When outside help can improve customer service
Repeated customer complaints often cross several parts of the business. A service team may be dealing with promises made in sales, delays in operations and information held elsewhere. Outside help becomes useful when the business needs a shared diagnosis and someone to turn it into coordinated action.
Editorial responsibility: Nardus Oelofse, Chief Consultant.
By Chase & Marshal
Follow a real customer problem
Choose a recent issue and trace it from the first promise to the final resolution. Include the information the customer received, the internal handovers and the decisions made. Ask people to show the records instead of relying entirely on their recollection.
This distinguishes an isolated mistake from a recurring pattern. It also reveals whether the service team is causing the problem or repeatedly absorbing it. More scripts and training will have limited value when the underlying commitment cannot be delivered.
Separate capability from operating conditions
Look at what staff need to resolve an issue: accurate information, decision authority, system access and a clear escalation route. Establish which of these are missing. Then examine the skills and judgement needed to use them well.
For an illustrative service business, customers may call repeatedly because nobody can confirm a completion date. The useful intervention could involve improving scheduling visibility and ownership. Teaching staff a more reassuring phrase would leave the uncertainty in place.
Define the role of an external partner
Outside support can help interview customers, map the journey, facilitate difficult cross-team decisions and organise an improvement programme. It can also add delivery capacity when internal leaders know the problem but cannot give it enough attention.
Set a brief around the change you need. Specify the decisions to be made, the people involved and the evidence required. Keep an internal owner accountable for implementation. A report will have little value if nobody can change the operating conditions it identifies.
Measure resolution as well as responsiveness
Fast replies matter, but customers also need their issue resolved. Review repeat contacts, unresolved cases, avoidable handovers and the quality of the final outcome. Use a manageable sample of cases to understand the story behind the measures.
Start with one recurring service problem that matters commercially. Agree the change, give the team the means to make it and check whether the customer experience improves. Expand from evidence. This creates a stronger basis for investment than a broad instruction to become more customer focused.
Questions answered
When should we handle the improvement internally?
An internal team can lead when the problem is understood, decisions are within its authority and people have time to deliver. Outside help is useful when diagnosis, coordination or additional capability is holding progress back.
Related
Sources
Sources supporting the factual statements in this article. Findings should be read within their stated dates, geography and scope.
- Studer Group | NISTLock. www.nist.gov. 2010-11-23T11:15-05:00
Find the cause of recurring service problems
Bring a recurring complaint, a difficult handover or a service promise your team struggles to deliver. We can help find the cause and organise the work needed to improve it.
