A bit of sympathy goes down well

1 October 2007

Customers don’t have high expectations of business, but a bit of sympathy goes down well

The customer isn’t always right, but they do have certain expectations about how business should treat them – particularly when things go wrong – and International Customer Service week from October 2 to 6 is a good excuse for businesses to focus on customer expectations.

Managing Director of KiwiHost New Zealand, Simon Nikoloff, says customers have certain expectations about how their problems will be dealt with – they expect it to be fixed quickly, satisfactorily and with sympathy.

“Research has identified the top ten service recovery expectations that all businesses and their staff should practise if they want to keep their customers. I would encourage business owners and staff during International Customer Service Week to take a look at implementing those,” said Mr Nikoloff.

The top ten service expectations are:

1. Being called back when promised.
2. Receiving an explanation of how a problem happened.
3. Knowing who to contact with a problem.
4. Being contacted promptly when a problem is resolved.
5. Being able to talk to someone in authority.
6. Being told honestly how long it will take to resolve a problem.
7. Being offered useful alternatives if a problem can’t be solved.
8. Being treated like a person, not an account number.
9. Being told about ways to prevent a future problem.
10. Being provided with progress reports if a solution will take time.

“My advice is to write these up as a company procedure and then train your staff to carry out that procedure – it’s not much that customers ask and, fortunately, good customer service doesn’t cost much to deliver,” said Mr Nikoloff.

KiwiHost has been teaching Kiwi business how to meet a customer’s expectations for more than 17 years.

Ends

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