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Setting up a customer care programme.

Article Excerpt
[check] This checklist describes the stages in establishing an organisational framework that maximises the value offered to and derived from customers.

Definition

Successful customer care means making the customer want to come back for more, and getting them to recommend products and services to others. Customer care is not only about meeting customer expectations but 'delighting' them by focusing energies on offering value, getting it right first time, and improving it in the future.

Benefits of a customer care programme

A comprehensive customer care programme impacts on the organisation through: increased success a developing and satisfied workforce. Drawbacks of a customer care programme

There can be no such thing as a zero customer care programme--to take no account of customers is to ignore the future of the business.

Action checklist

1. Secure top management commitment Unless top management are fully committed to the concept of customer care, there is little chance of success. A formalised customer care programme with involved leadership helps to focus roles and responsibilities clearly.

2. Know your customers

Excellence in customer care is wholly reliant upon knowing your customers' needs and expectations. Needs are not the same as demands: people don't ask for what they don't expect to get, even when it could be provided. Anticipating real needs can give competitive advantage.

While it is important to remember that most organisations have internal customers in...

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