Customercentrix

Customer Service staff have or rather should have a vast knowledge of the companies they represent; that's why they are front line employees afterall. Some customers, even though they visit a company daily and should know where the company's wall clock and trash can are located, would still ask questions whose answers are known to a two year old. What do you think of the picture below? Obvious customer question, polite answers, no one's stupid. Your customer is not and will never be stupid regardless of your opinion . No matter how obvious the answer to a question is, a customer service employee should still answer politely as many times as possible. It is frustrating you might say, but how much better is sitting at your desk without having to attend to a single customer? How much better will it be to receive a notification that your company will be downsizing because sales has dwindled drastically?Or would it be better to have your products rot before your very ey...

Communication versus connection Customer Service is a fast evolving field and customer service employees could get stale at a single turn of events. No thanks to the ever changing taste and attitude of us humans, customer service employees need a lot of catching up at all times. That notwithstanding, customer service is an interesting field that entails connection to our humanness in far reaching ways that words won’t be sufficient to capture. Important as good communication is to a successful customer service, it is no longer sufficient. Customers want a customer service representative that can communicate in simple, understandable terms, as well as understand all they request. They want someone who can meet their demands and possibly even surpass them to give the customers satisfaction. Customer demands could be a daunting task to customer service employees who merely communicate but don’t connect with customers. Ever heard this before? ‘Immediate...

BAD SERVICE TURNED EXCEPTIONAL Got exceptional service delivery from Akhona, a service consultant at Telkom, Cresta Mall, Randburg, Johannesburg, SA. He came to our rescue after we waited for about 25mins to be attended to by the only available service consultant because it appeared to be lunch break time at the Telkom sales and service centre. Akhona's attitude demonstrated his customer service training. He apologised for the delay, asked how he could be of help, and took us straight to his desk to attend to us even though he was not the cause of our delay. He explained all we asked with precision, notified us of a free package on our data plan that we were not using, and was successful at changing our earlier opinion that the Telkom Service centre was a delay centre. Today's service tips from our service experience 1. The action or inaction of one customer service staff rubs on the entire organisation. 2. All customer service staff should not go for break at once. 3. Effectiv...

It's a common sight to see females as front line customer service staff. I sometimes wonder if this reflects population dynamics, recruitment preferences, gender sensitivity, employment bias or a baseless observation on my part. Some non-research findings tend towards the use of the female gender as sex -appeals to gain male customers. Whether in formal or informal organisations, a head count needs not be done to ascertain the wide difference in male to female ratio of Customer -facing staff. Some questions that come to mind however are: Is the customer service field considered a weaker field just as the female gender is considered the weaker gender by some?  Is the customer service field a match for all that defines what the female gender represents? Since women dominate the informal industries, could it be that the customer service field requires little or no skills? Do more women than men apply for customer service jobs? How does the society view men doing customer - se...

As humankind varies in taste, wants, needs, preferences and affiliations, so do businesses and organisations spring up in every nook and cranny of the world to meet the unique demands of the 'new' kind of man that evolves daily. Though appearing like a 'varied variance', one factor remains unchanged - at every point of man's existence, he is either being served or he is a servant(serving someone). Whether it be in exchange for money, an act of charity or a role -imposed duty, life is a service chain. Presidents are elected to serve their countries,governors, their states, Councillors  their wards, parents, their families, teachers, their students, doctors, their patients, employees, their organisations and so on.It is note worthy that all of these people are also receiving service in return in other circumstances.If all this be true, would it be too much of a generalisation to say the quality of service we give and receive determines what the world becomes? O...