Guest post by Marcel Oudejans

With advent of virtually instant global communication, the consumer is gaining an advantage: the ability to make an informed decision based not just on the seller’s sales methods but also on previous customers’ experiences. Customers are learning that they have rights and that they can support or reject a supplier with their Rands. While much has been said about the new Consumer Protection Act, it does not necessarily prevent or regulate the typical apathy or neglect that may not be illegal but does cause frustration. However, disgruntled customers now have far greater access to tools that can help them get satisfaction from their disappointing experiences.

In the past, companies that were not delivering on their promises or delivering satisfactory service could be confident that, for the most part, an unhappy customer would be unlikely to cause significant damage to their brand. However, the massive growth of “self-publication” tools – such as blogging and Twitter – means that individuals have increased their leverage by being able to persuade or dissuade potential customers from doing business with a particular company. This means that companies must seriously evaluate their customer service standards, since negative PR from a single dissatisfied customer has a far higher potential to impact their bottom line profits than ever before.

A customer’s experience, from entering your company to long after the sale has been made, must therefore be consistently positive. Major companies have known this for years and have also been pro-active in this regard by creating “customer service” departments, and, by creating a dedicated channel for unhappy customers to voice their grievances, the company can make improvements based on peoples’ experiences. Customer Services department staff are trained how to handle an upset customer; but it’s frequently the case that this specialized department only deals with people unhappy enough to make a formal complaint. In fact, it’s far easier and more likely that customers tell their ‘friends’ using a tool like Facebook about their experience of dealing with your company.

But is there a future for “customer service” departments? It’s doubtful that this department will simply cease to exist in the future. My suggestion is that the customer service departments facilitate training of all staff members of the company. This way it would be possible for the entire staff complement to learn from an in-house department on what is considered good customer service.

In the future, customers will expect even higher levels of service, because they have more choice and influence. It is therefore vital that every person in your company should be consistent and reliable in offering better-than-standard service. This means that every staff member will need to be a part of the “customer service department”, regardless of which department they have been assigned to. As customers exercise their buying “power”, the responsibility to deliver good service will no longer simply rest solely with the customer service department: rather, we can (and should) expect that ALL staff are ready and prepared to offer great service. I expect that we will see a shift from a single dedicated service department, to a department that trains and monitors service levels for all staff members. This is definitely good news for consumers!

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