Focus on Customer Service every day not just a week

Customer Service Week is organised by the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) and takes place during 3-7 October 2022. It is a week-long celebration of customer service. Companies are encouraged to reflect on how they serve their customers, recognise teams’ achievements and show commitment to service excellence. But is it enough?

Why just one week?

Although I welcome any focus on customer service, I believe that every week should be customer service week! Consumers have seen customer service get worse and worse over the last couple of years.

Whilst consumers can understand the reasons for rising prices and supply chain difficulties, customers can no longer tolerate the poor customer service that we saw at the beginning of the pandemic.

No excuse for poor service

The line “We are experiencing high level of calls” is just one example that consumers find excruciatingly annoying and unacceptable. There is no excuse for it now. Not resolving issues, being fobbed off, not keeping to promises and being pushed from pillar to post are commonly cited problems with customer service.

Investing resources in customer service doesn’t have to cost more for companies. In the long run the investment will mean more satisfied customers who will do the heavy lifting of the marketing for them. More satisfied customers and less time spent on dealing with issues means increased sales!”

Complaints are up

A July 2022 ICS survey of 10,000 consumers across 13 industry sectors showed that 17.3% of UK customers experienced a product or service problem over the past year . This is the highest level since their records began in 2008! See Customer service goes down, complaints are going up for details.

The ICS figures reinforce this, demonstrating that the rise in customer service problems and complaints is costing businesses £9.24bn in staff hours, as they spend more time trying to resolve issues.

A small business perspective

Sara Keel agrees that customer service should be at the forefront of everything a business does. As a consumer she always sought out businesses that give equal support to all their customers. Since she started her Babycup business she says that the reality of this can be tough:

“Resources can be thin on the ground for small businesses, making it hard as customers with bigger orders often, quite naturally, require more time and in turn those bigger orders also help keep business going. Our customers vary from a parent ordering one pack of cups at £9.99 to health service orders such as the NHS ordering thousands of cups for oral health programmes. It’s a tough juggle for a small brand. Top notch customer service can make or break a brand. For a small brand is it difficult? Yes. Impossible? No. Vital? Absolutely.”

It costs at least 5 times more to gain a new customer than to retain one. So, companies of all sizes would be wise to pay more attention to looking after existing clients. That starts with providing excellent customer service.