Customer Service Online Nursing CEU Class Page 3

What’s All The Hoopla About Customer Service Anyway?

Obviously you are now totally aware of the importance of customer service and you recognize the value of satisfying the customer, but why all the heightened emphasis on customer service these days? Well, it’s because employment trends have shifted to the point where most businesses are service oriented more than production oriented. It’s true! Providing service to others has become a major focus. What a paradigm shift! Instead of merely focusing on producing goods, we are now focusing much more on how we provide them to the customer. Remember, there is competition out there! The customer can go just about anywhere to get the same or similar product or service. So why should he come to you or your organization for what he needs? When he does come , are you aware of why and do you make efforts to ensure that he comes again and again?

A typical organization hears from only 4 percent of its dissatisfied customers. The other 96 percent just quietly go away and 91 percent will never come back. That represents a serious financial loss for organizations whose employees don't really know how to treat customers, and a tremendous gain for those who do. (LeBoeuf, p. xv)

Reilly (p.52) has developed a simple quiz that any organization can use to determine the level of service it is offering. I believe it is also a helpful quiz for any individual to use to evaluate his level of customer service focus. Take a minute to circle “yes” or “no” to each of the following questions to the best of your ability.

How Do You Think Your Organization Is Doing?

Yes	No	1.	Do you view customer’s questions and visits as interruptions?
Yes	No	2.	Are you difficult for customers to contact?
Yes	No	3.	Do you routinely ask customers, “How am I (or how are we) doing?”
Yes	No	4.	Do your employees, co-workers, and managers like customers?
Yes	No	5.	Do you feel it is too expensive to give customer service?
Yes	No	6.	Do you thank every customer for his or her business?
Yes	No	7.	Have you ever thought, “We’re the only game in town. We don’t need to worry about customer service?
Yes	No	8.	Is it important to serve customers in good times as well as bad times in your organization?
Yes	No	9.	Would you or your employer open your closed place of business to help one of your customers?
Yes	No	10.	Do you get all of the repeat business that you should?
Yes	No	11.	Have you ever thought, “If they would just leave me alone, I could get my job done?”
Yes	No	12.	Is customer satisfaction a guiding principle for you? For your organization?

The purpose of this quiz is to heighten your awareness to those items, which you circled as “no.” They represent areas where you and your organization could improve existing customer service. It does meanfocusing most of your attention on your customer and what he or she likes or wants. It means practicing the rules of customer service. On the next page are examples of such rules (Reilly, p.13).