Study identifies 3 key service skills for earning customer loyalty
Return to News

Findings expected to help tailor spending in huge customer service training market

Boston, MA, October 6, 2003 In recognition of National Customer Service Week (October 6-10), The Forum Corp. today released new research identifying the top three skills customer service representatives must have in order to build customer loyalty, increase sales and lower customer acquisition costs.

Additionally, the report shows that providing customer service has become increasingly complex over the last decade, and identifies the biggest challenges faced by service providers and their managers.

The findings are expected to help companies make better investments in customer service training, which analysts expect to top $1 billion by 2006, according to Forum, a leader in the field of workplace learning whose clients include more than 130 members of the Fortune 500. The findings also reinforce the importance of good service to the bottom line; in a previous research report by Forum, 65 percent of customers surveyed switched providers because they were not treated courteously.

The research study, Roadmaps for Delivering Winning Service, revealed that companies with the most effective loyalty-inducing customer service equip their representatives with the skills to:

• Resolve problems: Service representatives are often the first to have contact with a dissatisfied customer or to become aware of a situation that might cause a customer to become dissatisfied. The best customer service representatives see complaints as opportunities, since resolving them to the customers satisfaction is known to enhance customer loyalty.
• Cross sell: Service representatives are in an ideal position to propose that the customer purchase additional services or products based on the customers need. Doing so helps the customer by addressing his stated need or identifying new ones. It also helps the company by increasing sales.
• Assure quality: Soliciting feedback and following up to ensure that service has been delivered to the customers satisfaction can have big payoffs in terms of fostering customer loyalty. Doing so can involve both simple and complex behaviors, ranging from routinely asking whether the customer is satisfied to improving delivery processes.

The research study also identifies the recurring challenges facing customer service representatives and their managers.

For customer service representatives, the top six challenges are:

• Managing the customers experience and the companys internal processes simultaneously.
• Being on the firing line and frequently encountering angry customers when things go wrong.
• Managing time by prioritizing and planning work despite a fast-paced, sometimes turbulent work environment
• Coordinating work with others in departments and functional areas across the company in order to meet the customers need.
• Balancing customer needs and company requirements, especially when they conflict.
• Continuously learning about new products, services, company offers, and internal processes despite time constraints and a lack of available training and coaching.

For customer service managers, the top six challenges are:

• Delivering consistent, high-quality service in the face of high turnover, insufficient knowledge and skills, or lack of processes, information systems and tools.
• Maintaining a positive, productive, customer-focused climate in which customer service representatives take accountability for serving customers.
• Managing budget, staffing and turnover to ensure proper staffing levels that contribute to high quality service and high productivity.
• Integrating information systems and customer service by combining technology and people skills.
• Managing across functional lines, since fulfilling customer needs often requires the manager to work collaboratively with colleagues in many different functional areas.
• Training and developing people both newcomers and existing representatives in the face of productivity demands, tighter budgets and increasingly complex product offerings.

The study found that the most effective customer service training is designed to help representatives progress from basic skills to mastery over time, suggesting that training must be continuous as representatives grow from novices to experts.

Forum is using the studys findings to develop industry-leading competency maps and training programs that enable companies to develop their customer service representatives skills.

To obtain a copy of Forums Roadmaps for Delivering Winning Service report, please visit the Forum website at http://www.forum.com

About Forum

The Forum Corporation is a global leader in workplace learning. For more than three decades, Forum has helped Fortune 1000 clients address their most important business challenges with learning solutions. Whether the issue is driving growth and profitability, minimizing employee turnover, developing leaders at all levels, increasing sales force productivity, or improving customer satisfaction and retention, Forum aligns its clients people with their strategy to deliver tangible business results.

Forums research-based content is Organized to CustomizeTM to provide learning solutions that meet the unique needs of its clients with off-the-shelf speed and efficiency. Forum consultants are recognized experts in developing leadership talent, delivering a Branded Customer Experience, and building world-class sales and customer service teams.