Characteristics of Organizations with Strong Customer Service Cultures

Many organizations struggle to gain and maintain strong customer and brand loyalty. However, what they often fail to do right is to create a service culture that nurtures and supports customers.

The following are some common characteristics for leading-edge customer-focused organizations that you might use to help create a positive customer service culture in your own organization.

They have and support internal customers (for example, peers, co-workers, bosses, subordinates, people from other areas of their organization) and/or external customers (for example, vendors, suppliers, various telephone callers, walk-in customers, other organizations, others not from within the organization).
Their focus is on determining and meeting the needs, wants and expectations of customers while treating everyone with respect and as if he or she is special.
Information, products, and services are easily accessible by customers.
Policies are in place to allow employees to make decisions in order to better serve customers.
Management and systems support and appropriately reward employee efforts to serve customers.
Reevaluation and quantitative measurement of the way business is conducted is ongoing and results in necessary changes and upgrades to deliver timely quality service to the customer.
Continual benchmarking or comparison with competitors and related organizations helps maintain an acute awareness and implementation of best service practices by the organization.
The latest technology is used to connect with and provide service to customers, vendors, or suppliers and to support business operations.
They build relationships through customer relationship management (CRM) programs.

For additional ideas and strategies for building a strong service culture, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success.

About Robert C. Lucas

Bob Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills. Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

Customer Service Culture Quote – Jerry Fritz

by Robert W. Lucas

Customer Service Culture Quote – Jerry Fritz

Effective customer service cultures are driven from the top down in organizations where everyone takes ownership of interacting positively with customers and giving 110 percent in an effort to stand out from the competition.

Customer service cultures are made up of numerous elements (e.g. employees, quality products and services, effective service training, policies that address customer needs, wants and expectations, and physical service environment).

The following quote by Jerry Fritz helps define the importance of customer service cultures.

“You’ll never have a product or price advantage again. They can be easily duplicated, but a strong customer service culture can’t be copied.” Jerry Fritz

For ideas and strategies on how to create and maintain a positive customer service culture in your organization, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success.

Learn All About Robert C. ‘Bob’ Lucas Now…

Understand Why He is an Authority in the Customer Service Skills Industry

Robert C. ‘Bob’ Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills. Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

In my book Customer Service Skills for Success, I define customer service as “the ability of knowledgeable, capable, and enthusiastic employees to deliver products and services to their internal and external customers in a manner that satisfies identified and unidentified needs and ultimately results in positive word-of-mouth publicity and return business.”

Employee Training and Quality Customer Service Go Hand-In-Hand

by Robert W. Lucas

Employee Training and Quality Customer Service Go Hand-In-Hand

Training is a vehicle for preparing employees to better serve their customers and is an essential component of any organizational culture that supports customer service. That is why the importance of effective training for customer service representatives cannot be overstated. Managers of customer-focused organizations and many customer service representatives realize this and pursue opportunities to continually hone the skills needed for quality service delivery.

To perform your job successfully and create a positive impression in the minds of customers, you and other frontline employees must be given the necessary tools to do your job. Unfortunately, during the recession, many organizations and individuals cut back on the amount of training that was received. That is unfortunate because typically when things slow down, that is a good time to ramp up your knowledge and skill levels to better compete and be prepared when things revive.

Depending on your position and your organization’s focus, training might address interpersonal skills, technical skills, diversity, organizational awareness, product and service knowledge, or job-specific skills. Most importantly, your training should help you know what is expected of you and how to fulfill those expectations.

To ensure that you are ready for the daily challenges and opportunities involved in serving a diverse customer base, take advantage of training programs offered by your organization. Check with your supervisor and/or training department, if there is one. If you work in a small company or nonprofit organization, have your own company, have a limited budget for training, or do not have access to training, look for other resources. Many communities have lists of seminars available through the public library, college business programs, high schools, chambers of commerce, professional organizations, and a variety of other organizations.

The Internet also offers a wealth of articles and information in the form of free podcasts to YouTube training videos on a variety of topics. Go to http://www.YouTube.com and search for “customer service training” and see what comes up. Tap into these resources to gain the knowledge and skills you will need to move ahead.

For additional information on developing knowledge and skills needed to serve your customers, check out Customer Service Skills for Success, How to Be a Great Call Center Representative and Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

Robert C. Lucas

About Robert C. Lucas

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The Customer Service Representative’s Role in Organizational Culture

by Robert W. Lucas

The Customer Service Representative’s Role in Organizational Culture

Put simply, organizational culture is what your customer experiences. This culture is made up of a collection of subcomponents, each of which contributes to the overall service environment.

Organizational cultures are developed to some degree by everyone within the organization and are driven from the top down in most organizations. Without the mechanisms and atmosphere to support frontline service, the other components of the business environment cannot succeed. When leaders fail to recognize this point and do not lead by example from a service perspective, the organization is doomed to experience poor quality of service and lose customers.

Typically, culture portrays the dynamic nature of the organization and encompasses the values and beliefs that are important to the organization and its employees and managers. The experiences, attitudes, and norms cherished and upheld by employees and teams within the organization set the tone for the manner in which service is delivered and how service providers interact with both internal and external customers.

The type and quality of products and services also contribute to your organizational culture. If customers perceive that you offer reputable products and services in a professional manner and at a competitive price, your organization will likely reap the rewards of customer loyalty and positive “press.” On the other hand, if products and services do not live up to expectations or promises, or if your ability to correct problems in products and services is deficient, you and the organization could suffer adversely.

As a service provider, you play a crucial role in making sure that your culture is positive and projected to each person with whom you have contact. Customers do not care about your policy, your physical or mental condition, whether you are having issues with co-workers or managers, or any other element that might potentially inhibit your delivering quality customer service. What they do care about is receiving quality, timely and professional services and products. Anything else will likely have them headed for the door or to the next Internet site to have their needs, wants and expectations met.

Make it your goal that each day you come to work, that you will strive to make it the best possible day for you and for your customers. For more information about customer service and organizational cultures get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success.

About Robert C. Lucas

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

Customer Service Quote – Henry Ford

by Robert W. Lucas

Customer Service Quote – Henry Ford

The phrase quality customer service is often bantered around in organizations. While some employees strive to deliver the best customer service possible, others simply show up for work and go through the motions. Likewise, some supervisors and managers are satisfied with just meeting minimal standards and do not continually look for ways to improve the system and enhance the customer experience.

It is a shame that in an economy where good jobs are hard to find, many employees are just “waiting to get another job” instead of dedicating themselves to give the best customer service possible each day. What these people fail to realize is that when they slight their internal and external customers by providing minimal effort, they not only taint the reputation of the organization and cost it money; they also damage their own professional image and limit opportunities and rewards for themselves at the same time.

Henry Ford summed up the reason to develop and maintain a customer-centric organization when he said the following:

“It is not the employer who pays the wages.

Employers only handle the money.

It is the customer who pays the wages.”

– Henry Ford

For ideas and strategies on how to effectively create and maintain a customer-centric organization, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success and How to Be Great Call Center Representative.

About Robert C. Lucas – An Award-Winning Author and Customer Service Expert

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

Customer Service Quote – Sam Walton

by Robert W. Lucas

Customer Service Quote – Sam Walton

“The goal as a company is to have customer service

that is not just the best, but legendary.”

– Sam Walton Founder of Walmart

Customer service is not just the job of customer service representatives and others on the “front line.” It is a crucial role that everyone from the CEO down must fulfill in order for an organization to be successful.

Certainly, the first people to come into contact with a customer are often those who answer the phones or respond to electronic messages as part of their job description. However, isn’t that something that everyone in the organization does every day? The challenge is that many people who are not hired specifically to fill a position designated as “customer service” forget that they also represent the organization each time that they come into contact with someone during the day. They often do not consider their peers or other employees as internal customers and fail to provide a level of quality attention that they deserve. This might happen when someone from within the organization asks for information, only to have to call several times to follow-up when it is not provided as promised.

The bottom line is that if every employee adopts a customer-centric approach to doing their job, their reputation and that of the organization will potentially soar. By creating a service culture where everyone takes responsibility for positive service delivery; everyone wins.

For ideas and strategies on how to develop a customer-focused attitude, get a copy of the book Customer Service Skills for Success.

Learn All About Robert C. ‘Bob’ Lucas Now and

Understand Why He is an Authority in the Customer Service Skills Industry

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

Strategies for Improving Your Service Culture

by Robert W. Lucas

Strategies for Improving Your Service Culture

In the past, organizations were continually making changes to their product and service lines to try to attract and hold customers. Often this has been their primary approach to customer satisfaction.

Many major organizations have become more customer-centric and stress long-term relationships with customers. They realize that it is cheaper, and smarter, to retain current customers, rather than subscribe to a revolving door approach of continually trying to attract new customers to replace the ones that they lost to competitors. Their goal is to continually try to enhance their service culture and the perception that current and potential customers have of their organization. Advertising campaigns often reflect this new awareness as companies try to communicate that they are more focused on their customers.

The following are some familiar slogans used by companies in their promotional materials:

“You can do it; We can help” – Home Depot
“Like a good neighbor”—State Farm Insurance
“When you’re here, you’re family”—Olive Garden Restaurants
“You’re in good hands”—Allstate Insurance Company
“It’s your store”—Albertsons Grocery Stores
“What can Brown Do for You?” – United Parcel Service (UPS)
“We’ll leave the light on for you.” Motel 6
“Think what we can do for you.” Bank of America

To do your part in better serving customers in your organization, take a look at the slogans above and ask yourself the following questions in order to help improve your service levels:

What am I currently doing to provide the same level of quality service that these companies are espousing?
What am I currently doing that I could do better when serving my customers?
What am I currently doing that is potentially detracting from customer perceptions of service?

Based on answers to these questions, develop an action plan for improvement and strive to develop customer-focused behaviors and deliver the best possible customer service in the future.

For additional ideas on how to improve your customer service skills, get copies of Customer Service: Skills for Success and How to Be Great Call Center Representative.

About Your Customer Service Skills Expert – Robert C. Lucas

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The Impact of Technology on Customer Service

by Robert W. Lucas

The Impact of Technology on Customer Service

Organizations of all sizes in different parts of the world are struggling to harness the power of service technology to deliver the best customer service possible. The wonderful thing about changing technology is that through the use of new innovations, even small organizations can create an image equal to their larger counterparts since someone visiting their website or contacting them in other ways have no idea how many employees or assets they have. The key is that once a customer does contact an organization, that customer service representatives and other employees who interact with them must project a positive and professional image during interactions. Creating a positive customer-centric service culture is the job of everyone in the organization from upper echelons to front line employees.

In years past, service-based technology consisted of the telephone and facsimile. Now, there are many new developing technologies (e.g. Skype, smartphones, tablets, and cloud-based solutions) and web-based tools available (e.g. blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and StumbleUpon) as organizations strive to gain and hold their edge over local and international competition.

Billions of dollars are being spent worldwide to create systems through which customers can access products and services to satisfy their ever-changing needs and whims. This is occurring because the quality of service received or perceived by customers can either enhance or diminish an organization’s brand and reputation. In a global economy, diversity abounds. Each current or potential customer also brings along cultural values, beliefs, and backgrounds based on their background. All of these elements influence customer expectations and perspectives.

As organizations strive to hang onto market share and customers while eking out some degree of profit is a sluggish economy, they are seeking viable alternatives to be responsive to customer needs, requests, problems, suggestions and complaints. Technology-based service delivery systems are viable options.

Many organizations have dedicated customer service professionals to staff their telephones or call centers and communicate with customers via the Internet, blogs, email, and other technological means. Some organizations also outsource and off-shore their service functions to call centers, marketing, and similar companies in order to reduce direct, ongoing staff expenses from their budgets and receive tax breaks. Unfortunately, these cost-saving strategies do not always work because many consumers have begun to rebel against having to talk to people located in other countries, whom they sometimes feel do not understand them or their needs.

Larger organizations continue to add and upgrade hardware and software capable of contacting and serving customers and tracking service-related analytics while adding human resources and training to meet customer needs.

In smaller organizations, and those who have yet to use alternative servicing strategies to maximum potential, the responsibility for answering the telephone and providing service through other means often falls on anyone (e.g., administrative assistant, salesperson, driver, partner, or owner) who is available when a customer visits (face-to-face or via the Internet or computer), the telephone rings, or an answering system receives a message.

No matter the size of your organization, everyone must accept ownership for service delivery in order to provide positive global service and ensure that customers are satisfied in order to maintain some degree of loyalty.

For additional ideas, strategies and techniques on how to provide the best customer service possible, check out Customer Service Skills for Success, Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures, and How to Be Great Call Center Representative.

About Robert C. Lucas

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

Three Simple Strategies To Encourage Customer and Brand Loyalty

by Robert W. Lucas

Three Simple Strategies To Encourage Customer and Brand Loyalty

Customer service representatives and all other employees in the organization should have one goal in mind when interacting with other…building stronger customer-service provider relationships.

The global economy of today is dominated by technology. That puts your competitors from around the world only one mouse click away from your customers if they decide that you are not delivering as the expect or you promised. No one in your organization can be complacent when it comes to addressing the needs, wants and expectations of your customers. Customer relations should be a high-priority effort for all employees.

Whenever and wherever a touchpoint (contact with a current or potential customer) occurs, it is a unique opportunity to show that you and your organization provide not only good or excellent customer service but that you provide the BEST customer service! Throughout any interaction, you should make it your goal to project a positive service image and that you add value to the customer relationship.

The following are three simple strategies that employees and organizations can use to help build the brand and organizational loyalty.

1. Recognize the customer. Whenever a customer enters, calls or contacts you electronically, stop what you are doing and make them the focal point of your attention. If you know their name, smile and use it immediately. If not, ask for the name and then use it occasionally throughout the interaction. This demonstrates that you are concerned about them on an interpersonal level and value them as an individual.

2. Show appreciation. Thank your customers at the end of a transaction and wait for them to leave, disconnect or close the communication before you do. Often customers will think of one more thing they want to say or ask at the end of a conversation. If you abruptly end the contract, they might feel cut off and lose the opportunity to get the needed information. In such instances, any positive good will earned for excellent service to that point could be lost.

3. Seek opportunities to demonstrate value. Never assume that customers recognize the value you provide. They have too many things going on in life on a given day to stop and reflect on what you provide for them. You need to continually do things to encourage brand loyalty.

Many organizations remind customers that they saved money, time, effort and other valuable elements whenever possible. To get an idea of how this works, look at your sales receipt the next time you make a retail purchase. Does it thank you and demonstrate value? For instance, at the bottom of an Office Depot receipt, you will see a catalog list price or what the product would have cost at the manufacturer’s suggested retail price, Office Depot’s low everyday price, how much you saved, and a note thanking you for saving at Office Depot. Minor reminders such as this are a quick and easy way to encourage people to return for additional needs.

No matter what system you implement, make sure that you show that you are sincere in your appreciation for your customers.

About Robert C. Lucas

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

Three Tips for Developing Customer and Brand Loyalty

by Robert W. Lucas

Three Tips for Developing Customer and Brand Loyalty

Companies and customer service representatives are always looking for ways to develop a service culture that can increase customer and brand loyalty in today’s global competitive business environment. By exhibiting basic customer service skills and delivering excellent customer service with each customer-provider encounter, the chances that a customer will return and stay loyal are increased significantly.

Here are three simple strategies that can contribute to higher customer and brand loyalty in your organization.

Always act in the best interest of your customers. Listen to them, ask questions, anticipate their needs, deliver what you promise and exhibit high levels of professionalism in everything that you do whether your customers are present or not.
Take the time to personalize your customer interactions and to make each customer feel special. Use a customer’s name often during an interaction, listen, smile, ask questions to show interest and strive to project a positive image. This can all lead to enhanced trust and helps ensure that the customer returns.
Treat all customers as if they are crucial to the organization—they are! Do whatever is possible and reasonable to maintain a strong customer-provider relationship and keep the customer returning and recommending that others should do likewise. Whether someone is a new or existing customer should make no difference.

For additional ideas on developing customer and brand loyalty and on how to deliver effective customer service to your customers, get a copy of Customer Service: Skills for Success and Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures by Robert W. Lucas.

About Robert C. Lucas

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.