Customers Are Important

No business can survive without customers. They are the very reason for our existence. Customers provide the revenue that ensures profitability, which in turn enable the business to employ people like you and me and to pay our wages and salaries! It is therefore essential that we not only attract customers, but that we ensure their satisfaction and turn them into loyal supporters of our business. We need to serve them in such a way that they keep on coming back and simultaneously spread the word about the great service they consistently receive.

Customers often use the same service provider on a continuous basis, and even then, it is important to make each service encounter count. Both positive and negative experiences add up over time and the sum-total of positive experiences over time creates an image of high quality, whereas many negative interactions have the opposite effect.

Service needs to be consistent. If you can only manage providing service at this point of time, the least you can do is to be consistently provide average service. Service cannot be good on some days and bad on others. The aim, obviously, should be to provide a high-quality service all the time. We must distinguish between the different types of service encounters. Service encounters can be:

• Phone-in: Customers place orders and makes inquiries by phone.
• Walk-in: Direct contact between the customer and an employee.

Regardless of the type of encounter, it should be a memorable, convenient and pleasurable experience for the customer.

The identification and analysis of service encounters in your business is thus a valuable method in establishing processes, procedures, actions and behaviours supportive of good customer service.