Setting up a customer care programme. (Checklist 087).

This checklist describes the stages in establishing an organisational framework that maximises the value offered to and derived from customers.

Management Standards

This checklist has relevance to the MSC National Occupational Standards for Management: Key Roles A and C--Manage Activities and Manage People.

Definition

Successful customer care means making the customer want to come back for more, and getting them to recommend products and services to others. Customer care is not only about meeting customer expectations but `delighting' the customer by focusing staff energies on offering value, getting it right first time, and yet improving it in the future.

Benefits of a customer care programme

A comprehensive customer care programme impacts on the organisation through:

* increased success

* a developing and satisfied workforce.

Drawbacks of a customer care programme

There can be no such thing as a zero customer care programme--to take no account of customers is to ignore the future of the business.

Action checklist

1. Secure top management commitment

Unless top management are fully committed to the concept of customer care, there is very little chance of success. A formalised customer care programme with involved leadership helps to focus roles and responsibilities in a clear manner.

2. Know your customers

Excellence in customer care is wholly reliant upon knowing your customers' needs and expectations. Needs are not the same as demands: people don't ask for what they don't expect to get, even when it could be provided. Anticipating real needs can give competitive advantage.

While it is important to remember that most organisations have internal customers in other departments, divisions and sectors, establishing external customers' needs can be a lot more complex. A range of approaches is available, including:

* feedback direct from customers and staff

* direct discussion with customers

* analysis of customer complaints, enquiries and thank-yous

* attitude surveys and questionnaires

* visits to premises

* focus-group discussions and customer audits.

3. Assimilate the major elements of customer care

Customer care is more than just an excellent product or a first-class service; it involves a host of elements that contribute to genuine care and value for the customer, such as, in the purchasing process:

* clarity of literature on product features, price, payment methods, availability and after-sales support

* the way the first contact takes place and is followed up

* simple ordering procedures highlighted by convenience for the customer

* prompt order processing

* prompt notification of any changes to specification or procedure

* clear invoicing with no hidden charges

* assistance when the product is delivered

* easy after-sales contacts.

4. Develop service levels

It may be the case that performance standards do exist but are not formalised, recorded or audited. It is not good enough to set indicators or levels which place supplier-convenience in front of customer-convenience; such levels should be worked out, discussed and agreed with customers. It is good to set levels which are challenging but have a realistic chance of attainment. Questions to help set service levels may include:

* How many times does the phone ring before someone answers?

* How many transfers take place before the customer gets an answer?

* How long does it take to process an order?

* How long does it take to respond to a complaint?

Measurements must not gain such a hold on processes that they become a time-consuming nuisance; they should be realistic and helpful in developing a relationship--however short-lived--between supplier and customer. Remember, what gets measured, gets done.

5. Recruit the right staff

Your service is only as professional as the people delivering it; attracting new customers and retaining existing ones are tasks for competent people. Focusing the recruitment process on customer care can mean introducing questions at the interview stage, covering, for example:

* Candidates' experiences with customers

* service levels and customer expectations

* the prioritisation of customer needs over in-house organisational activities

* incentives to motivate front-line staff.

Remember to include customer care on the induction programme.

6. Get your communications right

Top management commitment to a customer care programme is no good if the right message is not conveyed to all staff in the right way. If internal communications are not working as well as they should, then external communications cannot be expected to be successful. Communications have to be reliable, consistent and regular so that all people receive the same message and interpret it in the same way so that the end results are the same.

7. Convert complainants back into customers

Prompt and sympathetic handling of complaints can turn a disgruntled customer into a happy--and longer-lasting--one. People whose complaints are fully dealt with are more loyal than those who have no complaints.

Often, those who receive the complaint are not at fault, yet they bear the brunt of customer dissatisfaction. It is vital that all staff are familiar and comfortable with the organisation's procedure so that they are prepared to receive complaints and to start converting the customer from dissatisfied to satisfied. Remembering that the complaint must be dealt with promptly, accurately--it may just be a misunderstanding or lack of information--and efficiently, individuals in the `front line' need to be familiar with seven rules for dealing with verbal complaints:

* Listen patiently--let the customer air the grievance without interruption.

* Acknowledge the customer's viewpoint--even if you don't agree.

* Apologise--say sorry if a mistake has been made, but there's no need to overdo it.

* Find a solution--establish what needs to be done to rectify the problem.

* Keep the complainant informed--lack of ongoing information can exacerbate the problem.

* Reach a conclusion to resolve the problem for the customer quickly--a more permanent solution may take longer to find.

* Follow up--check that promised action happens.

8. Reward service accomplishments

Recognition and reward for superior performance helps with reinforcement. Try to recognise smaller accomplishments not just the major ones.

Customers too appreciate rewards for their loyalty, and such rewards will make a significant contribution to their retention.

9. Stay close to your customers

Staying close to customers means:

* carrying out continuous research in order to learn from them

* asking questions about the quality and performance of the product at regular intervals after the sale

* developing procedures to stay up-to-date with customer needs

* listening.

10. Train your people and work towards continuous improvement

Recruiting the right staff is just one of the first steps in a customer care programme. Training staff to understand customer needs and tackle customer problems, to turn threats into opportunities for the organisation, is also a prerequisite for effective and lasting customer care. Training them on a continuing basis, especially in friendly telephone and face-to-face techniques, which result in sincerity and substance rather than empty phraseology, can provide organisations with an advantage that will score with customers.

Providing feedback from customers is especially motivating for staff in `backrooms', who are not in direct contact with customers. Feedback can make an important contribution to continuous improvements in not only how things are done but also what is done.

Dos and don'ts for setting up a customer care programme

Do

* Make recruitment and selection customer-oriented activities.

* Discuss customer levels of expectation with all staff.

* Analyse complaints to discern any trends or patterns.

* Offer incentives to encourage customers to give feedback.

* Stay close to your customers--the profile of your best prospect is the profile of your best customer.

Don't

* Forget to involve all staff in customer service discussions.

* Lose sight of your internal customers.

* Neglect to celebrate and publicise good news and achievements.

* Omit to record thanks as well as complaints.

* Say "It isn't my fault", or "I don't know who deals with that here".

Useful reading Successful customer care in a week, 2nd ed, John Wellemin London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1998 Creating a customer focused company: 25 proven customer strategies, Ian Linton London: Pitman, 1994 Perfect customer care, Ted Johns London: Arrow, 1994 Raising the standard: a survey of managers' attitudes to customer care, Neville Benbow Corby: Institute of Management, 1994 Keeping customers for life, Richard F Gerson London: Kogan Page, 1992

Related checklists

* Getting closer to the customer

* Total quality: mapping a TQM strategy

* Total quality: getting TQM to work

* Mapping an effective change programme

* Handling complaints

* Empowerment

Thought starters

* A service that receives no complaints may receive little else--a service that ignores complaints will receive less use.

* What irritates you as a customer of other organisations? What delights you?

* How can you:

* improve ordering/purchasing convenience for your customers?

* develop more direct relationships with your customers?

* reward loyal customers?

* recognise customer (dis)satisfaction?

Further information

Checklists are available in the following formats:

* Individual checklists.

* A complete set of 175 on CD-ROM or in hard copy.

* Checklists with permission to photocopy.

Full details of the range of checklists which are available can be obtained from:

Lavis Marketing, 73 Lime Walk, Headington, Oxford, OX3 7AD Tel: 0845 702 3736 (local rate call) Fax: +44 1865 750079 or from Checkpoint on the Chartered Management Institute's website at www.managers.org.uk