QUALITY SERVICE

DEFINATIONs: Quality is the customers' perception of the value of the suppliers' work output.

Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it. It is what the client or customer gets out of it. ---BY PETER DRUCKER

MEANING:

"'Quality is the ongoing process of building and sustaining relationships by assessing, anticipating, and fulfilling stated and implied needs.'The word "Quality" represents the properties of products and/or services that are valued by the consumer. The quality of customer service is the key differentiator between good, bad and indifferent companies. Good quality customer service keeps customers coming back; bad customer service drives customers away, taking their friends, family and workmates with them.

Example: Error-free, value-added care and service that meets and/or exceeds both the needs and legitimate expectations of those served as well as those within the Medical Center Quality is meeting the customer's needs in a way that exceeds the customer's expectations.
All else being equal, good quality customer service gives the edge over competitors. Regardless of industry, here are the 9 key principals of good customer service that always make business sense.

1. Attracting new customers costs more than retaining existing customers

Quality is meeting the customer's needs in a way that exceeds the customer's expectations.
A satisfied customer stays with a company longer, spends more and may deepen the relationship. For example a happy credit card customer may enlist the companys financial services and later take travel insurance. This is an easy sell, compared with direct marketing campaigns, television advertisements and other sophisticated and expensive approaches to attract new customers. So its important hw u deal with deal with them inorde to retain them; because
IF U DONT SERVE THEM WELL, SOMEONE ELSE WILL

2. Customer service costs real money, BT ALSO RESULTS TO BETTER RETURNS:

A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.

3. Understand your customers needs and meet them:

Customers dont always know what they want. The decline in coffee-drinking was due to the fact that most of the coffee people bought was stale and they werent enjoying it. Once they tasted ours and experienced what we call the third place.. a gathering place between home and work where they were treated with respect.. they found we were filling a need they didnt know they had. -- Howard Schultz, Chairman and CEO Starbucks
How can you meet your customers needs, if you dont know them? To understand your customers needs, just listen to the voice of the customer and take action accordingly. Customer listening can be done in many ways, for example feedback forms, mystery shopping, and satisfaction surveys. Some companies involve senior employees in customer listening to ensure decisions benefit the customer as much as the company.

4. Good process and product design is important

Good quality customer service is only one factor in meeting customer needs. Well designed products and processes will meet customers needs more often. Quality movements, such as Six Sigma, consider the cost of quality resulting from broken processes or products. Is it better to service the customer well than to eradicate the reason for them to contact you in the first instance?

5. Customer service must be consistent:

The goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best, but legendary. SAM WALTON
In the world of Internet Customer Service, its important to remember your competitor is only one mouse click awa Every client you keep, is one less that you need to find.

Customers expect consistent quality of customer service; with a similar, familiar look and feel whenever and however they contact the company. EXAMPLE: Say you visit an expensive hairdressing salon and receive a friendly welcome, a drink and a great haircut. You are out of town and visit the same hairdressing chain and get no friendly welcome, no drink and a great hair-cut. Are you a satisfied customer who will use that chain again? Probably not, as you did not receive the same customer service which is more than a good hair-cut.

6. Employees are customers too:

Our mission statement about treating people with respect and dignity is not just words but a creed we live by every day. You cant expect your employees to exceed the expectations of your customers if you dont exceed the employees expectations of management. Howard Schultz, CEO Starbucks Coffee
The quality management movement brought the concept of internal and external customers. Traditionally the focus was on external customers with little thought given to how internal departments interacted. Improving relationships with internal customers and suppliers assists delivery of better customer service to external customers, through reduced lead-times, increased quality and better communication. The Service-Profit Chain model developed by Harvard University emphasizes the circular relationship between employees, customers and shareholders. Under-staffed, under-trained employees will not deliver good quality customer service, driving customers away. Equal effort must be made in attracting, motivating and retaining employees as is made for customers, ultimately delivering improved shareholder returns. Better shareholder returns mean more money is available to invest in employees and so the circle continues.

7. Open all communications channels:

Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business. -- Zig Ziglar The customer wants to contact you in many ways face to face, by mail, phone, fax, and email - and will expect all of these communication channels to be open and easily inter-mingled.

This presents a technical challenge, as it requires an integrated, streamlined solution providing the employee with the information they need to effectively service the customer.

8. Every customer contact is a chance to shine:

If you get everybody in the company involved in customer service, not only are they 'feeling the customer' but they're also getting a feeling for what's not working. That's the key -listening to make sure that you understand the customers and that you make them feel that you understand. When a customer calls up with a complaint, we obviously can't change the past. But we have to deal with the problem. Penny Handscomb
If a customer contact concerns a broken process, then empowered employees will be able to resolve the complaint swiftly, possibly enhancing the customers perception of the company. Feeding back this information allows corrective action to be made, stopping further occurrences of the error. If you inform customers about new products or services when they contact you, you may make a valuable sale, turning your cost centre into a profit centre. This is only possible when you have a good relationship with your customer, where you understand their specific needs. A targeted sales pitch will have a good chance of success, as the customer is pre-sold on the companys reputation.

9. People expect good customer service everywhere.

Customers today want the very most and the very best for the very least amount of money, and on the best terms. Only the individuals and companies that provide absolutely excellent products and services at absolutely excellent prices will survive. Brian Tracy
Think about an average day you travel on a train, you buy coffee, you work. You expect your train to be on time, clean and be a reasonable cost. You expect your coffee to be hot and delivered quickly. You expect your work mates to work with you, enabling you to get the job done. People become frustrated when their expectations are not met, and increasingly demand higher service quality in more areas of their lives. Providing outstanding customer service at the right price is the holy grail of most companies. It is worth remembering that we all experience customer service every day. We can learn from these and apply them in our own line of work, whatever it may be. The quality of customer service will make you stand out from your competitors make sure its for the right reasons!

Conclusion:
Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives. Revolve your world around the customer and more customers will revolve around you . and ultimately It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages. The ultimate fate of the business be it big or small is determined by services provided to the customers and their response to it. The customer experience is the next competitive battleground.

Being on par in terms of price and quality only gets you into the game. But Service wins the game.
-- by TONY ALESSANDRA