Is customer service still a major key to business success?
IT IS SOMETHING that is often repeated in Barbados and elsewhere. That is, customer service will make or break a business enterprise, or any other organisation whose survival depends on interacting with the public.
So that entities which offer products and services usually have personnel dedicated to customer service issues, and in fact several enterprises often have entire sections.
The importance of such issues has not been lost on the private sector, workers’ representatives or on Government.
So much so that in 2004, the Social Partners established the National Initiative for Service Excellence (NISE). NISE’s mission was to “promote and facilitate the achievement of sustainable excellence within organisations and to assist individuals in developing excellence as an ethic.
Its goals were to “create a national culture of service excellence”, “help Barbados become known worldwide for service excellence”, and “motivate and provide the tools for all Barbados to become involved in the achievement of service excellence”.
When it was launched, then Prime Minister Owen Arthur said service excellence was no longer a desirable option but an imperative for Barbados.
Since its establishment, NISE has undertaken several activities including conducting national studies on service quality, employee engagement and providing customer service training to employees from organisations in various economic sectors. NISE has also been doing similar work in the region. Initiatives in Barbados related to customer service have included the 100 Improvement In 100 Days programme and the annual National Week Of Excellence.
Past NISE surveys have reported some improvements in service delivery, especially in the public sector, but concerns remain and customer complaints continue to be publicised. How Barbadians feel about customer service was illustrated in a new study produced by Blueprint Creative Inc and Antilles Economies. It found that 94.7 per cent of consumers stopped doing business with companies after more than one experience, while it took just one bad experience to turn off 53.5 per cent.
Customer service also remains an important issue globally. International firm Creative Virtual recently released its 2015 Global Customer Support Outlook Survey. Areas surveyed included the Caribbean and other parts of “the Americas”.
“In 2013, our findings revealed that customer engagement was becoming the cornerstone of customer support strategies across the globe. This prompted the need for departments to work cross functionally to connect with customers across multiple channels,” the report said.
“Catalysed by this need, organisations must now employ the right tools to enhance the customer experience no matter where and how customers choose to engage.”
In a 2014 commentary which examined the return on investment in customer service in the Caribbean, Azra Nathudkhan, managing director of Customer 1st Caribbean Limited, said “it’s becoming increasingly clear that customers not only expect a quality experience today; they demand it.
“For the standard of customer service to improve, it has to be seen as a stand alone requirement and an imperative for the survival of Caribbean businesses,” he said.
“The customer experience is the differentiator on the return on investment…the Caribbean has to factor in their business DNA that the customer experience matters…Every single experience in business matters. There is a return on investment that we must calculate for every experience and touch point.”