| In recent articles, I've talked about how | | | | You can study sales people on the floor and how |
| consumersare making buying decisions based on | | | | wellthey deliver these elements of service as |
| price. | | | | they interactwith their customers. You can even |
| Tighter credit and lower disposable income hasput | | | | quantify theseelements by analyzing 10 |
| Price/Value at the top of my five elementsof the | | | | consecutive customerinteractions. Give a point |
| customer experience: | | | | when you observe youremployee demonstrating |
| Price/Value | | | | one of the five serviceelements. Add them up |
| Service | | | | and multiply by 2 and you'llhave a percentage |
| Selection | | | | service quotient: |
| Convenience | | | | Reliability 6/10 |
| Ambiance | | | | Assurance - 7/10 |
| Even though customers need goods at thelowest | | | | Tangibles - 6/10 |
| possible price, they still expect optimalservice. Do | | | | Empathy - 8/10 |
| they want their cake and eat it too? | | | | Responsiveness - 9/10 |
| You bet! Income for the consumer is a limitedand | | | | Total Score: 36/50 or 72% |
| precious resource. Great respect andservice is | | | | Observing and quantifying your servicelevels along |
| rightfully expected. Now you canmeasure your | | | | these 5 elements is criticalbecause it now enables |
| service quotient and leadyour team towards | | | | you to focus onthe weak elements and track |
| ongoing improvementsto service as part of the | | | | servicetrends from week to week. |
| entire customerexperience. | | | | Now you can quantify and improve |
| We've broken down the concepts of | | | | customerservice by defining it and measuring |
| customerservice into 5 elements: | | | | itthrough this simple strategy! |
| Reliability - The ability to provide what's | | | | TAKE ACTION TODAY |
| promised,consistently and accurately | | | | 1) Review the five elements with all |
| Assurance - The knowledge level and courtesy | | | | youremployees. |
| ofemployees, and their ability to convey trust | | | | 2) Assign a senior employee to observe andtrack |
| andconfidence | | | | your sales team on the floor. A simplechart on |
| Tangibles - The physical attributes of the facility | | | | one sheet of paper can be used toquantify 10 or |
| andequipment. Appearance and professionalism of | | | | more customer interactionsthroughout the day. |
| employees | | | | 3) Share results with your team and revealyour |
| Empathy - The level of caring and individual | | | | quantified customer service percentage. |
| attentionprovided to customers | | | | 4) Focus on weaknesses in general and |
| Responsiveness - The level of enthusiasm and | | | | byemployee and work at correcting issues |
| willingnessto help customers and provide prompt | | | | togenerate weekly improvements. |
| service | | | | 5) Get everyone to live and breath deliveringa |
| Similar to the 5 elements of the customer | | | | stellar customer experience supported |
| experience,these elements define 5 factors of | | | | byunparalleled customer service. |
| stellar customerservice. | | | | HANG IN THERE! |