Guest post by Marcel Oudejans

How do your customers perceive your company’s service? To find out, you could ask for feedback from customers, send them survey forms, read your corporate blog comments, or look at complaint drivers like getclosure!. The fastest and easiest way, however, is to go directly to the source of any potential problems.

To understand what customers REALLY see when they do business with you, you will need to ‘become the customer’ by running a ‘customer drill’. In large companies you can do this yourself, but you’ll probably need to find a family member or a trusted friend that is willing to help (your staff should obviously not be familiar with this person).

Call your reception or customer service department and note how long it takes for the call to be answered. Do you get a friendly greeting and helpful advice, or does the operator sound bored and apathetic? If your call is put on hold, is your waiting time acceptable? Do you feel as if the operator is eager to help and treat you respectfully? During the call, ask the typical questions a customer would ask and gauge the response. Do you feel as if the operator is trying to hurry you so that he or she can get to the next customer? Can you hear the operator’s voice clearly or do you struggle to understand what is being said? Even customers who are normally patient and understanding can get upset and rude during a frustrating telephone call!

You could also create a ‘mystery customer’ scenario so that you can also rate the level of face-to-face service. Restaurant franchises are regularly tested by paid ‘stooges’ to assess whether or not the customers’ experiences meet their standards. Your ‘mystery customers’ should give as much feedback about the experience as possible. Of course, it is far better that a ‘fake’ customer experiences poor service than a real one because you’re able to rectify the problem without losing a customer or suffering from negative word-of-mouth.

Once the call or visit is completed, do an assessment on the experience. Repeat this at least once per month and compare the notes with previous tests to see where you regularly fail your customers. Just as your company needs to meet its safety requirements by running fire drills regularly so that you can practise and assess competence and compliance, your ‘customer drill’ will not only identify your strengths and weaknesses but also whether your improvements are in effect. Unlike fires, however, poor customer service can happen regularly: your drills could help save your business’s life!

Marcel Oudejans is a Corporate Infotainer who is passionate about inspiring his audiences to deliver more “magic moments” to their customers in their customer service, sales & marketing. Marcel is the author of “The Serious Business Owner’s Guide To Creating Customers For Life” & provides more tricks, techniques & strategies on his blog, http://www.performmarketing.co.za