A question I ask myself repeatedly is, ‘who are we”. And before you stop reading this suspecting that I will inflict you with a page full of delivery highlights about ivelah. Let me explain, that is not something I have written here. When I ask myself “who are we?”, I do it from a completely different position – from a customer’s perspective.
We all know what it is like to be an unhappy customer or indeed a happy customer. All of us experience this every day, from the simplest in store transaction to the most complex business arrangement.
Because we encounter the perfect customer experience with our favorite store every time, that does not always guarantee that our next shopping visit will be the same, there maybe a lapse in normal service – it can happen, and when it does we ask ourselves what happened!
We may be totally disappointed and like most customers, we can quickly conclude that the service has suddenly diminished to the point that we should now use the store across the street, all due to a single isolated incident.
Knowing this, has changed the way I look at customer service, I accept that sometimes the uncontrollable can happen. Believing that true customer service is more than simply optimizing activity to achieve 100% daily customer satisfaction. There may come a day where, despite every effort to attain customer service eutopia, we do not hit the 100% benchmark. A very slight 1% fall could be representative of single customers dissatisfaction – and that’s a big deal for me.
Being a security provider, it is essential to maintain a level of good quality service. However, in an industry like ours, that is fast passed, dynamic with response-based performance – even the very best of us can sometimes drop the ball due to a completely unforeseen circumstance.
I believe the best service providers are prepared for the possibility of a service shortfall occurring. By accepting this fact and facing it head on. This develops a positive working environment for resolving issues if they occur. With measurable success for introducing changes that make sure unforeseen issues never happens again.
To endorse this behavior in a company like ivelah, every member of the organization must be totally empowered to respond to a customer’s unhappiness.
If ever presented with that situation, there is only one objective – to make the customer happy. He or she who helped the customer is then entrusted to discuss and share the issue at all levels in the company. Through general forum and action groups, there is a solid consensus that that the likely hood of the problem happening again has been eradicated by introducing an agreed set of changes.
By continuing to ask myself, “who are we”…..from a customer’s perspective, we are looking forward to setting new upward trends for customer service excellence in our industry.
Author – Andy McQueen, CEO, ivelah.