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Customer service
The Seven Deadly Skills of Customer Service derive directly from showing how business Virtue should triumph over its opposite, business Sin. Marion McDonald explains
One of the curious facts of being in business is that we tend to pay more attention to winning new customers than to looking after them and keeping them loyal once we've won them. Some people might regard this as an inexplicable enigma: why do we behave like that? But I don't really think it's much of a mystery. It's human nature for us to find new opportunities and new people inherently exciting. Similarly, having a great honeymoon is very different from making a marriage really work after you come back home.
Yet I personally tend to believe that the 'making the marriage work after you come back home' aspect of being in business is really the interesting one. Wooing customers, winning them, and enjoying the honeymoon period just after they have become customers is all very well, but I don't regard it as a substitute for the much more intense satisfaction of building a long-term, mutually beneficial business relationship that may well last through the rest of the customer's life.
There aren't any secrets to building this kind of long-term relationship with a customer. It's all about having a grasp of what customers really want and giving them what they really want. And not just giving them what they really want now, but finding ways of continuing to give them this on an indefinite basis.
Yes, of course it requires you to be endlessly resourceful, seriously creative and distinctly imaginative. It also requires you to take the demanding mental effort of placing yourself in the customer's shoes and then working out what exactly it is he or she wants from you.
So what do customers want? I'd say the following are the most important types of thoughts likely to be in customers' heads after you've won their hearts:
• 'Take the trouble to understand what I need – even before I know what I need myself.'
• 'You worked hard to win me as a customer in the first place – please continue to make me feel valued.'
• 'Don't put all your efforts into new customers, and offer them products, services and prices that you don't offer me.'
• 'Solve my problems quickly, effectively and consistently.'
• 'Treat me as a person, not just as a number or a sales opportunity.'
• 'Be pleasant, efficient and helpful.'
• 'Never forget – and I'm not threatening you, I'm just stating a fact – that if you don't keep me happy, I might look around for someone else who will.'
I don't think anyone in business would dispute that keeping customers loyal and keeping hold of their heads and hearts is more difficult now than it ever has been.
Customers are more sophisticated and demanding than ever. All organisations are having to cope with this increased sophistication and customers' increased demands while also having to struggle with competitive, cost and legislative pressures. These, combined with the challenge of running complex internal organisational hierarchies, can make it very difficult, or even close to impossible, to see the woods for the trees.
My organisation, Charteris, is a business and IT consultancy. Many of the solutions we provide to our client organisations are highly complex from a technical perspective. But we never forget, and I mean not for one instant, that we are helping our clients to make themselves more successful. This, by definition, means we are helping them to look after their customers better. For this reason, we've evolved the notion of the Seven Deadly Skills of Customer Service.
These Seven Deadly Skills derive from the Seven Deadly Sins which (in case you've forgotten them, or haven't had an opportunity to practise them for a while) are pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, greed and sloth.
Conversely, and in direct opposition to these Seven Deadly Sins, we have the Seven Cardinal Virtues. I'm sure you practice these: but just in case you need reminding you, they are: humility, generosity, kindness, self-control, temperance and zeal.
Each one of the Seven Deadly Sins has its counterpart in the Seven Cardinal Virtues. The Seven Deadly Skills of Customer Service derive directly from showing how business Virtue should triumph over its opposite, business Sin.
Pride v. Humility
The deadly sin: excessive and/or unwarranted self-importance, arrogance and heightened self-interest.
The cardinal virtue: seeing ourselves as we are and recognising the relevance and importance of others.
Leads to...
the first Deadly Skill of Customer Service: Take time to know your customer; so often executives get caught up in the hierarchies and power struggles which go on inside the organisation that they forget to collaborate with colleagues on winning and looking after customers.
Avarice v. Generosity
The deadly sin: an unquenchable desire for acquisition
The cardinal virtue: more than just money; it's about creating a 'win-win' relationship with customers – and with colleagues too!
Leads to...
the second Deadly Skill of Customer Service: Focus on the customer agenda, not just your own. Embody what you know about your customers' needs and wants into the heart of your processes, channels and culture.
Envy v. Love
The deadly sin: Envy is a form of resentment, and a lack of respect towards others – customers, colleagues and competitors.
The cardinal virtue: Seeing through others' eyes, and looking to achieve good outcomes across each interaction.
Leads to...
the third Deadly Skill of Customer Service: Demonstrate respect for your customers' time, energy and engagement. Customers want to feel they are being treated as an individual – not just part of a process or a machine...they want to feel that you care!
Wrath v. Kindness
The deadly sin: Unfocused and narrow thinking and impulses, resulting in destructive behaviours.
The cardinal virtue: Showing patience and interested in the opinions and problems of others; seeking constructive solutions.
Leads to...
the fourth Deadly Skill of Customer Service: Customers often find it simpler and less confrontational to take their business elsewhere than to complain... or to get a complaint resolved. Demonstrate that you really do value their business and want them to stay.
Lust v. Self-control
The deadly sin: An intensely focused aim to achieve a specific goal or outcome; a pre-occupation with gratification or one's desires.
The cardinal virtue: Self-control and mastery allows for maximum achievement without damage.
Leads to...
the fifth Deadly Skill of Customer Service: Understand the difference between a quick sale and a customer relationship. This is the test of an organisation that is sincere about looking after its customers...they will spot you a mile off if all you want is to hit a sales target.
Greed v. Temperance
The deadly sin: The endless appetite for consumption – or deployment – regardless of need or appropriateness of fit.
The cardinal virtue: Accept that there is balance and natural limits in where, when and how you interact with customers.
Leads to...
The sixth Deadly Skill of Customer Service: Deploy your multi-channel structure and technology to do the right things for the right reasons. It should embody the way you think about your customers – not force you to do things that don't suit you or them.
Sloth v. Zeal
The deadly sin: Idleness and complacency regardless of potential benefit or reward
The cardinal virtue: An energetic anticipation and response to changing customer, market and competitor demands.
Leads to...
The seventh Deadly Skill of Customer Service: Forget the maxim 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. You must be prepared to continuously rethink your business operations, processes and channels. Keep your finger on the pulse, observe what's happening and take timely action.
These Seven Deadly Skills of Customer Service are incredibly powerful. They work because ultimately they all add up to your organisation caring about the customer and what the customer wants before anything else.
I'm not saying that's easy; it isn't. But building a great business is never going to be easy, and make no mistake, if you put the Seven Deadly Skills of Customer Service into practice, a great business is what you are going to be creating.
Marion McDonald is a consultant at the business and information technology consultancy Charteris plc, and can be contacted via tel: +44 207 600 9199; e-mail: marion.mcdonald@charteris.com
www.charteris.com
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