The quality of service has certainly spiraled here in the Philippines in the last 20 years. Mediocre service has become the norm simply because customers had no place to go. It was either mediocre provider one or mediocre provider two.
Mediocrity has made shareholders and the management of these companies rich. This, of course, resulted in the absence of motivation to improve their service. Company management are sometimes blinded by the reality of the service their customer receive. All too often praising each other and getting more deluded when they receive recognition and accolades.
This is even more so when this service poor company grows by leaps and bounds due to the lack of a real service minded competitor.
Soon, gone are the days where such companies thrive and get rich by providing terrible service. Welcome to the best South East Asian companies who plan on putting presence in the country. Welcome to the ASEAN economy.
What puzzled me for years is this; great customer experience is not a complicated subject. Why, then do very little companies in the Philippines do something about it?
I would guess two parts; one, they are simply indifferent since their revenue continues to grow with lackluster service. Two, they have a complex view of the topic of Remarkable Customer Service.
Consider this the first part of a series that walks you through the apparent maze of Customer Experience. Let me demystify the topic so that you can start implementing what you learn from this blog.
Let's start with the basic; customer experience vs customer service.
It's tragic that some local companies still talk about customer service as a focus to improving the customers feel of their company. Focusing on customer service is like trying to play well only at the last 10 seconds of a basketball game.
The real focus should be from the start of the game all the way to the closing whistle. Customer experience is about ALL the touch points of the customer with your business. If you are a Bank, an industry I spent 22 years with, it's about the experience of the customer when he opens an account. Providing a remarkable experience is what the customer feels when he uses the ATM or calls the help desk for assistance. As a side joke we used to call some user help desk by a more accurate phrase 'useless helpless'. It is about every single touch point he has with the Bank.
The starting point to creating a remarkable customer experience is identifying All touch points and measuring them.
That, my dear reader, is as simple as it gets. No fancy jargon a and technical approaches. First, identify your customer touch points and measure them. You are off to a great start.
More about touch points and the next steps in succeeding blogs.
Enjoy and keep creating a remarkable customer experience or RCE.