The 3 Ps customer service staff must understand
How often have you had a bad experience with a business and blamed it on ‘customer service’? How often have you had a wonderful experience with a business and credited is as ‘great customer service’?
‘Customer service’ an unbrella term used to express how customers feel about interactions with a business - all interactions. It’s how we explain to friends, family, collegues and strangers (social media) our delight or dismay, annoyance or anger and everything in between regarding a business. Even though we may share the details of the unsatisfactory portion of the interaction ie: faulty product and nothing to do with the humans involved in the interaction, those listening to our grievance don’t process the details - they hear ‘bad service’ and file this away for when they might want to use the business in the future.
The ‘customer service’ umbrella term is unhelpful if a business wants to develop staff, recognise and reward teamwork and/or improve products/services.
Survey is a great way for a businesses to breakdown and fully undrestand the customer experience. This feedback is great for the business but it’s vitally improtant that you provide your frontline staff with the results also so they can see their value and also not feel it’s ‘all their fault’ if the business is labelled as providing ‘bad customer service’.
The truth is there are three very different things a business provides that customers assess to determine their level of satisfaction. Those 3 things start with the letter ‘P’:
Product - the reason you interact with or want to engage the business. It’s the item you want to access/purchase but it also could be a service you want/need ie; a haircut, having your tax done or medical treatment.
Process - the steps you have to go through to access the Product (or service). This P includes the location of the business, how long you have to wait for the product or service and how many ‘hoops you have to jump through’ to get the product or service. This P also includes the Price - is it affordable to the customer.
People - the people (staff) you have to interact with to access the Product. This P includes how many people, how well they refer you to each other, how they communicate with you, how often they communicate with you. It’s how staff make you feel during every stage of the process.
Explaining the 3 P’s to your frontline staff helps them to understand how customers think and confirms the importance of staff having excellent soft skills (people skills). No matter how expensive the product, how difficult the process or if the product doesn’t achieve the outcome they wanted, when staff have excellent people skills, they have the power to make every interaction positive.
Want to know how to keep your frontline team and their Managers/Leaders on track and creating a remarkable reputation for the business every day with every customer? Contact us now - the first step is FREE.