Audits can find customer service flaws

It takes only one bad experience to lose a customer.

Some 89 percent of consumers began doing business with a competitor following a poor customer experience, according to a 2011 survey commissioned by RightNow.

The only way to really know if you're delivering good customer service is to put yourself in the customer's shoes, and that starts with conducting ongoing audits to gauge all aspects of the customer experience, experts say.

"I think that companies assume they're doing a good job," but their customers might not agree, says Randi Busse, president of Workforce Development Group, an Amityville-based customer service/retention coaching and training firm. Often, they get too wrapped up in the day-to-day to really take a step back and assess their overall customer relations, she notes.

Performance audits

Monitoring should be ongoing, Busse says; an audit should be conducted as part of your regular course of business.

"It starts with 'hello' " -- literally, she explains, adding that many businesses don't even realize how their employees are answering their phones.

Busse once called a prospective client -- a limousine service -- and the person on the other end barked, "Limousines." No "Hello" or "May I help you," she notes.

Optimally, you want a live person answering your phone rather than a recording, and you want that person trained on how you'd like customers greeted.

"You can't assume people know how to answer the phone, because they don't," says Sydney Barrows, a New York City-based customer experience specialist and author of "Uncensored Sales Strategies" (Entrepreneur Press; $19.95). "You can't count on people working for you using their own personal standards."

Make sure employees understand what your standards are and what guidelines you want them to use, she notes. Also empower your people to be able to make a decision and solve a customer's problem if it arises, Barrows says. "It's important for them to know how far they should go," she explains.

Don't just focus on one department when it comes to training.

"Customer service is about the entire organization," says David Sank, chief operating officer and executive vice president of sales and marketing for Calico Cottage, an Amityville-based supplier of fudge ingredients, equipment, marketing and merchandising support. The company, which worked with Busse, recently completed a customer service audit and extensive companywide training.

"The audit just forced us to be that much more customer-centric and be sure every customer experience is an outstanding one," he notes.

As part of the audit, Busse reviewed and critiqued phone interactions between Calico's customer service team and clients.

She also taught the customer service manager how to do that with his team on a regular basis, notes Sank, who is pleased with the audit's overall results.

Touchpoints

As part of an audit, companies need to look at every touchpoint of the customer interaction, notes Neal Raisman, president of N. Raisman and Associates, a Columbus, Ohio-based customer service training, workshop and audit firm. These touchpoints, Raisman says, include:

A company's website: Is it outdated and/or hard to navigate?

Telephone answering: How are customers greeted, etc.

Email responsiveness: How fast do you respond to queries?

Store/office appearance: Is it well-kept, dirty, disorganized?

Overall experience: For example, are customers asked if they need help finding something?

"It's paying attention to the details," Raisman says. "Services are those activities we have to provide to sell something. Hospitality is what keeps people coming back."

Attrition costs

$83 billion: Estimated total loss by U.S. enterprises each year due to defections and abandoned purchases as a direct result of a poor customer experience.

Source: Genesys