Tag Archive for: customer engagement

A Brief On The Fluidity of Customer Service

Customer service is something we deal with every day, whether we want to or not. The history of customer service goes back decades, as long as there were businesses. We’re talking really long donkey years here. But essentially, here it is in brief.

Someone decided to start a business. A business relies on customers for its survival, and its essential existence. That meant providing service (go figure). Now when customer service first started, I can only imagine that there was no structure, or maybe there was. The evolution of what me now consider customer service started as early as 1793 in the United States, in the form of Loyalty programs. Sure, it has been around as long as there were traders, but let’s pick a point shall we.

Of course, this has evolved through the years, following technological advance. We live in time of amazing ease of communication. However, can you imagine when telephones first appeared on the scene? That’s right, that lead to the first customer service hotline.

Evolution of customer services aside. Have a look at the infographic for a little visual fun on that. The point is this. Customer service practices are an evolving thing. You’ve heard the terms before,:

“Business Need to Adapt.”

If you don’t evolve, you lose out.

How often have we come across often rigid, customer service structures? Business train their employees according to a structure according to possible scenarios, but here is where the ball is often dropped. They often don’t explain why certain things are done in a certain way. Expecting “people” to act like rigid “robots” to a particular situation will eventually cause a “404 error”. Customers are organic, living creatures, often looked at in terms of demographics when it comes to marketing. Yes, they do try to take this into account when it comes to customer service. But do they ever explain it in way that is assimilated into the working ethic of customer service personnel.?

With all the advances in modern tech, customer service can no longer be rigid. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (that’s seeing a resurgence thanks to current world situations), and so much more. Business need to be fluid in provide the best service possible. How personal can you get? How casual can you be? How do you turn a bad situation on its head, making it positive? Can you leverage social media?

The line between casual and stiff professionalism, is often blurred in most industries, this goes for customer services as well. The rigidity of the industrial age , no longer works at its best. This is the age of communication. So, shall we communicate?

Stay tuned for our next post on great examples of fluid Social Media Customer Service.

 

Customer Service Infographic

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[Intern Insight] Imagining the Future: Evolution of Sustainability in the Retail Industry

The retail industry is an extraordinarily dynamic sector. Sometimes it becomes hard to identify the key players and key trends that shape its future. In the previous blog entries, I have discussed the technological and socio-cultural factors that would influence it. However, another key factor to take into consideration is how retail industry impacts the environment and all relevant stakeholders.
Perhaps all the buzz about sustainability is receding, as it becomes mainstream, but its effects are still quite noticeable. The retail industry represented approx. 6% of the global GDP in 2015 (BEA, 2016). Therefore, any sustainable practices adopted by this industry would rebound worldwide. So, who is actually affected?

Customers

Consumers are very aware of the negative changes happening in the worldwide environment. As a consequence, they have adopted a particular purchase behaviour. The top sustainability purchasing drivers worldwide are:

Products being made by trustworthy companies/brands (72%)
Product recognized for health and wellness benefits (59%)
Product made of fresh, natural and organic ingredients (57%)

(Nielsen Global Survey of Corporate Social Responsibility, 2015)

This means that consumers have to build a trust relationship with the brands before considering a purchase. Trust comes through transparency and providing information, which have become the public’s most sought after marketing and promotional tools. Consumers are asking themselves: ‘How was this product made?’, ‘Who made it?’, “In which part of the world was it made?’, ‘In what conditions was it made?’. Customers’ conscience is seeking answers in the issue of how consumerism is affecting the surrounding environment. After all, me and any other customer, we go to a store to purchase, but we leave wondering if we did the right thing? (Fashion Revolution, 2016).

This rise of conscience can come from simple things as – ‘I like the packaging, but how many trees were killed for this to look good?’ to seeing a commercial emphasizing the company’s/brand’s participation in social commitment (Nielsen Global Survey of Corporate Social Responsibility, 2015). Consumer education is done through multiple means but it’s important to find a specific uniformization in its sustainability principles.

Employees

The top promoters and advertisers of a company’s sustainable practices are the employees. Labour force needs both to be developed through a sustainable way and itself to adopt a sustainable approach towards the working lifestyle.
First of all, employees are not only the people that serve us in stores. They are also the people further down along the supply chain. The people who transport the products, the people who assemble the products, the people who create the products, the people who provide the raw materials. So, what does it say for a company if its product materials are of the best quality, but the products were assembled or obtained by workers in conditions akin to the definition of modern slavery. This social issue is especially noticeable in Asia, where Syrian refugees in Turkish factories supply to brands as Marks & Spencer and Asos, Burmese migrants in Thailand’s poultry farms, workers on tea plantations in South India as well as textile mills, and palm oil plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia (Eco-business, 2016). They face terrible working conditions, often with small wages and no social benefits, under the duress of being expatriated.

Slowly moving from the origin of the products towards the end of the line, the distributer’s labour force problem constitutes in small wages, high turnover and low training investment in training and development. People are more interested in doing the right thing when the right thing is done by them. Investing in employees’ development in order to improve the quality of human resources can result in lower turnover and higher sales due to customer satisfaction. Furthermore, providing fair remuneration is considered still a high-performance stimulant.

Companies

At this stage, companies themselves must change their attitudes, top-down approach. They must create the environment for dialogue and understanding, through transparency and development programs.
Sustainability issues such as waste, global warming, carbon emissions, water shortage, waste of energy, they are caused by human activity. Therefore, logic dictates that humans themselves must change in order for their actions to change. However, in the current social context, humans are more focused on their wellbeing through their working lifestyle, and cannot focus and their action’s impact.

Taking into consideration this point of view, companies must focus their sustainability initiatives both on nature-origin related issues as well as the social origin. And it does not only mean the modern slavery in India but as immediate as the employee in the corner store that is struggling to maintain a normal life.

A Silver Lining in Sustainability

A possible solution comes through technological advancements.

Now it is easier to track tiers of suppliers further down the supply chain. The carbon footprint can be measured and processes can be easily adjusted in order to meet sustainable strategic goals.
Fair trade and labour issues awareness are supported through heavy social media activity by worldwide interested parties.

Employee performance can be easily trackable and accurate training can be provided through e-learning platforms.
All is not lost! However, it is primordial that retail companies realize the advantageous role they play in educating society regarding the environment! It’s time to change the world and retail players can set off an unpreceded domino effect for the good of the human kind! We are waiting!

This post is brought to you by one of AQ’s Undergraduates, Laura Susnea. As part of our internship programs, undergraduates and classic interns are encouraged to take part in company culture. Laura’s primary project focusses on training programs and eLearning and how best to adapt this to industries under pressure. 

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Human Decency and the Customer Experience

This morning on the way into work, I was confronted with human decency.

After a rough start to the day – starting with my oversleeping – all I wanted was to buy my morning caffeine hit from the little coffee place where I get my wake-up call every morning.

I auto-piloted off the train and out of the station and headed towards caffeine. As I waited in line, coffee in hand, the gentleman in front of me glanced back and then told the cashier that he’d get my drink as well. I didn’t think I looked that tired, but maybe I did; it was one of those days.

Now. As a female, alone, and in public, there are several things that go through my head when something like this happens. My brain processes go roughly like this:

Brain: Wait what?
Voice: You don’t have to!…Are you sure?
Brain: What’s the catch?/I’m not going out with you./There has to be a catch, no one does stuff like this./Do I really look that tired?/Do I come across as being unable to afford my own coffee?/I’m offended/I’m flattered/I’m late! I don’t have time to be nicer!
Voice: Thank you!
Brain: Darn, I hope I expressed my thanks properly./Oh, he’s gone with no further queries or conversation./Now I feel guilty for doubting his motives, I hope he understands that I’m grateful./Faith in humanity restored.

Maybe it’s a sign of the times, or possibly of my inner cynic revealing herself because it’s too early in the morning and my collective consciousness has had a rough start. Truth is, I am grateful. Not just for the coffee, but for the fact that there are still people out there who believe in doing right.

Part of the problem with the world is that we’ve lost sight of each other as individual people. We’re all so caught up in our personal issues that we forget that we’re all part of the same world and we could all use a bit of human decency.

“Pay it forward,” the gentleman from this morning said to me. And I will.

Something else this experience highlighted was that one of the best customer service pointers you can have in your toolbox is simple human decency.

Empathy is one of those things we talk about a lot, but rarely practice. How much do we actually care that the customer who just came in had trouble parking? Or ran into an old friend just down the street? Be honest: we don’t actually care at all – we may listen, and nod and smile, but as soon as the customer’s out the door we’ll forget about their little experience. That’s just how humanity works.

I’m not suggesting that we take everyone’s stories home with us – that’s not healthy, but really listening to someone’s story gives you a deeper connection with that customer, and customer service is all about connections. Human decency is about how well we develop those connections and under what motives we form them.

The gentleman from this morning had nothing material to gain from buying my coffee for me – he wasn’t even the one doing the selling – but what he did prove was that a simple gesture of human decency completely changed my day. Apply that to customer service and you get a winning recipe. Showing people a personal touch, paying a little more attention to their needs, can make all the difference.

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[Intern Insights] Digitolution: Social Media’s impact on society

I own a smartphone, but I belong to the few people that do not have a data plan. So, during my commute, instead of staring at the screen I – rather ironically perhaps – enjoy watching other people staring at their screens.

Then I arrive at work, and I stare at a screen all day long too… For me, however, this is purely a work activity. In my spare time, it’s entirely up to me to choose to “be plugged in” or not. I have to admit, even without a data plan, I’m plugged in way too much – thank you Wi-Fi.

What is it that makes people spend so much time online?

I went online – of course – to answer this question, and found a research paper that offers some possible answers.

It’s not news, but people go online to find information, explore, research and to find advice – Just Google it! We’re also seeing more and more people go online for social interaction: to chat, share photos and videos, and to build relationships. They go online to express themselves, to seek recognition, and to be entertained. The online world also provides people with plenty of opportunities to procrastinate.

Basically, aside from looking up information, people go online to satisfy their social needs.

Needs that social media caters to.

But how does this affect society?

Whether or not social media actually connects people – or tears them apart – is an on-going debate. There is plenty of research out there that analyses social media’s effect on society.

A quick look at a few aspects of our Internet activities reveals that the boundaries between being online for work or leisure are blurred. Social media network sites have become a platform for all kind of activities, for personal and business uses. This is especially the case for younger employees today, who expect to have the freedom to interrupt work to manage their private affairs. That said, this is also the generation that answers emails and takes phone calls after official office hours.

Smartphones definitely help create and perpetuate this phenomenon. Smartphones give us the flexibility of connectivity. The downside of this flexibility is the created pressure to be available around the clock, the where, when and how work gets done is less static. Employees are mobile, thanks to digitalisation and the Internet. This, of course, can improve the work-life balance, but also runs the risk of increasing stress.

How does online connectivity affect the way people perceive and interact with information?

Back in the day – actually less than 10 years ago – people were focused on one device when consuming media, today’s digital media is absorbed using different mediums, usually simultaneously. However, while watching TV is rather a passive activity, interaction on social media platforms is alive. People share and engage with content and expect real-time management and live chat services when interacting with companies.

This development requires companies to adapt. 24/7 connectivity and access to information from the remotest corners of the globe means that consumer behaviour is more complex.

Consumers can look up information anywhere at any time, meaning they know everything – well, at least everything listed on Google’s first page. Digitalisation and social media put the consumer in the driver’s seat. They now have a stronger voice. A voice that has the power to advocate for or against a brand just by hitting the “post” button on any social media platform. Today the consumer is king – a king with the power to decide which company lives and dies.

“A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is – it is what consumers tell each other it is.” – Scott Cook

Whilst many people use reviews to express recognition for a job well done, even more, write product reviews with the aim to protect others from bad experiences. Such reviews and product rates then also are the most preferred source where people inform themselves about the quality of a product or service.

That’s also valid outside the business world:

Social media empowers people. It gives people a voice, allowing us to spread ideas and initiatives easier and faster than ever. This enhances free speech, giving people the opportunity to express their opinions about things like environmental sustainability and politics. Whilst traditional media originally had the power to choose what information is relevant to the world, often choosing to focus on particular subjects. Essentially, traditional media was the information gatekeeper. Now, digital media – in most countries – has given us the keys to global communication, revolutionising the way the world is connected.

This post is brought to you by one of AQ’s Undergraduates, Alexa V. As part of our internship programs, undergraduates and classic interns are encouraged to take part in company culture. Alexa’s primary focus is in digital marketing.

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4 Ways Mystery Shopping can help Increase Company Productivity

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Every business owner wants to increase company productivity. That’s the nature of business, generally speaking: essentially, it’s about sales. Those sales, however, are inextricably tied to the people who make them possible, a company’s employees and its valued customers. Without customers, a business would not exist, and without engaged employees, customers would walk away for lack of a great service experience. As they should.

Mystery shopping is a market research tool through which we can gain valuable insight into a business’ performance. If you’d like to know how mystery shopping actually works, check out this article. The question we’d like to address today is why companies should even bother with it; how does mystery shopping benefit your business? Can it really increase company productivity? How?

Firstly, yes, mystery shopping can increase company productivity, here are just four ways how:

1. Mystery shopping examines frontline employee performance

When a mystery shopper is sent in, one of the things they usually gain insight into is how well the staff on the floor of a business treat them. In other words, how well your company delivers its customer service. This is a great way to tell whether your team members are providing the right types of experiences to your customers. Armed with this knowledge, problem areas can swiftly be addressed to increase company productivity!

2. Is your brand resonating with your customers?

Another thing important to increase company productivity is determining how well your brand messages are resonating with your customers. Are they even aware of what you’re offering? Lack of or failing brand resonance is one of the leading causes of a drop in sales. Properly conducted mystery shopping research can reveal whether or not your brand has lost touch with its message and its customers.

3. Do all your outlets follow the correct product and marketing placement policies?

If you have multiple outlets, it’s important to make sure that all of your shopfronts are following your placement policies. Following on from brand resonance, this is an important way to make sure that your customers are not only comfortable in your store – i.e. they know where to find things, or check for updates! – but also actually see your onsite marketing material. No doubt you put a lot of effort into making sure your customers see what you’d like them to, it would be a shame if those efforts to increase company productivity and sales go down because one of your outlets didn’t get the memo.

Also read this article: Retail Customer Service: Reality of Retail Industry

4. Are your training & incentives programs helping to increase company productivity?

Training and incentivizing our employees is one of the best ways to ensure that they are meeting our company standards. This is by no means a bad thing, but it’s always a good idea to measure the impact of such programs and see whether they are meeting your expectations. At AQ, we’ve successfully used to take the pulse of such programs, particularly in the automotive industry.

And there you have it, a quick selection of 4 ways mystery shopping can help increase company productivity.

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