David Bennett's Resume'

CRM Philosophy

Customer Service as a standard for customer loyalty

My passion is great Customer Service. I would like to join a growing company that also has a passion for world-class Customer Service. Customer Service in my opinion needs to be directed from the CEO/President through to the customer service representatives, everyone in the company. The customer service representative represent the company, they are the first people to come in contact with the customer when there is a problem. Typically if you have no customers you have no business.

If a customer has a problem with a business these days; it is too easy for them to just walk away (or click away). If the customer makes an effort to fix the problem, we as a company need to expend every resource available to us to make sure that the problem is resolved over and above the expectation of the customer. If this is taken seriously, the company will have a customer for life. If you want customer loyalty, this is what you must do. M is a big acronym for what?

Customer Relationship Management, that is a mouthful. Maintenance of the Customer relationship should be the highest concern for a company. You can call it anything that you wish. The software and procedures are the tools required to provide world-class customer service. The software alone or the procedures alone cannot accomplish this; they need to work together to define the workflow of the company. The workflow needs to be refined over and over to make sure that nothing gets dropped “through the cracks”.   edure Development.

The procedures are normally in place in a business, the work does get done, however haphazardly. The procedures need to be defined, written down and then refined to enhance productivity. Time needs to be taken to analyze the existing systems and then refine them. This is an ongoing process and will change as time goes by. The procedures should not be “written in stone” but need to be flexible. And if and when the procedures are circumvented most of the time, that is when the procedures need to be changed. Everyone needs to be part of the procedure development; from the receptionist to the shipping clerk, these are the people that know how the current processes; not just upper management or project managers.

Tools.

There are many software packages and technological devices available to enhance your relationship with the customer. Which software or devices you choose depends on what business you are in and how your business works (Workflow). Proper due diligence needs to take place before any tool is selected. The software is not the magic “fix-all” that will resolve all the problems of the company. The new and advanced devices will not retain customers alone. The procedures need to be developed first and then applied to the tools. The problems need to be addressed before they can be fixed.

Training:

Training goes hand in hand with procedure development. It brings the procedures together with the tools (software and/or devices being used). Everyone on the staff needs to be aware of what the focus is and what the tools will do. Training needs to be developed in two areas.

1. Overall training so that each person is aware of what other departments are doing as well as the overall processes. This will also allow them to have more respect for their fellow employees, rather than thinking that their job is the utmost importance. Everyone needs to perform in harmony as in a symphony.

2. Specific training for each department on how they need to use the software to perform their particular job function. This training needs to be focused on the particular module that their department uses to perform their job function.

Procedure Development, the Tools and Training need to work hand in hand to provide world-class customer service. Everyone in the company is responsible for customer service, from relating to your peers to upper management and most importantly the customer or end-user as some like to call them. User seems to me to be a derogatory term for someone the just “uses” up the resources of a company. A customer provides the lively hood for the company and needs to be the primary focus.

In my opinion if you have the world’s best product or service, it is nothing if your customer service is poor. A customer may initially purchase your product or service, but you will quickly loose that customer if you fail to resolve the problems they are facing.