It’s one of my favorite times of year…time for us to get ‘United
through Service,’ which is this year’s theme for National Customer
Service Week, according to the International Customer Service Association.
So get ready to celebrate! National Customer Service Week is
only a few days away.
National Customer Service Week (NCSW), held October
7-11 in 2013, is designed to raise awareness of customer service and the
vital role it plays within an organization. It is also an opportunity to say
thank you to those who work in customer service for a job well done.
Organizations take part in NCSW by hosting events in their
workplace. These events can be large or small, serious or fun, they can
be held all through the week or just on one day…. It's up to each organization
to decide how to celebrate.
Many organizations use this week as an opportunity to
provide training and refocus the efforts of their staff on the needs of their
customers. In IT, a common misconception is that the Service Desk is
responsible for customer satisfaction because of its role as single point of
contact. However, every team in IT is part of the value network that, in the
end, creates value for customers.
Celebrating National Customer Service Week doesn’t have to
cost a lot. For example:
·
Begin
each meeting or training class with a review of team goals and how they
contribute to customer satisfaction.
·
Celebrate
achievements such as an increase in your customer satisfaction rating.
·
Send
a daily email with positive customer feedback or inspiring customer-related
quotes.
·
Offer
a “lunch and learn” series focused on the soft skills needed to deliver
excellent service such as listening skills, communication skills and customer
service skills.
·
Launch
a project aimed at creating better relationships between your Service Desk and
second- and third-line service providers by creating Operational Level
Agreements (OLAs) that clearly spell out roles and responsibilities.
·
Review
your policies and processes and ensure they are not standing in the way of
excellent customer service. Begin with a review of recent customer satisfaction
surveys or complaints to ensure changes fully address your customers’ needs and
expectations.
Best practice frameworks such as ITIL® and
ISO/IEC 20000 are aimed at ensuring the focus always stays on customer needs
and expectations. In fact, customer satisfaction by definition is “the
difference between how a customer expects to be treated and how the
customer perceives he or she was treated. Achieving high customer
satisfaction begins with understanding customer requirements and determining
how best to manage expectations in terms of the level of service that can be
delivered.
Our CustomerService Excellence for the Service Desk Professional course is one way that
we can help organizations learn more about these frameworks and standards in
the context of customer service and to also reinforce essential
customer service and support skills needed to enhance productivity,
effectiveness and increase customer satisfaction.
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