Customer Service: Is it Necessary in a Bad Economy?

Customers have the upper hand in an economy that isn't doing well. Consumers' money and business's lack of money create a powerful dynamic that is difficult to navigate. Cash strapped businesses try to offer additional incentives for consumers to spend their money. The problem is that consumers don't often spend excess cash when their future is uncertain. Therefore, discounts, promotions, give always, specials, and hosts of other promotional tactics are designed to sell the products. Yet none of these work unless the customer trusts you.

As companies focus on cutting costs and financial benchmarks they often ignore the soft improvements that are not easy to monitor. "Managing by the numbers" is not something that works in all cases and management's reliance on numbers can often cause them to ignore other aspects of business management like customer service. Without strong customer service, customers may feel unappreciated and find alternatives.

If customers have many different alternatives where they may consider spending money at and if loyalty is an important concept to keeping customers purchasing products from the same company over a lifetime, then strong customer service is an absolute necessity in keeping profit margins high. Customers don't want to spend their hard earned money and be treated as though they aren't appreciated by the company.

Customer service isn't something that can be tied to only a single department. It needs to be integrated throughout the organization. For example, a person who calls the customer service line may be impressed and certainly this has a huge impact but it isn't likely they will increase their image of the company if the delivery person is rude and the salesperson is indifferent.

Customers don't see the delivery department, customer service, sales, and operations as separate entities. They see the entire company as a single product. The more your organization can integrate customer service the stronger the organization will be in terms of a positive consumer image. Customers want the entire package not just a slice of it.

A strong customer service culture can help consumers trust that your products are superior, that your company will correct any problems quickly, and that you care about them as a person (not just their money). The stronger the relationships you can develop with customers the more likely they will be loyal to your organization and the more sales you will make. Over a decade it could mean the difference between success and failure.

Some concepts for customer service that work well are tracking customer service levels through a data point/benchmark process, integrating additional training, instilling customer service into the corporate culture, and rewarding customer service on performance appraisals. Any strong customer service program must have "teeth" that really create a lasting impression of expectations on workers.