The ultimate aim is to have a process where customer issues “are not only resolved but reduced in frequency, to the point where they are eliminated from their IT system altogether. Tackling the root cause of an issue is always the best strategy”.
It’s all well and good to talk about good customer service delivery but how can channel partners gauge its effectiveness? Long highlights customer retention as “the easiest way to gauge the effectiveness of a channel partner’s customer service. If customers are staying, it means they’re happy. That’s been our experience and most of our business customers have been with us for five years or more.”
Growth from within an existing customer base is another good measurement, he suggests. If existing customers begin to adopt new services, “it means they trust their provider’s ability to handle any queries as they arise”.
Dawson says HiberniaEvros adheres to very high internal standards for service levels, regularly partaking in internal audits as part of its ISO 20000-1 and 27000 accreditations around service delivery and security as a way to validate and improve its systems and processes. “This is done in collaboration with our service teams which has an end result of delivering better services to our customers,” he adds.
“The reality is that when things are running their best, customers should hear from us the least” – Hugh Dawson, HiberniaEvros
In addition, the company regularly engages in a formal review process “as part of our interaction with customers” to get feedback so HiberniaEvros can measure its progress. “It is an ongoing and iterative process as we look for ways to make everything run smoother and with minimal disruption to our customers,” Dawson states. “By engaging with customers in this way, we believe that we instil in them an additional level of confidence in our processes and our commitment to better customer service.”
It could be argued that trying to achieve a better level of customer service is nothing more than common sense. But that doesn’t mean it’s as obvious as common sense. Nevertheless, any channel partner inclined to approach the subject with insufficient rigour should be aware of the pitfalls of getting it wrong.
Conway at Renaissance says when something goes wrong, partners need to view the way they respond to customers “as an opportunity to shine”. They need to appreciate that “if things have gone wrong, they’re off norm, they can’t be automated”. If partners can look after the customer, “take away the pain and all the stress, they will get the loyalty”. But if their response frustrates a customer, the disaffection will go beyond the specific problem. Even when the specific issue is finally resolved, the customer’s frustration will linger.
Conway puts it very bluntly: “If you don’t handle somebody’s issue properly, you’ve lost those sales forever.”
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