1. Customer Service: A Practical Approach
Fifth Edition
Elaine K. Harris

2. The Challenges of Customer Service
Chapter 2:
The Challenges of Customer Service

3. Barriers to Excellent Customer Service:
Laziness
Poor communication skills
Poor time management
Attitude
Moodiness
Lack of adequate training
Inability to handle stress
Insufficient authority
Servicing customers on autopilot
Inadequate staffing

4. Expectations:
Our personal vision of the result that will come from our experience.

5. Levels of Expectations
Primary expectations: the customer’s most basic requirements of an interaction.
Secondary expectations: Expectations based on our previous experiences that are enhancements to our primary expectations.

6. Scope of Influence:
Our ability to influence others based on our perceptions or experiences.

7. Reputation Management:
The process of identifying how a company is perceived and establishing a action plan to correct, maintain, or enhance the company’s reputation.

8. A company with a good reputation
Is very responsive to customers
Is a company you can trust
Delivers on its promises to customers
Provides excellent value to customers
Has excellent communications
Is ethical and honest
Conducts business in a human/caring way
Has excellent top management
Is able to adapt to changes in the industry

9. A company with a good reputation (continued)
Is a good citizen
Is a progressive company
Is cooperative
Has a record of strong financial performance
Treats employees with respect
Is a technological leader in the industry
Is committed to the environment
Complies with state/federal regulations
Is successful in diversifying operations

10. Techniques for Exceeding Customers’ Expectations
Become familiar with your customers.
Ask your customers what their expectations are.
Tell your customers what they can expect.
Live up to their expectations.
Maintain consistency.

11. Credibility:
Made up of the combination of our current knowledge, reputation, and professionalism.

12. Tips for cultivating credibility
Practice consistency
Keep your word
Develop your expertise
Become a teammate with your coworkers
Show your dedication to customers
Treat all of your customers and coworkers with the same high level of respect
Apologize if you are wrong
Remember that credibility is much harder to regain than it is to keep

13. Values:
A combination of our beliefs, perceptions, and ideas about the appropriate response to a situation.

14. Ethics:
A set of principles that govern the conduct of an individual or group.

15. Ethics checklist Is it legal? Is it fair? How do I feel about it?
Would the court of public opinion find my behavior incorrect?
Am I fearful of what those I trust would say about my actions?

16. Current Issues of Customer Service
It is frequently difficult to measure the financial benefits of customer service.
It may be challenging to convince some financial managers of the long-term payoffs.
Customers have high expectations of what they hope to gain from the people with whom they do business,
Frequently customer service providers do not know what those expectations are.
Customers have grown accustomed to improved levels of customer service and expect considerable latitude in customer service, but the resulting cost is becoming prohibitive for many businesses.

17. Current Issues of Customer Service (Continued)
Technology provides the opportunity for faster responses to customer questions.
It also creates the requirement that customer service providers have additional training.
Customer service is an opportunity that no professional can afford to ignore.
Customer service is frequently the distinguishing difference between two or more companies that offer the same product or service.

18. New Trends in Customer Service
Accessibility for the customer
Immediacy of response
Feedback from customer to customer service provider
Outsourcing of all or part of customer service functions
Nontraditional examples of customer service