We, as service organizations, seem to have many things in common despite our very unique approaches to service. No matter how different our approaches may be, we all seem to share the same ultimate goal: Providing a solution to our customer’s request. But as service driven individuals, we can’t stop there. We need to find not only a solution to our customer’s needs or problems, but also to leave our customers feeling great about our business interactions. Some of the ways that we reach this goal is through showing our dedication, commitment, abilities and responsiveness. We enjoy earning our customer’s trust in us and reaffirming time and time again that their trust is well earned and deserved. We really feel that listening is the key factor in our relationships. If we listen to what is critical, important, or even just something our customers desire, we have the key to fulfilling their needs and a road map to creating the positive customer interactions we strive for.
Some of the things that distinguish the common as well as the unique qualities of each service organization include looking at their business models, types of business, the individuals involved, and their size. This helps us to create an equation that takes into account tens, if not hundreds, of pieces of information will help us to distinguish our customers’ needs, which can be as diverse as the communities they serve. Our customers have the expertise and vision that and we can use that as service people to help them reach their goals. The first step is to ask questions and listen to what our customers have to say. Then we can ask a second round of questions to continue to get a better feel for what their real needs are. Here is a small list of some types of things we would ask our customers about to get to know their business needs:
Does your business:
• Have “itself” as the customer (internal IT support)?
• Take and capture a service request?
• Perform remote telephone support (human or IVR)?
• Perform on-site support?
• Execute swaps or exchanges?
• Provide labor?
• Have contracts?
• Offer warranties?
• Have multiple billing options?
• Have many types of Projects?
• Uses third party providers?
• Provide self help to the customer (web sites, frequently asked questions)?
• Provide a service that is mostly about constant service (phones providers, network providers, distributing gas / electric / water and other necessities of life)?
• Metered driven?
• Provide preventive Maintenance?
• Offer parts or supplies?
• Have a walk in business mode (vehicle service, doctors, restaurant)?
• Have many technologies used (emails, web sites, smart phone systems)?
• And on and on and on…

We cannot express how important we feel communication with our customers is. A solutions company is much better off asking for a customer’s opinions, preferences and rules, and making solutions work for them the way that they would want and need. This is just the beginning of our approach to creating a positive customer experience that can flourish into a long standing service relationship.

10. Upon entering your place of business, the clients will be greeted and made to feel welcome…if you’re not busy doing anything else.
9. You see your customers as dollar signs. If their monetary value isn’t high enough, why waste any time on them?
8. You have policies in place and these are unbendable—no matter what the situation or client needs.
7. You spend more time telling clients about what you have to offer than listening to what their actual needs are.
6. If a customer calls with a problem you can’t resolve, you transfer them to someone else! Someone will be able to help sooner or later, right?
5. Your clients can depend on you showing up for a service call…within a six hour window…as long as the driver doesn’t forget the work order slip…if they call to confirm their appointment a few times…and if they’re really lucky and the stars are aligned!
4. Your customers can speak to five different representatives about the same issue, receive five different answers…and none of them solve their problem.
3. Your clients would describe your service as “passable” at best… you wouldn’t want to know how they’d describe it at worst! But why would you ask them anyway?
2. Your customers can count on you to keep your word…at least 10% of the time.
1. You feel the customer is always right…as long as what they want agrees with your corporate policies…

The year 2010 is the year of the tiger—this is our time to shine. This year, it’s all about vigor, courage, and resilience. Tigers are quick in response, incorrigibly competitive, intelligent, alert, and farsighted. CSDP has all of these traits. We are service people, and we hold our heads high.

Like a tiger, CSDP is the one to stand out in a crowd. We determine our goals and then do what is necessary to achieve them. With an inspiring assertiveness and competitive demeanor, most tigers are natural born leaders who perform best when they have a challenge in front of them. And, like all felines, tigers land on their feet, pursing their prey with an uncompromising energy and hunting it without fail, much like we do at CSDP. We are always ready for the next test life throws our way.

What a better way to sum up the qualities of our company than with a logo that says it all?

You can visit our website for the results starting May 1, 2010.

On the other hand, there is an aphorism that states, “A jack of all trades is a master of none.” That may have been true years ago, but in today’s world, there are so many options available in order to eliminate weaknesses and make your company strong across the board. Methods to consider:

*Outsourcing:
o Gives you widespread access to talent without dramatically increasing your costs. Improves a weaker area of your company while allowing you to focus on your core competencies.

*Automation:
o Improves efficiency and has a large return on investment.

*Internet use:
o Can advance your company’s processes through researching, networking, freeware, web meetings for collaboration and presentations, etc.

*Improve your company’s Corporate Systems:
o Analyze what you use internally, improve them or replace them, invest in them, eliminate duel entry with interfaces between their systems, etc. These systems can be studied, flowcharted, documented, etc., in order to seek improvement of the weaker areas of your company’s processes.

*Take care of Internal Issues:
o Problems inside the company, such as poor communication, low productivity, etc. These can be dealt with through more all-hands calls, a better e-mailing and accountability system, etc.

Once your weaknesses are overcome, you will have learned new approaches to self-improvement, so by overcoming the weaknesses, the knowledge you’ve gained can then be applied to your strengths, which in turn, fortifies your strengths. This can be cycled again and again so that any business can be discovered in this constant self-improvement rotation. Now, you can shift your focus to your core competencies. For example, these may be systems, processes, leadership, and so on. For CSDP, it is customer service. We are people who help the customer because we want to. We think and work proactively and reactively. We look to fix the problem before it becomes a problem, and we look for creative methods in order to solve these potential problems. In doing this, we are building a brand name and creating a following, which helps us gain our customers’ trust and support by being caring and helpful. In return, we get positive word of mouth from our existing customers, allowing us to retain these valued clients while pursuing new activities.

For ways to make your service business the best in the world, contact Customer Service Delivery Platform Corporation. Visit http://www.csdpcorp.com. We represent service in everything we do.

The development approach we use in order to give our customers the best service possible, and therefore a quicker ROI, is called “Iterative Development.” Iterative Development is best described as a one-on-one developmental process with a developer and subject matter expert. It is an extremely interactive process, but is still the most efficient way to develop. This differs from Agile Development in that Agile Development is a new approach to development by getting out small releases and sending them to a group that will scrutinize and create a list of next things to work on for the next release.

With Iterative Development, we are not assigned a task simply to complete it and hand it back. Instead, we use our customer’s full participation, any expertise, and input to complete one milestone at a time, together. Their involvement is absolutely essential, and we simply cannot do it without their help. Given their input on how to deal with each issue, we are put in a position to give them greater service and faster automation tools and software.

Building first for implementation:

Iteration in a project that is building a solution should focus on cost reduction, revenue, customer satisfaction, advertising, reputation, production, and better management. Once development is complete, you end up with software specific to your unique business.

System improvement for those already in use:

The same approach gives immediate return as the software upgrades are deployed.

For example, don’t build or enhance your website based solely on appearance or to be connected to the latest technology, although these can be part of the equation. Instead, you should focus more on getting hits to your website and gaining qualified leads who are interested specifically in what you have to offer. Having a plain website that gains you five new customer views a day is much more important than having a website that is attractive, but never helps gain a prospect, new customer, or any repeat business from current customers.

* A simple list of values (an intelligent codification)

* Full sentences that describe the solution to the question

* Pictures, Diagrams and Attachments of any sort

* Dialogue which guides an end user to a solution, but allows for one question to build on another

* Links provided to web sites

Most have looked at this type of tool as one that assists in a service industry’s repair process or a scripting tool for call centers. The other common use of these tools is support for a phone system where CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) is used, for instance, a phone system that either proactively makes or receives phone calls with an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system in place. An example of this is an airline that provides flight information based on automated questions asked of the caller. From there, the caller responds with appropriate information. A potential dialogue would be:

Phone voice: “What is your flight number?”

Callers response: “4005.”

Phone voice: “Arrives at DFW at 2:30 pm.”

Knowledge based tools are also useful for augmenting your sales and marketing. You can link your web site to the knowledge based tool, allowing potential customers to look at the material you provide. Web visitors, can utilize question and answer features, provide feedback, bring in materials, and even customize your web site. This can be done with a one-time technology investment and requires almost no resources until you have a good lead.

Types of knowledge based tools can vary, from being very complex and requiring a great deal of time and your most knowledgeable resources (the “expert tool” type), to being easily implemented and automated (the “self-learning tool” type).

The “expert tool” requires that an expert provides information for the application. While implementing an “expert tool” is time and labor intensive, for some information it is the only viable choice. The flight reservation system, mentioned above, would need to be an expert system. Some companies have this type of information gathered in other systems, which can be the starting point to feed the expert system with the information.

The “self-learning tool” gathers information from the systems that run your business. For example, if you have a good sales force automation tool, the information entered into that tool can be used to backfill your self-learning knowledge base with the information gathered during a sales cycle. Analyzing a sales cycle will tell the tool which approaches have worked, how well they have worked, and give you information about the loss of a sale. The more information you can gather in your self-learning tool, the more useful your system will be. For service-oriented companies, a knowledge based tool can help with a call center by allowing non-experts to give expert answers to the customer or update the website to improve customer usability.

Tools can also be a combination of expert and self-learning. With this tool, you can start off with any amount of expert-entered (or converted) information, and your system will gather more every day as events are captured. This allows your tool to become more effective every day as your business is performed.

If you answered either honesty, flexibility/adaptability, diligence, responsiveness, listening skills, uniqueness, or cost-effectiveness, Customer Service Delivery Platform Corporation can help you make your business the best in the world. Visit our site at http://csdpcorp.com.