The Customer Revival

One of Canada's major banks this past week received a complimentary write-up in the national business newspaper for its renewed dedication to customer service in its extensive distribution network. This raises a number of questions: Were they not customer focused before? Did they let customer service become secondary? What have their competitors been doing? More importantly, why did customers stay where there was a weak service focus? Is the whole industry weak on customer empathy?
Quality service or customer service has been a core strategy for leading edge institutions for three decades in our experiences at WESI. On the other hand there are those that only play lip service to this performance driver or periodically execute service blitzes with no continuous reinforcements. If you look at the top management titles is there someone responsible for customer service or the equivalent? If it is buried one or two levels below, perhaps that is the indication of its importance in that culture.
Our C.O.O., Judy Johnston, has been working with clients for almost five years on an elevated customer service or care level, which she calls "Customer Devotion". This is an institutional, emotional commitment to a customer focused culture from the newest recruit to the CEO. The devotional journey is an integrated set of visible activities, policy focuses and proven processes that never ends but continuously grows with customers' circumstances.
In recent days we have seen a noticeable slippage in retail customer experiences to the point that one wonders if the recessionary psychology is affecting the organizations and their front line staff. Negative and defensive postures appear to be creeping back into personnel's behaviours. Take the time to evaluate where your corporation's culture is in real terms and put the focus back on the customer to increase your performance as did the national bank mentioned above.

Pat Palmer | Sunday, June 28, 2009 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink