Supply Chain Management
Customer Service Operations
LB IV
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Managing Challenging Customers
• Why Customers become
Challenging
• Recognize the barriers that create
challenging customers
• How to establish trustworthiness
with challenging customers
LO1
10-2
What is Customer Service?
• Good customer service is important
for a company’s success and must
take center stage
LO1
10-3
Customer Service
LO1
• Customer Service should be a
priority
• Excellent customer service
requires:
• Time investment
• Management effort
• Employee energy
10-4
Characteristics of Good Customer
Service
• On time delivery
• Politeness
• Professionalism
• Personalization
LO2
10-5
Types of customer service
• Businesses provide different
types of customer service
based on the product or
service privided
LO2
10-6
Types of Customer Service
• Call Center – One of the basic means of
providing customer service
• Take orders
• Deal with customer questions and issues
• Technical Customer Service
• Respond to inquiries regarding product
functions
• Repairs or replacement
LO3
10-7
Barriers to Good Customer
Service
• Lack of proper training and staffing Communication is a human art form
• Insufficient authority to manage
requests – authority to involve
other departments
• Inability to handle stressful
environments – Managing emotions
LO4
10-8
Setting and Meeting Customer
Expectations
• Customer expectations should
be set early and fully transparent
• Customer service provider needs
to reassure the customer that
he/she will meet or exceed their
expectations
LO4
10-9
Setting and Meeting Customer
Expectations
• Meeting and exceeding customer
expectations include:
• Finding the root cause of a
problem
• Show empathy, be calm and
respectful
• Provide assurance
LO5
10-10
Trust and Ethics
• Establish trust early, be calm, and show
a sense of responsiveness
• If the solution is beyond the immediate
ability of the customer service provider,
then address this as soon as possible
• If solution is within the ability of the
customer service provider, communicate
this early and take corrective action
LO5
10-11
The Need for Ethics
• Ethics are the principles that
govern the conduct of an
individual or group
• A customer service provider
must always do the right thing –
even though it may not be
popular
10-12
Ethics
• Questions we must ask are:
• Is it legal?
• Is it fair?
• Would I want it published in
tomorrow’s newspaper?
10-13
The Need for Ethics
• Research shows that organizations with
strong ethical principles also tend to have
higher profits
• Unethical behaviors can damage an
organization’s image, reputation and can
lead to low morale, high employee
turnover, and lost customers
• Credibility is a huge competitive advantage
10-14
Dealing With Challenging
Customers
• We each have individual
personalities with poor
communication skills and
negative past experiences with
customer service.
• These individuals can appear to
be defensive or negative
10-15
Dealing With Challenging
Customers
• Challenging customers fall into the
following basic categories:
• Clearly upset individuals
• Lack appropriate skills of expression
• Arrogant attitude – feeling supreme
• Personal attack - bias against you
• Overly talkative customer
10-16
Avoiding Challenging
Customers
• Customer service representatives can
“create” challenging customers by:
• Making customers wait
• Sharing ones bad mood
• Not knowing or learning about customers
(Smile, Know their names)
• Making negative comments
• Be proactive: Never think “It is not my
job”
10-17
Listening To Customers
• When we listen well, we hear,
understand & respond to the
message appropriately
• Hearing is not necessarily listening
• Listening can be affected by:
• Internal noise – preoccupied
• External noise – loud bell, machinery
10-18
Listening to Customers
• We deal effectively with challenging
customers when we:
• Listen to understand their
frustration
• Relay the information back to them
for confirmation
• Share the solution we plan to
provide
10-19
Key Steps to Customer Issue
Resolution
• Listen – Let the customer speak
• Acknowledge – Apologize for the
situation
• Solve - Offer real solutions
• Thank – Thank the customer for
shopping with you
10-20
Issue Management Plan
• Document all customer issues
• List actions to be taken
• Indicate how issues will be
escalated
• State clearly how customers will be
handled from issue identification to
resolution
10-21