Press Release

Are Your Service Reps Customer Focused?

(Boonton, NJ, Jul 17, 2009) — A lot of companies talk about customer focus, but when it comes right down to it they are often more focused on their own operations than on the customer.

In the July issue of Customer Service Newsletter, Shep Hyken the author of The Cult of the Customer, notes that there's an easy way to tell where your company's focus is: Ask employees what their job is. If their answer sounds like a job description — i.e., I was hired to answer the phone, process orders, etc. — then you are operations focused.

If their answer, on the other hand, is something like, "I was hired to do whatever is necessary to ensure that the customer — or guest, or patient, or whatever it is — has a good experience," then you are on the road to being customer focused.

To build a workforce that goes beyond job descriptions and understands the importance of a customer focus, Hyken offers the following tips:

• Hire right, and make sure that you have the right person for the job. When in doubt, hire on attitude — and train in technical skills later.
• Train constantly — both in necessary technical skills and in soft skills such as listening and problem solving.
• Recognize individual successes. When people get things right, offer them authentic public and private praise.
• Celebrate team successes. Think of reasons — and unique ways — to celebrate when the team reaches certain goals.
• Treat your employees the way you want your customers treated — maybe even better.

About the Customer Service Group

For more than 20 years, the Customer Service Group has helped customer service, call center and help desk managers increase productivity, improve service quality and boost customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention. The Customer Service Group publishes Customer Service Newsletter and The Customer Communicator.

Website: http://www.CustomerServiceGroup.com