Customers today are king. They are demanding and expect excellence at every point of their sales journey with your business, online and offline. With a mobile in every pocket, you better believe that poor customer service will spread like wild fire across every digital touch point you can imagine. The pressure is on businesses to create powerful customer experiences at every touchpoint. The businesses of tomorrow will create teams who are unapologetically customer-centric in their decisions and actions. Studies show that customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator by 2020. Organisations will need to implement significant business model changes to improve customer experience. For every negative experience, it takes 12 good experiences to make up the damage. How? Well before you answer that, understand the who. Meet the customers of today Customers are more connected than ever before. They really hold the key to the success or failure of...

By Camilia du Plooy Would you let a brain surgeon conduct surgery after a ten minute crash course on the anatomy of the brain? Well I certainly hope not! Yet most people who work on the front line in any business that work face to face with customers are given a short information session- A ten minute crash course on how to look after, satisfy, delight and spoil their customers. For staff to do this properly they need to be exposed to training that will include: company systems, sales and service techniques, communication skills, inter-personal skills, products and the industry, to make them into qualified customer service orientated personnel. One way to ensure optimal client satisfaction is to have a client service department, not only for your employees to be able to report back, but to be a buffer, and safety net to deal with complaints rationally and efficiently. “In order for any brand to bring across their values, it should be implemented as a daily criterion, by which they al...

Fatima Sullivan As consumers and businesses are urged to tighten their belts in light of slowed economic growth, customer service experience is set to become an increasingly important differentiator for local businesses, and one of the main factors that will influence decisions regarding which supplier to purchase products and services from. This is according to Fatima Sullivan, Vice President of Customer Services for DHL Express Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), who says that research shows consumers are willing to spend more for better customer service and with those companies that they believe provide excellent customer service. “In an environment where alternatives are rife, customer experience is rapidly becoming one of the most important elements of a business’ success. While price will always be important in the mind of the consumer, this becomes less so if a business offers first class customer service to support the product or service.” It is for this reason that DHL invests so he...

If you’re in the business of selling products and services, a content and loyal customer is gold. However, as technology-enhanced, real-time communication grows, a dissatisfied customer is a ticking time-bomb that can do significant damage to your reputation. Leading integrated business solutions provider, Nashua , recently completed a comprehensive customer service survey to find out just how it measures up in the eyes of their customers. The results revealed interesting insights, as well as an impressive score of 77%. Drawing on their own knowledge and feedback from customers, Nashua has identified seven key steps to improving customer service: 1. Choose the right medium It’s vital to know when to use technology-based services and when to rely on human interaction. An online form or automated response might work for a customer who’s looking for efficiency and a quick-fix, but someone who’s desperately seeking consolation, advice or assistance won’t react well to a machine. T...