Customer Service in 2012
Bad Service! Do Customers or Organisations really care any more?
Seamus Osborne, Contact Centre Manager, Vhi Healthcare and CCMA Vice Chairperson asks questions about customer service in 2012.
Back in my younger days the phrase that was banded around the service industries and in college was that a person receiving bad service was likely to tell between 8 to 10 people. This created a fear or nervousness amongst companies and providers of service. At the time everyone was competing to get a slice of the cash! A book that springs to mind when I think of service is Feargal Quin
n's 'Crowning the Customer'. It wasn't a new idea that Feargal was selling in the book but people stood up and took notice. Organisations adapted and changed to maximise opportunities - it is interesting to note that Feargal's book is over 20 years old at this stage. Now in this social network era of FaceBook, LinkedIn and Twitter we have all seen this figure of 10 multiplied considerably. The questions I would pose are as follows:
- Are organisations aware of this? And if so do they care?
- Have we reached the point when service is no longer a factor within the decision making process?
- It doesn't matter about service - all that matters is how cheap I can get it for. Is this a statement of fact?
- Why do you think this may or may not be the case?
- Was service only an extravagance of the Celtic Tiger when consumers had the where with all to search and pick and choose what they bought and better still have the finance (or credit more so) to make purchases?