Customer Service and Communication

Many organizations are judged on and compete through the quality of their customer service. Improving customer service involves a subtle blend of

• knowing what your customers expect
• knowing how your staff tackle customer service
• being able to assess the reputational risk profile of your customer service approach
• defining the agreed organizational customer service systems in fine detail
• communicating technical and organizational information to customers in a way that they can understand
• proactively managing customer relations through effective communication channels.

The development of staff customer service skills is undoubtedly important but training in this area is notoriously difficult because real life customer interaction cannot be simulated fully. Because of this, the approach of the ODL team is to design an integrated programme of customer service system development that involves all or some of the following activities

• customer surveys and consultation through focus groups, interviews and questionnaires
• staff surveys seeking views on how customer service can be improved
• risk analysis of customer service systems to increase the proportion of delighted customers and to reduce the proportion of dissatisfied customers
• devising guidelines for each customer service process that serve as a supervisory template by defining precisely what the company expects of staff
• auditing communications with customers and recommending appropriate editing to raise the level of customer understanding especially in technical or organizational areas
• devising and implementing a communication strategy that ensures that customers hear enough but not too much about the organization's activities.

The ODL team has significant and valuable experience in each of these activities that helps organizations to take stock of their customer service profile and to identify options for improvement. As lead authors of the National Occupational Standards in Customer Service, the team has worked closely with the Institute of Customer Service on strategies for general improvement in customer service competence and standards across the UK.

Examples of recent projects

The ODL team has worked with a regional airline that sees customer service as an essential strategic tool in an intensely competitive market. After an initial review of customer service awareness and performance, the team agreed with the client's Senior Management Team that a system of closely defined customer service guidelines should be agreed for use as a coaching and supervisory tool across the company. After intense research of ground handling and in-flight customer service processes, ODL advice on the best practice came together with Senior Management views on operational practicalities to produce the guidelines. A team of coaches and assessors now develops customer service skills continuously and the improved performance has been reflected in increased positive and reduced negative customer feedback.

This client chose to use a staff survey as a way of identifying opportunities to improve customer service. A combination of an anonymous questionnaire and face to face meetings collected the information that would serve to set up a wide variety of activities to improve customer service. This approach has been shown to work well with many clients as it enables the organization to give ownership of both its use and actions to those who are best placed to deliver improvements. The project identified a wide range of issues, each of which was tackled in a different and appropriate way.

The ODL team has worked closely together with the Institute of Customer Service as sponsors and custodians of the National Occupational Standards in Customer Service. The team has carried out the consultation process and subsequently been lead authors of the Standards at all four levels. In terms of use as the basis of National Vocational Qualifications, these Standards have been of some of the most successful across the UK . The ODL team has also made extensive use of the National Occupational Standards in tailored projects with other clients seeking to set company standards of customer service competence.

Customer service processes do not apply only to situations when the customer has chosen to experience the service. Security screening has become a way of life in many modern travel situations. ODL helped a company providing security screening for passengers to put together a fully documented basic training programme of new staff. This was launched with all existing staff and the management team report a substantial improvement in customer feedback on the way people are treated during the security screening process.

A leading group of optical retailers saw customer service as a crucial competitive tool in the acquisition of market share. The ODL team was commissioned to complete a major project that involved setting Group standards and guidelines for all customer service processes. Following agreement of all these processes at the most senior management levels, the ODL team led the rollout of the system and guidelines by preparing coaches in each retail outlet to work with staff on skills development and familiarisation with Group standards.

A financial services client with a global presence commissioned the ODL team to devise and deliver a briefing programme on a complex investment management product. The multimedia package included a modular video film devised by the ODL team who also supervised its filming on behalf of the client. The film and documented briefing materials were launched to representatives of offices from around the world. In some cases the regional offices chose to roll out the programme in house while, in other cases, the ODL team was engaged to deliver the briefing programme directly to client relationship managers as far afield as the Far East .

In two separate projects, ODL has been asked to help public service organizations to devise communication strategies for disseminating clear and factual information about infrastructure projects that are potentially unpopular. By clearly identifying the benefits of the project and different mechanisms for communicating, the ODL team both constructed the message and project managed its communication so that the benefits were widely understood.