This is the first of a regular series of blogs written to shine some light into some of the dark corners where both poor and good service is hindering or helping the customer and thereby damaging or improving the performance of the organisation. Much will be founded on the basis of personal experience and it would be good to uncover whether these observations are widely shared. So if they strike a chord with you please let us know.

Buttons, Messages and Music - It isn’t working!

It seems impossible to call any organisation on the telephone without being first of all told via a recorded, usually female, voice that

“Your call may be monitored for quality and service training purposes”

or words to that effect.

A decade or so ago those of us aware of the importance of service quality and interested in its continual improvement were heartened initially by the emergence of this activity, for here was a genuine source for researching the customer’s experience at their interface with the organisation to provide a deeper understanding of the needs of the customer and the competence of the staff in fulfilling such needs.

So after 10 years of listening to these messages the message back to them is…

IT ISN’T WORKING!

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It’s common in the customer service business to be asked “how does service and customer satisfaction affect the bottom line of a business”. The answer is undoubtedly that it affects each business differently, but it certainly has an impact. Entertainment destinations such as theme parks and cinemas prove to be an interesting case study in the correlation between customer satisfaction and the bottom line.

Service is often overlooked in the world of entertainment destinations. A common afterthought when marketing, product delivery and maintenance take hold of most internal spending. Staff training is geared at getting people in and out, keeping lines to a minimum rather than bonding with guests. You rarely if ever hear of someone jumping from one attraction to another because of service or a particular staff member like you might see in a restaurant. However, staff training and service can still have an immense impact on the bottom line. To understand this we first need to get a grasp of customer satisfaction scores and what they mean in real terms.

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“How great would it be if 40% of your new business simply knocked on your door without you having spent a cent advertising for it?” (Smith & Wheeler, 2002). Research suggests that First Direct, a division of HSBC bank has reached this level. Companies like these prove how managing the customer experience can benefit both parties involved. The simple trick involves turning satisfied customers into loyal ones who become advocates since their satisfaction with the service makes the company the only one they would want to deal with. If you can think about any company whose logo you would tattoo on your arm, then you know that they have got it right. But how many companies can you think of?

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