Answering Service - Index  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
 

It's Never Too Early for Customer Service part 2

For example, let’s assume that alpha Customer A calls in to report a bug on the newly released product they’ve just received from Company X. Beyond the basics of providing a prompt, professional and knowledgeable response to Customer A, Company X can (and should) benefit from that interaction in several other ways. Of course, the details of the bug being reported need to be clearly, completely and accurately communicated to engineering. Depending on the nature of the issue (often there is a very gray area between a bug and an RFE – request for enhancement), this information should also be shared with marketing. If that same customer is operating under a service contract, has outstanding (unpaid) invoices and/or has any other financially oriented “association” with Company X (i.e., a “pay for bug” reporting agreement), the accounting/finance function in the company may need to be notified as well. If the bug/issue being reported has to do with how it was shipped and/or received (especially, if it requires an RMA – return materials authorization), the manufacturing/shipping organization needs to get into the loop. Last, but never least, is the opportunity for sales to create and maintain an ongoing bond with their customer. In the case of a bug report, the salesperson responsible for that customer may want to place a follow-up call to assure that the customer was satisfied with the response to their call. Additionally, and (once again) depending on the nature of the issue, the salesperson may even be presented with an opportunity to “up-sell” another product and/or service to that customer.

Fire Prevention

Hopefully, this most generic of examples makes a strong case for the argument that the customer service function is most tightly integrated with that of the others in the company and, therefore, should be set up to optimize this relationship from the start. An equally compelling case can be made for preventing the fall-out associated with not making customer service a priority from the beginning. This particular circumstance can have much more serious and long-lasting consequences than that of losing out on the benefit of early resource optimization.

In even the most successful early stage ventures (maybe, especially in those), the lack of attention paid to the customer service function (in the form of systems and processes) will result in some serious fire-fighting “opportunities”. Let’s continue on with the earlier example of Company X. If Company X (like so many startups) has not taken the time to set up (even the most rudimentary) customer service processes and systems by the time they are in “production” (vs. alpha or beta) mode with their first customers, they may only (to date) suffer the loss of optimizing those early customer interactions.

This is generally the time when many new companies decide that it’s finally time to start thinking about the “Customer Service Department”. This may mean hiring their first one or two customer support representatives (technical support engineers) or may even lead to a search for the Customer Service executive who will build that organization. Again, generally speaking, the job of putting processes and systems in place is left to those who eventually are tasked with running this function.

As someone who has previously built and run several customer service operations, I don’t deny the satisfaction of starting something from scratch. However, putting (never mind changing) tires on the proverbial “moving bus” is not a pleasant experience for anyone (the new service person/people, the executive management of the company and, most especially, the customer). In fact, in the worst of circumstances, it can endanger good work done by the company thus far by compromising those critical early relationships. It also has the very real tendency to provide significant disruption in the rest of the business while all attention gets focused on putting out these new fires.

Best Case Scenario?

Up to this point in the discussion, there has only been talk of the risks/results and no more than a general reference to the cause(s). To better illustrate the point, a more specific example is in order. Okay, so now Company X has 15 new customers and each of them is in “production” mode (vs. alpha or beta) with Company X’s products/services. To date, all communication with these customers has been handled (and, very likely, not recorded) by representatives from Engineering, Sales, Marketing or even by the chief executive. While not ideal, this hasn’t caused any major heartburn (yet) on anyone’s part. In fact, to be fair, direct contact by all of these organizations with the customer in the early stages may be very beneficial.

Company X, having reached this production stage of the business, has now hired Customer Service Representative P and Customer Service Representative Q to begin taking customer calls from this point forward. Hey, there are only 15 customers – that should be plenty of coverage, right? Without going into too many details (every company, product/service and customer combination represents an endless number of possibilities), the best case scenario for the new customer service reps is that the calls will come in no more that two at a time (one for each rep). Further, this best case situation would assume that the questions/problems will be either easily answered/resolved by whatever training the rep may have received prior to answering their first call or that someone (i.e., an engineer) with that answer is readily available to assist. Staying with the best case, these first few callers/customers may not even notice that there has been a change. Further, these reps may even go so far as to document (in an Excel spreadsheet, in email or even on paper) the nature of the call for future reference. Taking all of this into consideration, under the best of circumstances, it still substantially limits the organization’s ability to optimize the customer service function (and to enhance its customer relationships).

for part 3 see It's Never Too Early for Customer Service part 3
It's Never Too Early for Customer Service part 1

Back to answering service or customer service section

click for top