Applying Key

Marketing
Methodologies:
Customer Service
ROMMEL ERWIN Q. ANCA, LPT, MAED
Outline:
• Customer Service – Definition
• What Does it Mean to be Customer Service Oriented?
• Importance of good customer service
• Types of customer service
• Tips to improve customer service skills
• Examples of Good Customer Service
• Why is Customer Service
Important to a Company?
 What is customer service?
Customer service is the assistance provided to
customers before, during, and after purchase. An
organization wanting to provide error-free
customer service will invest as much money in it
as they do on aspects such as product
development or sales and marketing.
Organizations that provide spectacular customer
service tend to be more popular among their
clientele than their competitors.
What Does it Mean to be Customer Service
Oriented?
Good customer service is the foundation of any successful
organization. Good customer experience is built by giving structure to all
the customer interaction points according to organizational culture or
need for digitization or any such components. Aligning various customer-
facing processes to create an enhanced customer experience might end up
consuming a significant amount of dedicated time and effort from an
organization’s management as well as other employees.
Importance of good customer
service
Customers report their problems expecting to get them
solved and return satisfied every single time.
• Accelerated response time: Reports suggest that 3/4th of
customers expect a response within five minutes of them
raising a query online.
• Efficient management of customer problems: The way an
organization deals with customer issues and creates a better
customer experience is a governing factor in its success or
failure.
• Offer adequate customer service: Offering competent and
timely customer service in addition to providing
technologically advanced products and services helps an
organization to ensure success.
• Each customer service counts: Providing products and
services that do not match customer experience is a key to
reduced sales and customers may end up spreading this bad
experience among their contacts which can cause harm to
reputation in the market.
Types of customer service:
Different customers expect different types of assistance from an organization. There are 5 main types of
customer services:
Assistance for potential customers:
Potential customers are not actually customers but are those who have shown interest in
products/services by either providing contact information on the company website, contacting the
sales support team via online chat, conducting meetings offline via phone or face-to-face. These
potential customers will form the first layer of a sales funnel who need constant assistance to
convert them into buyers.

Onboarding new customers:

Customers who have already purchased a product or service, but they still need help to figure
out the functioning part of it, fall into this category. That’s when a customer service team comes into
the picture, to provide every possible additional information. Even after purchase completion,
providing prompt customer service and support to these customers will ensure they convert into
loyal buyers over a course of time.
Types of customer service:
Different customers expect different types of assistance from an organization. There are 5 main types of
customer services:
Guidance to impulsive customers:
These customers will make a purchase in a moment if all the products and services are well-
explained and they have absolute clarity on what they want. It’s not very difficult to convince them to
make a purchase but the procedure to purchase products must be clearly defined, easy and quick.
It’s advised to have precise information and the least number of clicks to purchase.

Assist customers looking for discounts:

These customers will never make a purchase at the price mentioned in an organization’s
resources. There will always be something extra that they look for in a product or service at a given
price. If they’ve previously made a purchase at discounted rates, it’s highly probable that they might
not buy the same products if they can’t avail discounts.
Types of customer service:
Different customers expect different types of assistance from an organization. There are 5 main types of
customer services:
Support the loyalists:
These customers are a trustworthy source of word of mouth. They’ll make sure they purchase
products or services from the same organization and contribute remarkably towards the business.
They’ll recommend these products and services to their friends and family which will be a source of
business. Talk to these customers regularly to understand what they think about an organization’s
products/services and the reason behind their loyalty.
 Tips to improve customer service skills:
1. Employees have an integral part to play in customer service. Customer-facing teams such as customer service
teams or sales teams should be trained regularly to polish their customer satisfaction skills.
2. Keep all the employees engaged. “When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are
emotionally invested, they want to contribute.” – Simon Sinek. Unless and until, employees are valued, respected,
and regularly engaged, they are less likely to deliver to the best of their capabilities. Unhappy employees may not
talk about their displeasure openly and so, the management can send online surveys using employee satisfaction.
3. An organization must strive to provide an amazing customer experience at every point of contact. Develop a 360-
degree view on areas of customer service that are working efficiently and the ones that need improvement. This
will make it easier for a manager to work on drawbacks and keep customers happy at every point of contact.
4. Building a dependable relationship with customers is in turn dependent on developing excellent internal customer
service skills. The representatives can be trained to ask the right questions to find a common interest with
customers or to understand customer problems actively and solve them in real-time or regularly following up with
clients even after their problems have been resolved. This can also help in continually improving products and
services.
5. Send satisfaction surveys to a target clientele with which they can share their experience with the organization.
Feedback received from these surveys can be used to create plans to improve customer experience the next time
they make a purchase from an organization.
Examples of Good Customer Service
Good customer service can be hard to define as it depends on
the individual and what they expect, but there are a few
examples of skills that make a good customer service
department even better.
• Don’t be a Salesperson: Although some call center and
customer service departments are sales orientated, it is important
to not have this mindset when trying to talk to someone. It can
be frustrating talking to someone about an issue, especially if
their main goal is to upsell you something else.
• Be Honest to Your Customers: If you don’t know the answer,
say so and try to find the answer for them.
• Provide Great Product Training: Answering customer questions
all day is one of the hardest. So, schooling your customer service
representatives on your product and ensuring that they know it
inside out will mean they have experience with it and can give
better insight to customers when they have questions and issues.
• Be Approachable and Friendly: A customer service department
that is friendly can talk volumes about your business.
 Why is Customer Service
Important to a
Company?
Customer Service has many different roles in a company but the most important role they have is
being an informant for the company and to the company..

• Front of House: Customer Service agents represent the company to prospects and customers
alike.
• Defuse Situations: Customer Service deals mostly with negativity and the need to find a way to
turn this into positivity in order to make the customer happy.
• Customer Oriented = Customer Experience: When a customer is looking for a product and more
than one vendor can provide a high-quality product at a good price customer service can be the
deciding factor. Customer Service agents that go above and beyond to make a sale possible can
be the reason a customer spends more to buy from that company.
• Reputation Management: Customer Service agents are normally the first to hear about faults in
products and can alert departments to issues before they are even aware of them themselves. This
ability to relay information in real-time can save your business thousands in reputation
management costs as you can fix problems, issue press releases, and pull products off shelves
before things get worse.
• Real-Time Reviews: On the flip side of reputation management, customer service departments
receive positive reviews of the business on a daily basis.
Any Questions??