Quality Customer Service Key Strategies for Organisational Performance

By Anthony Ike Chukwuma

Anthony Ike Chukwuma is a service quality and customer service strategist. He is a motivational speaker, trainer and conference speaker whose wealth of experience has a tremendous potential to facilitate the growth and improved performance of organisations. He is married with children.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Nov 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9781728394985

Anthony Ike Chukwuma

Anthony Ike Chukwuma is a service quality and customer service strategist. He is a motivational speaker, trainer and conference speaker whose wealth of experience has a tremendous potential to facilitate the growth and improved performance of organisations. He is married with children.

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2019 Anthony Ike Chukwuma. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse  11/25/2019

ISBN: 978-1-7283-9499-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-9500-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-9498-5 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the memory of my lovely parents Benedict and Veronica Chukwuma

CONTENTS

Introduction Why You Should Read This Book

Chapter 1 Service Quality - The Way Forward

Attributes Of Quality Service

Techniques For The Enhancement Of Service Quality Purpose

Ten (10) R Of Quality Customer Service Basic Attitudes.

Chapter 2 Enthronement Of Service Quality Culture

Service Culture

Employment Of The Workforce

Processes And Procedures

Management Commitment To Service Culture

Motivating The Workforce

Interpersonal Relationship

Using Communication To Enhance Service Culture

Empowering The Employees

Teamwork

Leadership

Benchmarking

Chapter 3 Monitoring And Evaluation Of Customer Satisfaction

Service Audit

Methodology Of Service Audit

Techniques Of Increasing The Service Levels

How To Find Out What The Customers Really Want

Chapter 4 Service Failure And Recovery For Effective Customer Satisfaction

Predictive Service Failure

Unpredictive Service Failure

Strategies For Handling Service Failures

Factors Enhancing Service Recovery

Chapter 5 Time Management For Quality Service

Delivery

Techniques In Time Management For Quality Service Delivery

Impediments To Efficient Time Management For Quality Service Delivery

Efficient Time Management Success Impediments

Chapter 6 Trail Blaizing In Quality Service Delivering

Essential Techniques Of Quality Service Delivery As A Trail Blazer

Customer Defection

Management And Employees Resposibility To Customer Defection

Causes Of Customer Defection

Customer Defection Management

Chapter 7 Attitude Transformation And Culture Change For Quality Service Delivery

Attitude Transformation For Quality Service Delivery Fundamentals

Quality Customer Service Techniques

Customer Retention

Customer Retention Strategies

Chapter 8 Corporate Communication And Impact On Service Delivery

Essentials Of Corporate Communication In Organisations

Customer Service Delivery Basic Telephone Etiquette

Principles Of Telephone Conversations

Telephone Basic Etiquette

Best Practice In Telephone Conversation/Call Centre Management

Measurement Of Call Centre / Customer Service Performance

Chapter 9 Complaint Handling: Turning Angry Customers As Valueable Assets

Causes Of Customers Complaints

Strategies To Resolve Customers Complaint

Techniques Of Handling Complaints And Angry Customer

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This is to express my profound appreciation and gratitude to God Almighty from whose fountain of knowledge the inspiration to write this book came from. Very special thanks to Nasir A. Mohammed who provided an important platform, in which this work was written, am eternally grateful. Special thanks to Chineze N. Eguabor (Mrs) and J.N. Anih, Idoreyin Attah, Patrick Ogbo, ThankGod Pinwa, Ekpeyong Edet for your objective analysis and critiques which shaped the thought of this book. I want to thank Adewale Odugbesan, Jane Eke (Mrs) and Cyril Ghomorai for their special assistance. And to a special friend Charles Nyamali who provided an important support and encouragement towards the realisation of this work.

To A. N. Okechukwu and Amaka Udaya (Mrs) who took tremendous efforts in spite of their busy schedules to proof read and make necessary corrections of some aspect of the manuscript, I say a big thank you. My gratitude goes to Uchenna Chukwuma who provided his specialist IT experience. Am especially grateful to Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo and Pastor Femi Faseru for their insightful teachings and messages which empowered me as a champion to take territories. To other numerous people who provided one support or another, your contributions will ever be cherished. Also I want to use this opportunity to express my appreciation to participants in my various lectures and sensitizations who are used to experiment most of the techniques and principles shared in this work.

Finally, my special thanks go to my dear wife Ihuoma and children for the important support in seeing that this book which emanated from a mere idea becomes a reality.

INTRODUCTION

WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK

Businesses all around the world have been hindered by one critical factor which many managers and entrepreneurs are not very conscious of most times. It is strategic for the survival of enterprises, yet relegated to the background and mostly neglected in its entirety. This has often crippled the profitability and longevity of the organizations.

The only mystery that can jump – start the performance of business concerns is qualitative service delivery targeted to the satisfaction of customers. It is therefore a matter of deliberate policy that companies should take this fundamental element to the front burner in the formulation and implementation of the organizational goals. If you have been concerned with the performance of your business and wondering on the strategy to be adopted to enhance your turnover and returns on the shareholder’s investment, then this book is exactly meant for you.

The cardinal objective of this book is to enthrone service quality leaders and champions who are desirous as change agents to use knowledge and insight gained to transform their organisations to greater profitability and customer loyalty. The survival or otherwise of enterprises is dependent on the faithfulness and interest of the customer to products and services, so organisations should build a culture of efficiency, effectiveness and value for the customer. Show me a company that is out of business and I will show you a company that does not value the sensibility of its customers.

Organisations should institutionalise service culture and propagate it by way of training and re – training of all strata of employees, if the organization wishes to retain its esteemed customers and be a world-class service provider. Once a service culture is established and inculcated in the employee’s relationship in the work place, it becomes a catalyst for continuous improvement on the companies’ overall performance.

This book is written basically for all those who want to take the services of their organisation to the next higher levels and to optimally derive maximum returns on service excellence and customer’s loyalty.

HOW THIS BOOK IS ORGANISED

It is comprehensively designed and structured into nine (9) chapters which covered a wider area in customer service delivery of organizations. My objective therefore is mainly to give expositions on methods to be applied by organisations and individuals to upscale the application of customer service through practical techniques that will enhance profitability of enterprises and creation of value on products and services. Chapter one of this book deals with Service Quality - the way forward and it is meant to provide a vivid roadmap and insight on what it takes to design services of organisations in an exceptional way to ensure customer acquisition and continuous patronage.

Chapter 2 presents Service Culture, processes and best practices to be incorporated in designing organisational strategy to guarantee the building of a strong corporate culture that will increase productivity and create in employees a sense of ownership of enterprises. In Chapter 3 service providers’ attention were focused on essential measures to be taken into consideration in the determination of customer satisfaction being the goose that lays the Golden Fleece. Attempt is made to provide a platform for executives to clearly understand how to increase service levels and to find out what the customers really want in order to gain the loyalty advantage that will position organisations to market dominance.

As a result of the fallibility of human nature, services of companies occasional are susceptible to defect and failure, Chapter 4 brings to fore different types of service failure and how to mitigate its occurrence. Where it is inevitable necessary factors to be equipped with to ensure service recovery is presented to build the needed competencies that will increase brands loyalty and returns on the shareholder’s value.

Customer service and time management is quite synonymous to qualitative service delivery, Chapter 5 provides readers with the capacity and knowledge on the application of invaluable techniques of time management to the organisational and individual advantage. It is important that business enterprises should expose their employees on the rudiments of effective and efficient time management to enhance overall success and optimal performance. Chapter 6 explores the basic essentials to trail blaze in quality service delivery. It shows CEOs’ and top executives the major causes of customer defection and the strategic measures that are to be instituted by management to ensure that customers’ continue to do business with their companies.

Considering the importance of employees in the realisation of organisational objectives, Chapter 7 gives information on attitudinal transformation and culture change for efficient service delivery. The chapter provides a guide on what is required to win the satisfaction and retention of customers in order to give companies competitive edge over and above its competitors.

Knowing the value of service strategy to the success of business enterprises, Chapter 8 introduces positive corporate communication as an essential part of service delivery. Realising how word of mouth through telephone conversation can create a negative perception in the mind of customers’, readers are provided with basic expositions on telephone etiquette which are targeted mainly to build necessary bond of relationship with individuals and customers respectively.

Customer service is the bedrock of successful enterprises. Complaints of customers and its resolution are therefore a veritable tool to re –engineer and refocus organisations towards providing delightful services. Chapter 9 which is the final part of this book deals with techniques that will turn customer’s complaint as an organisational asset. Business enterprises are therefore to see its performance through the customer perception of their services. Customer complaint should be seen as a welcome development rather than a disturbance and distractions.

The whole thought expressed in this book is to equip organisations to carve the needed niche that will position their brands as a market leader with the advantage of customer loyalty. Any short coming observed in this book is entirely mine, they are not deliberate. Individuals and indeed front line employees are to find this book a useful companion in fascinating customers with excellent services and superlative experience that will last a long time. The skills to be acquired from this book will be found useful to reader’s personally and mostly as organisational members.

CHAPTER 1

SERVICE QUALITY - THE WAY FORWARD

M ost Organisations have applied all sorts of policies, injected capital to turn the fortunes of their business around but this has not yielded the desired results. One thing they have failed to recognize consciously or unconsciously is that service quality when applied in the right direction in the running of enterprises is the only essential factor that can re-enforce and attract the needed positive reputation which enhances the organisational turnover. It is a business strategy that companies must adopt and implement to the fullest in order to gain market dominance and enhancement of shareholders’ investment. For establishments to remain in business, it becomes imperative for a holistic buy – in to the concept of quality service which is to be an organisational spirit that should be imbibed by employees in order to give direction to the standard of service to be made available to the customers.

Service quality is when the customer’s expectations rather than the companies’ expectation are accomplished. It is the customers’ view of the value derivable from any transaction resulting from the output of a business concern. When a product is brought to the market, it is the satisfaction and acceptability of the customer that determines how long its promoters are to remain in business. The sustainability of an organisation therefore is dependent on the value attached to the customer or clients in meeting their needs and aspirations.

In the globalised competitive economy, so many organisations have closed shop or out rightly liquidated by one singular error of judgment which invariably is the beckon in which their survival depends - not paying attention to the provision of qualitative services to the customers has been a major obstacle to the dwindling fortunes of enterprises. Qualitative service is not a choice but a vital necessity that triggers a multiplier effect in both the volume and value of customers and ultimately boosts the overall performance of organisations. Strategic policy of quality customer service with defined commitment of management in its implementation is the anti- dote to business failure. It is when service quality is incorporated within the corporate goals and seen as a way of life in the day-to-day operations that enterprises can indeed attract and retain customers. Customers do not come from the blues but only by doing the right thing at the right time with the right personnel that it can lead to their attraction which in the long run is bound to revolutionise the organisational profile.

An analogy of the under mentioned companies A B and C in this illustration will give a better understanding in what I called the mystery of service quality, these establishments are performing beautifully well and having returns on their investments by injecting quality as a standard of measurement of products and services but company C is averse to this important strategy therefore it is just struggling to find its feet. The company C has invested heavily in men and materials with the sole objective of enhancing business fortunes but sadly enough with little to show for its efforts and same results as obtainable earlier.

A cursory look in the downward performance of the organisation C reveals that one thing that has not been accorded priority in its operations is service quality and the recognition of the customer as the very essence of the growth and return on investment of businesses. The appreciation of the important role of customers / clients is the only panacea to success by organisations wishing to remain in business. Quality service is all that a customer desires but this all important factor have often been misplaced and ignored by most entrepreneurs.

Managers should continually build service quality ideals on the employees and as soon as the concept is accepted as an organisational norm, it is certain that the micro operating environment of the company will change favourably for the better. Customer satisfaction should be given the utmost priority it deserves, once a feeling of dissatisfaction is experienced with the services being rendered, immediate attention and response should be made to provide the desired solution. Customers always feel honoured, fulfilled and above all appreciated when their complaints are looked into even if not solved in its entirety. The feedback gained invariably helps the organisation to reposition itself by taking a critical assessment on the perception of customers to its services. Complacency and pride have been the bane of near total absence of service quality in most of the organisations. The general notion some employees erroneously have is that they have gotten enough customers which in itself is very deceptive.

Customers are never enough rather they should be pampered and nourished by way of service quality, which results into a boom and eventual customer acquisition to the brand. Taking customers for granted in the provision of qualitative services leads to no better way than to business failures.

Most employees in their naivety falsely believe that whether customers are treated fairly well or not, they must come back. They apply all sorts of negative traits in their relationship with the customers, who are treated shabbily, abused and often times dehumanized. An organization must have strived to establish a reputation of its brand, gladden the shareholders’ hearts by way of returns on investment but the action of what I termed bad employees in not dealing with the customers rightly and fairly has ruined so many enterprises.

Businesses succeed based on the patronage of the clients / customers respectively, this all important factor in the profitability of organisations should be served with humility, respect and cheerfulness if the overall objective of the organisation must be realized. In providing qualitative services, every action of the enterprises should be aimed and targeted towards the realization of the customer’s expectation and satisfaction.

Customers are always delighted when products and services are to be trusted. Service quality is therefore indispensable to organisations just as blood is to human life. Its implementation in the service of companies should be pursued with all amounts of vigour and seriousness it deserves, if the enterprises goal to remain in business and to gladden the shareholder’s hearts is to be realized.

The similarity of every organisation whether in the area of manufacturing, banking, telecommunications, energy, maritime, aviation, health, oil and gas to mention a few is service but the only distinction among these establishments is service quality, the degree of application of quality service differs. Every organisation is differentiated and categorized by the type of service it renders to its various customers. As businesses are operated in a heterogeneous economy, your organisation should be distinguished by the type of service it provides to the customer. It is only service quality that gives companies the much desired competitive edge of being the best in any given economy, doing the right thing of serving the customers rightly, must be done right, on real time and as always.

Service quality is a relationship built on products and services between organisations and their customers, which are to conform to standards of best practice that is error proof and zero defects. Business relationship is purely based on trust developed over the years, a product or service that has consistently satisfied the customer’s needs, is bound to attract the patronage of customers. Aero Contractors, an organisation that specializes in logistics and aviation transportation shows high quality skills in the manner it nourishes its numerous customers that patronize its services. The company has shown over the years its unalloyed commitment to service excellence in the conduct of its operations.

As a regular user of their services, I realized that service quality is their guiding principles. In one of my trips in which I flew in one of their Boeing 737 aircrafts, I was overwhelmed by the type of services being displayed right from the booking counters to checking in and boarding. From the departure at the terminal, the courteous manner the crew exhibited in communicating the guiding principles and code of conduct for the journey, this unequivocally shows that the company is customer focused. When the airline was airborne the ambience of service experienced by customers was equal to none and more also the friendly manner the members of the crew exhibited truly confirm its leadership position in the aviation industry in the sub region. On arriving at the destination, the air hostess gave an announcement firstly by showing appreciation to the delight of the passengers for flying aero contractors. This exemplifies customer’s service at its best.

The airline being a service driven organisation has built a solid reputation among its numerous customers, the employees who as part of the customer service strategy of the airline beams with smiles and politeness under any situation or circumstance, this singular action is reassuring and boosts the confidence of customers. Aero as the company is popularly known has been very consistent in its determination to take the customers to the next level as their underlining principles are promptness of service, efficiency and safety first. This presupposes that flights are scheduled as planned in a more convenient way.

The point here is that organisations desirous to attract customer loyalty forever must be focused in providing excellent and qualitative services that meets the satisfaction of the customers. It is basically out of place for organisations to have all the beautiful strategies without putting the customers in the priority list in terms of devising plans on how to boost their commitment to the brand and better their lots.

As part of Aero’s innovative business strategy to make the customers have easy access to the services, the company operates internet booking system where booking and payment are made online simply with a reloadable travel card on real time.

Companies must adopt mechanisms to make their services accessible. Distant is longer a barrier in service delivery rather it is bad service that dissuade customers from patronage. It is not surprising that Aero operates to its billings as ‘the reliable way to fly’.

To effectively propagate the ideals of service quality within organisations and the customers, service providers must maximally meet the expectation and satisfaction of their clients. Companies should be conscious that they are in a competition business and every exceptional service by employees must be orchestrated within every available opportunity and rewarded accordingly, this is to give this vital organisational asset more impetus to do more or even surpass the present standard of service. This is not playing to the gallery because good service in the long run benefits all particularly business establishments, employees and the customers in terms of the return on investment through customer loyalty and getting value from the money spent on products and services respectively.

Similarly, Associated Bus Company plc which is a transportation and cargo handling organisation is striving to entrench excellent service delivery in its dominant sector of operations. A travel with ABC Executive Express is a travel with peace of mind because you get what other operators in the industry do not give, that is ambience of service, comfort, serenity and guarantee to your destination. Indeed, the company is truly your passport to service. In my several trips to the federal capital territory, I visited their terminal to inquire about the schedule of the buses to Lagos, to my amazement I was informed by the booking clerk that they are on the fifth bus.

An organisation that is fully dedicated to providing efficient, innovative and dependable services just like ABC Transport do not need to spend investible funds on advertising rather it is the qualitative services to the customers that latently market the company through word of mouth and referrals. Customer service is a good market that project itself. Institutionalisation of the ideals of customer service is a sure guarantee to success of any enterprises. Good customer service in all its ramifications is the sure guarantee to retain and attract potential customers. When a company is satisfying its customers by way of superlative provision of qualitative services, customers must definitely patronise its products and services.

Service quality is all about customer satisfaction of the good service made available by service providers. The overall performance of any given organisation within a financial year is a determinant factor of how the customers appreciate and value its products and services. There is no mystery in increasing performance of companies within a particular accounting year than doing only the right thing of serving the customers well enough is the sure guarantee to adding value to shareholders’ investment.

Guaranty Trust Bank plc, an international banking group, is a house- hold brand in the provision of superlative services to its numerous customers. According to Segun Agbaje the Managing Director/CEO of GTB, despite the complexities of today’s financial landscape, we continue to remain true to our founding values: Service excellence, Professionalism, Integrity and Innovation whilst ensuring we understand and meet the peculiar needs of our various stakeholders, every single time our employees imbibe this vision and that is why we are a successful financial institution today. The organisation being conscious of the competition in the banking industry applies skill and speed in the servicing of customer’s accounts and provides better service quality to make a difference. Best practices when applied in the right direction distinguishes business establishment from its peers. The enviable status attained by GTB in the banking industry is an evidence of service excellence that is backed up with the application of innovation.

The volatility in the banking sector of the economy notwithstanding, the bank going by its name as one of the strong brands, has an obligation to