{"id":892,"date":"2013-06-30T19:42:38","date_gmt":"2013-06-30T19:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/home\/?p=892"},"modified":"2013-06-30T19:42:38","modified_gmt":"2013-06-30T19:42:38","slug":"are-you-really-giving-customer-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/home\/are-you-really-giving-customer-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Are you really giving Customer Service?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The theory that you have to give great Customer Service to distinguish yourself from the big guys has a major drawback &#8211; it can put the focus on problem solving instead of problem avoidance.<\/p>\n<p>The product or service you provide should be as defect free as possible so that you don&#8217;t have to spend time and money fixing it.<\/p>\n<p>Great Customer Service stories on how quick and efficiently your company solves problems can create raving fans who tell everyone about it, but it doesn&#8217;t always work as an incentive to the potential buyer.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/customerserv.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-893\" alt=\"customerserv\" src=\"http:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/customerserv-300x129.png\" width=\"300\" height=\"129\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/customerserv-300x129.png 300w, https:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/customerserv.png 465w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Last year I needed an iPad and did my due diligence looking at reviews.<br \/>\nI was slightly put off by reports of overheating and people having returned their iPads 2 or 3 times.<br \/>\nEveryone raved about Apple having such good Customer Service.<\/p>\n<p>My first thought was &#8220;Oh No! I don&#8217;t need the hassle of returning it&#8221;.<br \/>\nIt isn&#8217;t just Apple that spends time and money fixing the problem, it is the customer as well!<br \/>\nFortunately my iPad has not had any problems\u2026 (typing with crossed fingers is a challenge).<\/p>\n<p>Another aspect is unclear or misleading specifications.<br \/>\nDoes the customer know exactly what they are going to get and are you giving them what you promised?<br \/>\nYou need to know what the problems (returns, complaints, refusal to pay) are really about.<\/p>\n<p>Usually it comes down to communication.<br \/>\nIf a customer in a restaurant asks for water &#8211; should it be with or without ice?<br \/>\nDid the waiter listen fully when the customer said &#8220;Water, no ice&#8221; or was he\/she already thinking about something else?<\/p>\n<p>IT projects in particular have very high failure rates.<br \/>\nThe Portland Business Journal found some rather depressing statistics:<br \/>\n\u2018Most analyses conclude that between 65 and 80% of IT projects fail to meet their objectives, and also run significantly late or cost far more than planned.\u2019<br \/>\nI think a Canadian study hit the nail on the head when they said: \u2018Bad communications between parties are the cause of IT project failures in 57% of cases they studied.\u2019<br \/>\n<em id=\"__mceDel\"><em id=\"__mceDel\"><em id=\"__mceDel\">This is confirmed in a study by IBM that only 40% of projects meet schedule, budget and quality goals.<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em id=\"__mceDel\"><em id=\"__mceDel\"><em id=\"__mceDel\">Quality control, with well-defined systems and procedures, will go a long way to avoiding the need for Customer Service.<br \/>\n<em id=\"__mceDel\"><em id=\"__mceDel\">As a business grows, systems and procedures have to be put in place so that the customer gets consistent high quality.<br \/>\n<em id=\"__mceDel\">Customer Service can then be small and also do an excellent job because they are not overwhelmed by too many complaints or returns.<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em id=\"__mceDel\">Customer Service is an important part of Customer Satisfaction, but the <b>PRODUCT<\/b> is the <b>KEY<\/b>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The theory that you have to give great Customer Service to distinguish yourself from the big guys has a major drawback &#8211; it can put the focus on problem solving instead of problem avoidance. The product or service you provide should be as defect free as possible so that you don&#8217;t have to spend time [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=892"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":894,"href":"https:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892\/revisions\/894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.success-academy.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}