| Your business is booming! You are making money | | | | snapshot of negative opinion regarding your products |
| hand over fist and your bank is sending you love | | | | or services. Which products are customers unhappy |
| letters. Your investors are crawling over each other to | | | | with? What services are not meeting customer |
| tell give you more money. Everything is going great | | | | expectations? All of this information can be gleaned |
| then, seemingly out of the blue, you are blindsided. A | | | | directly from this database, with enough time for you |
| faulty product, a bad employee, an overeager | | | | to correct the problems before they become |
| salesman; any one of these is enough to suddenly turn | | | | impossible to handle. With sufficient information ahead |
| feast into famine. However, chances are you have an | | | | of time, you can take the needed steps to implement |
| Early Warning System in place that could have helped | | | | the changes that will stop the problem in its tracks. |
| you avert catastrophe: your Customer Service | | | | You must dedicate your company to outrageous |
| department. | | | | customer service. Your workers must go above and |
| Too often, Customer Service is treated as a | | | | beyond the call of duty to make sure every customer |
| necessary business evil. They are a department that | | | | that calls hangs up satisfied. At one of my client |
| costs money and resources but doesn't actually | | | | companies, if you are not satisfied after your second |
| generate revenue for your business. Most Customer | | | | call to customer service, the company president calls |
| Service departments exist solely to deal with | | | | you and tries to solve the problem. This is the kind of |
| customer complaints, returns or questions. However, | | | | outrageous customer service that keeps customers |
| with some simple tools you can turn your Customer | | | | coming back for more. When the president cares |
| Service department into your corporate Early Warning | | | | about the customers then the employees will care too. |
| system that will keep you abreast of potential | | | | Every call should be logged into a simple database and |
| problems looming on the horizon. | | | | tracked until the issue is resolved. Your database |
| Remember, the employees that answer the phone | | | | should track the caller's name and contact information, |
| and speak directly with your customers are the ones | | | | the dates they called, the relevant product or service, |
| with their fingers on the pulse of your products. Most | | | | the names of all the customer support representatives |
| any member of that department can tell you which | | | | that they have spoken to and call notes for every call. |
| product or service you offer generates the most | | | | These are all important parts of the equation. Once |
| complaints. A simple database custom designed for | | | | you have collected enough data, it is amazing what |
| your Customer Service department can help them | | | | you will find. Suddenly you can start making |
| track every single phone call or email. A good | | | | connections that you otherwise were unable to make. |
| database will track the type of call, the product or | | | | For example, another client company was able to |
| service they are calling about, the specific complaint | | | | identify quality problems at one specific factory. The |
| and the solution recommended by the Customer | | | | product in question was manufactured in six different |
| Support representative. You many need to include | | | | factories around the world, but the serial numbers for |
| other metrics that are specific to your business, but | | | | that one factory were causing 87% of all failures! |
| just with that simple base you can begin to generate | | | | Because they had a customer service database they |
| useful feedback from your clients. | | | | were able to find the real cause of the problem and |
| Once the database is in place and operating, within a | | | | correct it. Their customers are happier because the |
| few days (depending on your Customer Service | | | | products don't fail and the company is saving money |
| department's volume) you should be able to get a | | | | because they aren't paying for substandard products. |