Why Aren't Businesses Looking After Their Customers?

Most organisations talk about their commitment to the customer and the quality of their customer service.

Yet despite all the surveys, the countless workshops and seminars, the thousands of books written and research carried out on improving customer service and the quality of the customer experience…WHY are we still not receiving better customer service and having more high quality customer experiences? asks Chris Bell Managing Director of Customer Experiences Ltd..

Bell said it’s not due to the vast collection of statistical analysis, pie charts and graphs that apparently show what the customer wants.

Most organisations have a clear understanding of what their customer’s expectations are. In many cases it has been the business that has defined expectations in their marketing.

The “Experience Gap Analysis (EGA) study of both employees and customers found that employees consistently overestimated their level of service performance, believing they had delivered greater value than their customers on the receiving end were willing to give them credit for.

This is a clear case of employees applying one set of criteria to judge the quality of their service and customers rating the experience based on entirely different standards.

This gap has little to do with employee attitudes or motivation levels and everything to do with a lack of clear definitions. Bell said this leaves a business’s customer experience up to individuals to interpret, one of the main reasons for the inconsistent service customer’s receive.

Also contributing to the gap is an organisation’s focus. While paying lip service to the importance of the customer, the focus is clearly more on the organisation resulting in a lack of customer focus including support processes and systems geared to the delivery of high quality experiences.

Bell said the persistence’s of some organisations to continually advertise their commitment to the customer, proceeding to tell them all the wonderful things they are going to do for them does not actually create a better experience and today after being let down so many times, doesn’t even gain customers attention anymore. All it does is continue to create higher customer expectations.

Bell said the single most important factor between a truly customer focused organisation and the rest is the choice employees make every day regarding the quality of customer experience they deliver.

This is what business leadership should be focusing on, ensuring their leadership style and the resulting culture is providing the encouragement and resources that allows employees to consistently make the right choice.

For Further Information chris@customerexperiences.co.nz www.customerexperiences.co.nz mb 027 2792360