Brian Keith asked some follow up questions on my last post :
How much communication is too much?
What about delivering bad news in email vs. phone?
How do you hold staff accountable for high customer service levels?
and so I thought I would share my responses…
How much communication is too much?
Too much is when your client says it’s too much. That has happened a few times in my experience, but typically it’s the other way around – not enough. It’s better to be asked to reduce frequency than to get the call (or have your boss get the call) asking “what’s going on” and “why hasn’t anyone called me?” It’s a good idea to create a standard for your business model, and then explain it clearly to your client up front – then stick with it through the project (easier said than done). Take into account that different phases of a project may require more frequent communication (i.e. daily versus weekly, etc). Also – don’t overlook other stakeholders that you may not interact with as much – i.e. you may be talking to the client’s project team daily or weekly, but don’t forget about communicating with the executives or owner (i.e. perhaps weekly for the former and monthly for the latter).
What about delivering bad news in email vs. phone?
Use the phone – with follow-up information/details via email. It may be painful at times, but customers tend to respect your willingness to deal with the situation directly. My rule of thumb is that the more you would rather email the information, the more important it is to use the phone… Call me old fashion, but personal communication (phone or face-to-face) is still the most effective way to build strong relationships with your customers. And, even if your customer is angry, ‘listening’ and working through the issue is still part of building the relationship.
How do you hold staff accountable for high customer service levels?
Here are a few ideas (maybe someone will chime in with others?):
- Observation and listening as staff interact with customers
- “How’s it going?” calls from management to customer
- Quarterly or annual survey-type feedback from your customers (for some business models, “issue” based follow up works as well)
- Tracking and reporting forecasted versus actual targets – i.e. milestones, deliveries, etc.
- Tracking and reporting on post-delivery issues related to the project
- Tracking and reporting all incoming issues
- Documenting client communication and then reporting on frequency, spot checking content, etc.
- Third party independent surveys of your customers
- Mystery ‘shoppers’
- Tracking and reporting repeat or add-on revenue (i.e. does the client continue to buy?)
Whatever the method, it should be clear to your staff what the expectations are and how they will be measured. And, it should be tied to compensation in some way.
All that said, the best accountability comes from within and from fellow staff. That is the result of building a strong customer service culture throughout the organization.
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