According to Carol’s recent post on the Nextiva blog, everyone in your company should realize they are involved with the customer experience. In “All Departments Share Responsibility for Great Customer Service” Carol begins:
You know that all customer-facing employees need to handle customer concerns with due care and a degree of finesse. But, do you realize that the people in your company who never see customers also have a great deal to do with the customer experience?
Everyone in your company should view their roles with a customer perspective. Let’s look at 6 common business functions to examine how they affect the level of service that you bring to your customers.
1. Product and Service Creators
The employees who make products or perform services don’t always have customer face time, but customers specifically pay for their output. Clearly, customer opinions drive the possibility of future orders.
Open communication is a key factor in getting it right. Employees who know that they can speak up will come to you freely if they detect any issues that might affect quality or timely delivery. And, if you invite customer feedback that can reveal minor issues before they become bona fide problems, you can expect kudos rather than complaints when you deliver.
I also advocate having a CCO (Chief Customer Officer) that can consistently bring customer feedback into the product design process to ensure that what is being built is what the customers want — or at least need!
2. Sales and Marketing
Your sales team communicates directly with customers. As a general rule, your marketing team communicates to customers only through various media. Either way, however, the honesty and integrity of their messages go a long way toward affecting your company’s reputation.
The Federal Trade Commission is the ultimate watchdog for the observance of sometimes-vague and confusing Truth in Advertising legislation. They have recently kept pretty busy monitoring company messaging — sometimes imposing hefty fines for noncompliance. And, if you don’t understand the laws, well, just remember this doctrine: ignorance of the law excuses no one.
As a general rule, make sure that your sales team avoids making unrealistic promises about your products or services. The same thing goes for your marketing campaign — and, perhaps it’s best to avoid too much photo manipulation when developing advertising for your products or services. Even if it isn’t a legal issue, it’s a best practice to have that authenticity with customers.
You can read the rest of the post here.
