Will They Ever Get Customer Service Right?
-- Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

What do customers expect from the words “customer service?” Surveys are being conducted on a regular basis to delve into the psyche of the average customer and find out what makes him/her tick. But if you take a closer look at the results of each, no matter which part of the world they’re taken, or by which company, or across which market segment, you’ll find that there are a few points that are repeated time and again.

• First and foremost, customers do not like being put on hold or being made to wade through a tangle of automated menus before they can talk to a human being.
• When they do get to talk to someone on the phone or in person, they expect the agent to be knowledgeable and well-informed. Most customers are able to figure out if agents are following a script; most of the time, this doesn’t solve the problem at all.
• When a company guarantees something, customers expect those promises to be kept. Assurances related to return, exchange, replacement and refund policies are the ones that are most ambiguously dealt with by most organizations.
• Customers are not satisfied with just one good experience; they expect the same quality of service each time they come back. Companies are not offering standardized service, a fact that is evident in the varying opinions of different customers about the same organization. While one swears by the service, there are others denouncing the same.
• A natural conclusion of the previous point is that the onus of customer service lies on the shoulders of the agents providing it. So while one customer is satisfied (he had the good fortune to connect to a capable agent), another is left high and dry.
• Organizations should strive to make customer service the responsibility of the company as a whole, not just of the personnel who deal directly with their customers.

Read more on customer service surveys here.