My Head!

Customer satisfaction, acceptance and relate-ability all pour into the same well where from the company is being watered because sales and profitability solely depend on keeping your customers happy. Customer care is the foundation of any service driven industry. The telecom sector is one such model where competition is cut throat and business opportunities in collaboration with other spheres is helping expand tremendously.

Standards demand that companies are rather obligated to treat their customers well. But on the contrary; high level customer care demands that you do your homework real well. For that, it is often required that you know what your customer wants. Once you have identified your valuable or your potential customer, you can then start focusing on targeting them with your customer care. After all, wastage in all forms is bad.

The basics to customer satisfaction and retention in today’s term translate to delivering the service that outmatches and preempts the customer’s value for money offering. Customer retention increases profits massively. It costs way more to get a new customer than to keep the existent in line (by servicing and maintaining). Keeping customers satisfied has the same effect as cutting costs where companies do not realize that attrition could be the largest cost borne. But the crux is that one can not reach the top of the ladder by providing the same service as every one else.

The entire idea of customer care in the telecom-sector has got everything to do with the customer experience. The customer has to feel good about doing business with you. No; can never be taken for an answer. Potential tagline for every telecom company in Pakistan should be ‘We will help you if we can. Otherwise; we will get you in touch with the right person;’ because the customer is sitting at the throne at all times. It certainly is important that we do not tell our customers that we can not help them but we do need to know when we can help and when we need to pass it over to someone else to tackle with. Empathizing with the customer is one of those fronts where maximum marks could be earned and upholding their egos is a prime bonus. Here one is trying to change things and create an experience through behavioral changes in the customer’s stance.

Considering the telecom sector, customer care is secondary to customer experience as stated earlier. A customer that is not happy with the outputs of a particular company is rarely, if ever sees bad service as something; that will be just because one representative who would have failed miserably to deliver. Just because the representative was unable to read the customers mind, the company gets blamed. Maybe it serves the company right. But how we look, act and talk sternly projects an image that our customers use to form an opinion of the entire organization. In this era of fierce competition, one wants customers to come to the company because they have heard good things about a company. What one does not want is to lose those potential customers because of the ineffective communication of one representative. So it is the experience that is being sold after the actual product is in the customer’s hand.

The agenda these days for the telecom companies is to increase the number of active sales. Customer care is playing an important role in this regard. To begin with, providing a free customer helpline was one of the ways to lure customers into the trap. This service is now charged by a lot many telecom operators. Following up on the sales with a courtesy call is not in fashion any more. Even the business development officers have lost their integrity. Sending reminders only when it is beneficial for the company is the norm now. Even when there is ruthless competition, the basics are not held on to and valued like they should be. Where as we all know that the customers at hand are those who have chosen you instead of their competitors.

The idea solely banks upon managing the expectations, communication and the holding up the perceived image. How well one effectively deals with the customers in all circumstances is what matters in today’s world. The customers want recognition as they are more cynical now than ever before. For this the telecom operators have to change their behaviors too with finding the right solution because how you present the same portrays who your employer is. A company can not advertise how well they treat their customers; for their say in the market, they have to deliver the promises they make and not only bombard them with information. Customers are ready to pay a premium price for the excellent services they get. They want to be trusted and rely on the service provider in return.

How well is your telecom operator providing you with the care that you so require?