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business. You want your customers to go away happy and come back again and again.

There is no one size fits all but we would recommend retailers:-

- Understand how customers experience your product offering – known as the consumer journey

- Identify the key touch points of the consumer journey – these are real moments of truth where there is an opportunity to exceed expectations, consistently and constantly

- Focus on delivering a flawless execution of service by designing strategies to maximise engagement of your identified moments of truth

- Use a regular customer service assessment programme such as mystery shopping to identify performance and what could be improved on

- Support your service strategy with bespoke and focussed training, taking care to ensure every level of employee understands what is expected of them

- Continuously review your ability to deliver great service 

About Retail Active

Retail Active are the leading provider of Mystery Shopping services and business intelligence programmes for premium brands and prestige businesses. Operating in a range of diverse business sectors, such as Retail, Hotels, Automotive, Supermarkets, Cruise Operators, Restaurants, Pub Retail and Banking, Retail Active create tailor made mystery shopping improvement solutions to drive performance, sales and customer loyalty. Info: Retail Active, Start Electron, Fermi Avenue, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Harwell, Oxfordshire, OX11 0QR +44 (0)1235 438413 www.retailactive.com. Press inquires: John Hemmingway 0115 960 5734 - 0786 764 1983 – john@jhcomms.com.
 

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