Customer Care Excellence: How to Create an Effective Customer Focus (Customer Care Excellence: How to Create an Effective Customer Care)

288 Pages·2008·1.37 MB·English

by  Sarah Cook

i
CUSTOMER
CARE
EXCELLENCE
HOW TO CREATE AN
EFFECTIVE CUSTOMER FOCUS
5th edition
SARAH COOK
London and Philadelphia
ii
Publisher’s note
Every possible effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this book is
accurate at the time of going to press, and the publishers and author cannot accept responsibility
for any errors or omissions, however caused. No responsibility for loss or damage occasioned to
any person acting, or refraining from action, as a result of the material in this publication can be
accepted by the editor, the publisher or the author.
First published by Kogan Page Limited in 1992 as Customer Care
Second edition 1997
Third edition 2000
Fourth edition 2002
Reprinted 2003, 2005
Fifth edition 2008
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review,
as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be
reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in
writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the
terms and licences issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms
should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned addresses:
120 Pentonville Road 525 South 4th Street, #241
London N1 9JN Philadelphia PA 19147
United Kingdom USA
www.kogan-page.co.uk
© Sarah Cook, 1992, 1997, 2000, 2002, 2008
The right of Sarah Cook to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
ISBN-13: 978 0 7494 5066 3
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cook, Sarah, 1955-
Customer care excellence : how to create an effective customer focus / Sarah Cook. – 5th ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7494-5066-3
1, Customer relations. 2. Customer services. 3. Total quality management. I. Title.
HF5415.5.C6635 2009
658.8912--dc22
2007038701
Typeset by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby
Printed and bound in India by Replika Press Pvt Ltd
iii
Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgements viii
1. An introduction to customer care 1
Service in a competitive environment 1
The changing nature of customer service 3
Changing customer behaviour and expectation 3
Customer retention 7
What is excellent service? 16
Personal versus material service 18
Embracing change 20
Contact centres 21
The internet 24
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) 27
The service/va lue chain 33
Summary 37
Action checklist 38
2. How managers need to drive and support a service strategy 39
Start from the top 39
Mission and vision 43
Values 47
Objectives 50
Strategy 51
Summary 87
Action checklist 87
iv Contents
3. Listening to customers 89
Barriers to listening 89
The monitoring of complaints and compliments 91
The value of listening to customers 93
Monitoring customer satisfaction 95
Where and when to measure 118
Measuring customer loyalty 119
Continuous improvement 119
Involving employees when you measure 120
Recognizing achievement 120
Involving head office departments in the
measurement process 121
Canvassing the view of other stakeholders 122
Best practice benchmarking 125
Balanced scorecard 128
Summary 129
Action checklist 130
4. Implementing a service excellence strategy 132
Continuous improvement 132
Marketing a service strategy 135
Managers lead the way 139
High or low key? 140
Summary 143
Action checklist 144
5. Empowerment and ownership 145
Valued people value customers 145
Myths about empowerment 146
What should or ganizations do to encourage empowerment? 152
Service recovery and empowerment 156
Employee engagement 159
Summary 160
Action checklist 161
6. The internal customer 162
Everyone has a customer 162
Developing understanding of internal customer needs 163
Process improvement 165
Don’t forget suppliers, alliances and partners 170
Standards and charters 171
Contents v
Service-level agreements 177
Suggestion schemes 178
Employee engagement 179
Summary 181
Action checklist 182
7. Training and development for customer service 184
The growing importance of training and development in
customer service 184
Identifying training and development objectives 185
Training and development for managers 189
Managers as trainers 191
Customer service training for front-line and support staff 192
The learning organization 197
Build customer service into all training and development
activities 198
Review and refresh training and development 207
Summary 207
Action checklist 208
8. Communications 210
Disseminating the message 210
Developing a communications strategy 212
Sell don’t tell 217
Reinforcing the message 220
Tips on effective internal communication 224
A communications case study 225
Summary 229
Action checklist 229

9. Recognition and reward 231
Motivation 231
Performance management 235
Developing a reward and recognition scheme 238
Review and renew 248
Summary 248
Action checklist 249
10. Sustaining a customer focus 251
Problems in sustaining the focus 254
Developing a maintenance strategy 257
vi Contents
Reviewing progress 258
Reinforcement 268
Summary 268
Additional sources of information 270
References 272
Index 273
vii
Preface
In today’s competitive, fast-paced and global economy, the growing
demand from service-driven organizations for practical guidelines in
developing a customer focus has given me the impetus to write this
book.
The contents are based on my own hands-on experience of helping
many organizations, both big and small, become customer orientated.
This book is intended to be practical. It is designed to be used as a
reference and source of ideas for managers of businesses who wish to
implement service quality as a means of competitive advantage, as well
as for those managers in organizations who may already have
developed a strategy and wish to implement this further.
The book outlines how to plan, introduce and sustain a programme
designed to increase customer satisfaction and retention.
Technology can help create a customer orientation, yet in essence,
service is a ‘people’ issue. How well individuals are inspired, enabled,

motivated and recognized by their leaders and managers counts most
towards creating a company-wide customer orientation.
I believe strongly in the engagement of service providers in order
for service excellence to become a way of organization life.
Experience shows that the success of a service philosophy depends
on continuous commitment to service improvements.
I hope you will use this book to measure how customer focused your
organization is. I recommend that you regularly review what you have
achieved, discuss openly how you could do better and develop a plan
of action so that improvements in service excellence can be made on a
continuous basis.
Sarah Cook
The Stairway Consultancy
e-mail: [email protected]
viii
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to all the businesses whose quest for service excellence
and customer satisfaction and retention have enabled me to utilize
them as examples of best practice in this book.
My special thanks also to Joyce for all her hard work in typing this
manuscript.
1
1 An introduction
to customer care
We have become a service economy. Yet few organizations are truly
delighting their customers.
This chapter introduces the concept of service quality and defines
what this means to the customer.
At the end of this and subsequent chapters, a checklist is provided to
allow you to take practicalsteps to develop and sustain a customer focus
within your organization.
Service in a competitive environment
Over recent years organizations have placed increasing emphasis on
customer service as a means of gaining competitive advantage.
Who would have imagined 15 years ago, for example, that organiza-

tions such as Amazon.com could capture market share from the high
street by offering the customer a wide selection of value-for-money
products backed by a quality service? Or that companies such as First
Direct could fundamentally challenge the traditional way customers do
business with their bank by offering a friendly, efficient service 24 hours
a day, 365 days a year?
In 1954 Peter Drucker wrote in The Practice of Management: ‘There is
only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer.’
He said that an organization’s ability to remain in business is a function
of its competitiveness and its ability to win customers from the
competition. The customer is the foundation of the business and keeps
it in existence.
2 Customer care excellence
As competition has become more global and more intense, many orga-
nizations have realized that they cannot compete on price alone. It is in
these marketplaces that many companies have developed a strategy of
providing superior customer care to differentiate their products and
services. Surveys suggest that service-driven companies can charge up to
9 per cent more for the products and services they provide. They grow
twice as fast as the average company and have the potential to gain up to
6 per cent market share.
Through undertaking a major change programme which was
intended to focus on the customer, The Royal Bank of Scotland went
from near to making a loss to a £200 million incremental profit within
two years. Through focusing on the customer, retailer Tesco managed
to increase its profitability and market share, becoming the market
leader in a highly competitive and cost-conscious marketplace.
Financial services is typical of many sectors in its change of focus
towards customer service. The nature and number of competitors and
the ability of retailers, banks, building societies, insurance brokers,
estate agents and other financial service companies to offer similar
products at similar prices has led to increasing emphasis being placed
on personal service as a means of adding value to customers. However,
like very many other market sectors, few organizations succeed in
leading the way.
Benefits of a customer-centred organization
In increasingly competitive marketplaces, best-practice organizations
have demonstrated clear benefits of focusing on the customer.
Excellent service enables a business to:
• differentiate itse lf from the competition;
•
improve its image in the eyes of the customer;
•
minimize price sensitivity;
•
improve profitability;
•
increase customer satisfaction and retention;
•
achieve a maximum number of advocates for the company;
•
enhance its reputation;
•
ensure products and services are delivered ‘right first time’;
•
improve staff morale;
•
increase employee satisfaction and retention;
•
increase productivity;
•
reduce costs;