By Don Graham, President, Porter Research

It seems the only constant in today's world of customer service is never-ceasing change as companies race to improve the overall customer experience. Ever newer technologies, offshore outsourcing, job automation, and productivity pressures are just a few of the drivers forcing customer service leaders to change the way they do business. The major problem with this scenario is that most people don’t respond well to change, especially your customers. Everyone, it seems, has a story about their cable company, their phone service, or their software support that argues for a return to how things used to be. The phrase "perception is reality" is true and the perception today is that customer service is not changing for the better, at least in the eyes of the customer.

Managing change continues to be the challenge of today and well into the future. The productivity driver is present in every business and cost pressures continue to mount. So how does today's customer service executive balance his act? There are numerous opinions available and experts that can be consulted, but the most important player continues to be the customer. Not the company -- the person. Empathy plays a major role in the customer service decision process, but effectively communicating proposed changes and potential impact must be carefully and thoroughly considered. Marketing research, focus groups, and indirectly, benchmarks, play a role, but the acid test is whether or not the changes made will negatively impact profitable customer retention.

Eight actions to take before making customer service changes
• Talk to customers face-to-face – a representative sample will help you evaluate the impact of the change.
• Seek verbal and written input from every level of service associate prior to implementing a change. Employee "buy-in" is critical.
• Realize that all customers are not the same. Big does not always equal profitable.
• Spend the time and money to evaluate service alternatives. Pilot before rolling the change out to everyone.
• Evaluate the impact of removing a person from the customer service experience. Most customer frustration results from the inability to ask questions.
• Respect the customer's time. Service arrogance is deadly.
• Realize that some customers will actually pay more for personal service.
• Beware of the herd mentality. It may be a competitive advantage to keep your service onshore.

The normal reaction to service issues today seems to be driven by lower cost. Consider applying better service as the driver. A flood of smaller more entrepreneurial ventures is thriving by changing to a high-service model of dealing with customers. Increased loyalty translates to increased revenue and profits. No one tolerates a poor service model for long.

About the Author
Don Graham, President, Porter Research, brings over 25 years of IT operating experience to Porter Research with companies like IBM, McKesson and National Data Corporation. Begun in 1989, Porter Research is the leading provider of outsourced Customer Knowledge Management (CKM) services to day to the IT industry. Don can be reached at dongraham@porterresearch.com.

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