What is a customer?
“Anyone to whom a service is provided.”
Why is customer service so important?
The standard of customer service portrays you or your organization, it can directly affect profit, it promotes success and ultimately it can be paramount to survival.
The 3 questions you need to know the answer for customer service success:
Who are your customers?
What services do you provide for your customers?
Why is customer care important?
Your customers…
Are they internal customers or external customers?
Internal customers are those people who you work with on a daily basis, affecting the overall operation of your organization, from the guy opposite you to other departments or even other stores/offices.
External customers are those people who use your products and/or services.
Once you have identified the percentage of internal and external customers who make up your business you need to identify customer and organizational needs.
One component of organizational needs is organizational focus:
There are two recognised main forms of hierarchical structure that an organization follows:
Traditional – Managing Director at the top, customers at the bottom.
New – Customers at the top, Managing Director at the bottom.
The next component of the organization is corporate image/corporate culture:
Corporate image is simply “the way things are done around here.”
Why is corporate image so important?
“The image of an organization is in the eye of the receiver.”
Every organization wants to portray a certain type of image to its staff, investors and customers. The corporate identity is about the organizations history, its values, beliefs and strategy.
Having a clearly defined corporate culture and image displayed to the customer via customer service helps determine the organizations competitiveness and potential success.
In order for the organizations customer service to be great, the organization must have a great corporate culture. The main components that make up the corporate culture are the organizational structure, the interaction of staff and the company’s rules and regulations.
If you are not sure what your current corporate image is, ask your customers!
The customer service you give directly reflects your corporate culture.
