Digital media is profoundly transforming consumer behaviour and traditional communications models. While creating new opportunities, its influence has been accelerated by not only the proliferation of hand-held devices, but also the speed at which these devices allow the user to connect, send and receive messages, images and videos. Apple claims up to 30 frames per second for its 3GS iPhone, which is the same as a high definition television!

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Businesses have long realized that sustainability with regards to customer service is crucial to their success. Reaching a desired level of service excellence has to be combined with efforts to stay at that level or even improve. For this, many firms dedicate precious human resources in order to continuously track and improve service quality levels. With the help of technology and innovative players in the field of customer service training and consultancy, new and improved products have been developed to assess a firm’s customer service capabilities.

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During times of an economic uncertainty, when consumer spending goes down considerably, the most appropriate strategy to retain customers seems to be, giving attention to customer service. After the recent financial crisis, a firm’s efforts should be focused on customer retention rather than attracting new customers.

A recession forces firms to cut down costs. These can be in the form of layoffs and/or reduction in marketing/advertising costs. But sometimes companies take cost cutting too far. For example, in order to cut costs, a call centre company reduces the number of call centre agents who are attending to customer’s needs. As a result, customers face long waiting times, which in turn adversely affects their perception of the firm’s customer service. A study conducted by a call centre consultant, at The International Customer Management Institute, suggests that eliminating four customer service agents in a call centre with 36 call centre agents can increase the number of customers put on hold for four minutes from zero to 80. However, to safeguard their position in the market, firms should try to avoid cuts which affect their customer service. If not done so, the firm may end up losing valuable customers in difficult times.

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Think of an advertisement of an outlet showing you long customer queues, with the sales lady nonchalantly filing her nails and the cashier jabbering away on his mobile to a friend, and not to mention the phones ringing continuously with no one to attend to them. And then you see a scene in the same ad depicting a complete opposite, sales people interacting jovially with a customer who seems to be receiving an ‘out-of-this-world-experience’, the most desired experience for customers. Customers sometimes are influenced by such demonstrations and visit the particular outlet in hopes of receiving great service. Indeed, advertising and media play a great role in shaping perceptions, but how many of these companies actually work towards making a customer experience as pleasurable for customers as ‘they’ think it is? When we move away from fantasy land (a world in which companies force customers to imagine about receiving exceptional service) and face reality (a world in which more money is spent on advertising about great customer service rather than focusing on providing it!), we notice that the Golden Rule which states, treat others how you wish to be treated, has become a mere cliché today. There are very few players in the market who can put themselves into customer shoes and determine what customers really want.

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After a long, arduous and humbling recession, it’s fair to assume that organisations seem to have finally learned that customer retention is interwoven into the very fabric of an organisation’s success. No longer can organisations invest vast sums in customer acquisition and expect to maintain healthy profits. If the recession has taught us one thing, let it be that excellent customer service is the keystone in the longevity of a fruitful organisational existence.

As with the business environment, customer expectations are constantly changing and evolving. If you sit back and enjoy the fruits of your hard work – your business will die a slow death. The fatal mistake in customer service is to disregard the changing circumstances that are brought about by our customers every day.

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