The good news is, we are all customers, so we all have the answers about what we like and what we need within us. The hard part is that when we work within organisations, we naturally have an internal perspective on things and we quickly forget the customer’s perspective.
WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN?…
…because we spend most of our time having to deal with our internal operational requirements such as systems, product and process. We live and breathe this stuff every day as we need to be experts with these things in order to give the customer the information they require.
The challenge is that customers don’t care about such operational considerations as you do. Automatically, the psychology of the customer is different to that of the staff member, as for them this is their moment of truth, while for you it’s an everyday occurrence.
Their view of the organisation and the brand is dictated by what happens in that one single interaction, yet for the staff member it’s just another interaction of possibly many you’ve had that day.
No wonder most customer experiences are poor to average at best!
For everyone who deals with customers, the opportunity is there to differentiate yourselves through having a consistently strong customer orientation in both attitude and the way you strive to help give them what they need.
100% agree with you Simon. But organisations need to empower their employees and remove the obstacles that stand between them and the provision of excellent customer service as well. That means (amongst other things) streamlining processes, providing them with the tools they need to do a great job, and delegating to them the power to make the decisions that will result in positive outcomes for customers.
On the money Ben. If the fundamentals to be job and call ready are not in place relating to systems, process and knowledge, it will naturally inhibit the confidence of individuals to break out beyond their immediate ops focus and challenges.