What are Customer Services Directors top challenges for 2009?
Malcolm says
One of the largest challenges for Customer Services is to convince their senior management of the importance and impact on customers of what they do. Many companies talk about customer being their top priority and delighting customers but often its just marketing blah blah and has no substance.
Customer Services often need help to get the right level of investment, support and recognition of what they add to the business. I’ve found that one of the most effective ways to do this is to get senior managers to spend half a day in Customer Services listening to calls and speaking to customers. I’ve also used other methods such as analyzing why customers leave. This type of research and factual customer feedback often has a major impact in identifying issues in other parts of the company that can be improved or have to be fixed to stop customers leaving. The 2009 goal for a Customer Services team is to be recognized by top management as the function who knows most about why customers really leave and why others stay as customers.