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Originally Posted by Vincent Ferrari
I disagree. It's not hard, but it requires a few things:.
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1. You have to stop viewing it as a cost..
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Not sure how you do that. It is a cost, and a substantial one if you own the market, because the cost increases as you have more product in the market. Beyond that, how many PC models does Apple sell? A dozen? How many Dell, or HP? To keep many more customer service reps competent on many more sytems takes more CSRs and more training, and more pay.
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2. You have to really care about how those people represent your company..
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Not being able to afford enough fully competent CSRs is not indicative of not caring. If you have to hire a lot more folks because of the volume, not because of shoddier product necessarily, but because of percentages of a greater base, you pay less, and you get what you pay for.
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3. You have to be willing to take a loss on occasion to make a customer happy and make them return..
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That has happened to me on a number of occasions with Dell, and HP. (Never had an issue that required it with a Sony). I think it is unfortunate, but it seems dependeant on the CSR you get, and quite often, I'm convinced, on the customer's attitude. It does seem to be a fact of human nature that those who wish to pay the least for a product often seem the most beligerent when they get what they pay for.
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4. You have to empower the people on the phone to make decisions so that they don't have to hide behind corporate "policy.".
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Well, yea, but if if your success puts you into the situation that to service all calls you need to go to a tiered support system, you can't have the lowest tier, minimum wage, read the trouble-shooting tree from the screen CSRs, handing out stuff willy-nilly. If your profit margin is low, then you have to sell a lot of sytems to make up for that one you give away for customer satisfaction. If on the other hand, you are making 200% profit on every box, you can afford to give one away now and again.
You are right though, good customer service isn't hard...if you have the money to spend on it, because it absolutely is a cost.