Customer service

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.
The perception of success of such interactions is dependent on employees "who can adjust
themselves to the personality of the guest".[1] Customer service concerns the priority an
organization assigns to customer service relative to components such as product innovation and
pricing. In this sense, an organization that values good customer service may spend more money
in training employees than the average organization or may proactively interview customers for
feedback.

From the point of view of an overall sales process engineering effort, customer service plays an
important role in an organization's ability to generate income and revenue.[2] From that
perspective, customer service should be included as part of an overall approach to systematic
improvement. One good customer service experience can change the entire perception a
customer holds towards the organization.[3]

Contents
1 Customer support
2 Automated customer service
3 Metrics and measuring customer service results
4 Instant feedback
5 Standardization
6 Criticism
7 See also
8 References

Customer support
Main article: Customer support

A customer support is a range of customer services to assist customers in making cost effective
and correct use of a product.[4] It includes assistance in planning, installation, training, trouble
shooting, maintenance, upgrading, and disposal of a product.[4] These services even may be done
at customer's side where he/she uses the product or service. In this case it is called "at home
customer services" or "at home customer support".

Regarding technology products such as mobile phones, televisions, computers, software products
or other electronic or mechanical goods, it is termed technical support.

Automated customer service

Customer service may be provided by a person (e.g., sales and service representative), or by
automated means[citation needed]. Examples of automated means are Internet sites. An advantage
with automated means is an increased ability to provide service 24-hours a day, which can, at
least, be a complement to customer service by persons.[5]

Another example of automated customer service is by touch-tone phone, which usually involves
a main menu, and the use of the keypad as options (i.e. "Press 1 for English, Press 2 for
Spanish", etc.)

However, in the Internet era, a challenge has been to maintain and/or enhance the personal
experience while making use of the efficiencies of online commerce. "Online customers are
literally invisible to you (and you to them), so it's easy to shortchange them emotionally. But this
lack of visual and tactile presence makes it even more crucial to create a sense of personal,
human-to-human connection in the online arena."[6]

An automated online assistant with avatar providing automated customer service on a web page.

Examples of customer service by artificial means are automated online assistants that can be seen
as avatars on websites.[5] It can avail for enterprises to reduce their operating and training cost.[5]
These are driven by chatterbots, and a major underlying technology to such systems is natural
language processing.[5]

Metrics and measuring customer service results

The two main ways of gathering feedback are: customer surveys and Net Promoter Score
measurement, used for calculating the loyalty that exists between a provider and a
consumer.[citation needed]

Customer service metrics that are followed by companies depend on the tool used for customer
service. Most popular metrics include:

first response time,

average response time,
 total handle time,
customer satisfaction score (CSAT).[citation needed]

Instant feedback
Recently[when?], many organizations have implemented feedback loops that allow them to capture
feedback at the point of experience. For example, National Express in the UK has invited
passengers to send text messages whilst riding the bus. This has been shown to be useful, as it
allows companies to improve their customer service before the customer defects, thus making it
far more likely that the customer will return next time.[7] Technology has made it increasingly
easier for companies to obtain feedback from their customers. Community blogs and forums give
customers the ability to give detailed explanations of both negative as well as positive
experiences with a company/organization.

Standardization
There are few standards on this topic. ISO and The International Customer Service Institute
(TICSI) have published the following ones:

ISO 9004:2000, on performance improvement

ISO 10001:2007, on customer service conduct
ISO 10002:2004, on quality management in handling customer complaints
ISO 10003:2007, on dispute resolution
ISO 10004:2012, on monitoring and measuring
The International Customer Service Standard (TICSS)
CCQA Customer Care Standard (Care Quality Alliance) www.CCQA.org.uk

There is also an Information Technology service management standard: ISO/IEC 20000:2005. Its
first part concerns specifications and its second part the code of practice.

Criticism
Some have argued [8] that the quality and level of customer service has decreased in recent years,
and that this can be attributed to a lack of support or understanding at the executive and middle
management levels of a corporation and/or a customer service policy. To address this argument,
many organizations have employed a variety of methods to improve their customer satisfaction
levels, and other key performance indicators (KPIs).[citation needed]

See also
Automated attendant
Customer experience management
Customer experience transformation
Customer relationship management
Customer satisfaction
 Customer service advisor
Customer service representative
Customer service training
Demand chain
Institute of Customer Service (UK)
Interactive voice response
Live support software
Privacy policy GBPs
Professional services automation
Public Services
Sales
Sales process engineering
Sales territory
Service climate
Service system
Social skills
Support automation
Technical support
Help desk software

References
1.

Buchanan, Leigh (1 March 2011). "A Customer Service Makeover". Inc. magazine. Retrieved 29 Oct
2012.
Paul H. Selden (December 1998). "Sales Process Engineering: An Emerging Quality Application".
Quality Progress: 5963.

Teresa Swartz, Dawn Iacobucci. Handbook of Services Marketing and Management. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage

businessdictionary.com > customer support Retrieved Mars 2011

Implementing an online help desk system based on conversational agent Authors: Alisa Kongthon,
Chatchawal Sangkeettrakarn, Sarawoot Kongyoung and Choochart Haruechaiyasak. Published by ACM
2009 Article, Bibliometrics Data Bibliometrics. Published in: Proceeding, MEDES '09 Proceedings of the
International Conference on Management of Emergent Digital EcoSystems, ACM New York, NY, USA.
ISBN 978-1-60558-829-2, doi:10.1145/1643823.1643908

Solomon, Micah (4 March 2010). "Seven Keys to Building Customer Loyalty--and Company Profits".
Fast Company. Retrieved 29 Oct 2012.

"Lunch Lesson Four - Customer service". BBC News. October 3, 2003. Retrieved October 27, 2008.
 8. Dall, Michael; Bailine, Adam (2004). Service this: Winning the war against customer disservice
(1st ed.). Last Chapter First. ISBN 0-9753719-0-8.

Authority GND: 4135134-4

control NDL: 01160349

Categories:

Customer service

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This page was last edited on 11 July 2017, at 09:01.

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