The Lion King | 9
customers and shareholders.
Effective internal customer service helps
organisations create a sense of own-
ership among their employees through
improved interdepartmental communi-
cation and cooperation which lead to
better service delivery to their external
customers, cost savings and of course
increased productivity.
However, internal customer service does
not just happen. Organisations have
to deliberately ensure that all staff and
departments see the big picture; work to-
gether to ensure customers have a great
experience with the services received,
which in turn positively affects the com-
pany’s bottom line.
Three major ways to promote an excel-
lent internal service culture within an
organisation include:
Develop a service culture within the or-
ganisation:
Service excellence must be at
the very core of every organisation. This
can be achieved by regularly commu-
nicating the importance of teamwork
and excellent service to all employees of
the organisation. To effectively drive this
culture, organisations must also focus on
building quality leaders who understand
the importance of great service delivery
both internally and externally.
Staff must be encouraged to regard fel-
low employees and other departments as
customers that must be treated like VIPs,
with the understanding that by helping
their colleagues do their jobs more suc-
cessfully, they help the organisation excel.
Measure service internally:
Great service
is measurable! To ensure every depart-
ment or team is constantly committed to
exceptional service, they must be rated
based on agreed service parameters
from time to time. This can be done by
closely monitoring the activities of these
departments through mystery shopping,
conducting internal satisfaction surveys
on every department in the organisation
and ensuring all feedback and concerns
raised are properly addressed.
Recognise and reward great service:
This
can be achieved by creating specific
reward criteria in service and recognis-
ing every staff or department that meet
these criteria. Every back office depart-
ment that has provided excellent service
to the frontline staff over a period of time
should be celebrated and rewarded.
Rewarding performance will motivate
employees and support groups within the
organisation to maintain and improve
their performance while encouraging oth-
ers to imbibe a great service culture.
Feature
How to handle customer
complaints
Customer complaints are a business blessing in disguise. They provide
the business constructive ideas on how to improve products and
services. If properly handled, a complaint situation will not only be
salvaged and relationship restored, a negative situation will also turn
out to be an opportunity to gain the complaining customer’s loyalty.
Most displeased customers do not plan to leave a business, if they
are satisfied with the complaint resolution process. Studies have
shown that when a customer’s complaint is resolved in the custom-
er’s favour, they will do business with the company again 70% of
the time; and up to 95% of customers will give a business a second
chance if a company handles their complaint successfully and in a
timely manner.
Taking negative feedback in a positive way is an art which requires
mastery through practice. Here are seven steps to handle customer
complaints:
Avoid recurrence:
Analyse the root cause of customer’s com-
plaints and come up with measures to prevent them from recurring.
For example, use every case to train your staff. Also keep a log of all
customers’ complaints and review them regularly. Recurrent com-
plaints may point to a process flaw.
Listen:
Allow a displeased customer to express his or her griev-
ance. Be professional, stay calm and keep in mind that their anger
is neither personal nor directed towards your person. Do not interrupt
while they speak, so you can truly understand their concerns.
Show Empathy:
You need to genuinely put yourself in the
customer’s shoes. Try to see things from their point of view. This will
enable you accommodate their outburst and also help you proffer a
timely resolution to their challenge.
Assurance:
Assure the customer the issue will be resolved.
Apologise:
Do not play the blame game, even if you are not
responsible for the service failure. Offer sincere apologies to the
aggrieved customer. A simple “I am sorry about that” can diffuse the
situation.
Agree the best solution to the challenge with the
customer:
You need to partner with the customer in the resolu-
tion process. Communicate to the customer how the issue will be
resolved, with specific timelines in line with the company’s policies.
Resolve the issue immediately:
Ensure you right the
wrong immediately if possible, or find someone else who can.
Delaying resolution of the customer’s complaint will only worsen the
customer’s frustration.
