Taking care of your customers makes good business sense

The annual survey by Which? found cosmetics firm Lush was the "clear winner’’ according to consumers, the only brand to achieve an "excellent’’ five-star rating for having knowledgeable and helpful staff and for making customers feel valued.

So Business Argus decided to talk to three local businesses from different sectors to find out how seriously they took serving their customers...

Dave Halliday, UK Director of Customer Services for Admiral Group

How important is it to your business that your customer is completely satisfied with the service you offer?

Admiral aims to give great service and value for money to as many people as possible. It is vital for our customers to be happy with the service we provide. If we fail to keep our customers satisfied, they won’t want to do business with us, and if we have no customers, we have no business.

How do you ensure that the customer’s experience before, during and after is as good as it can be?

We constantly monitor our performance in terms of the service we provide our customers. We never rest on our laurels, we always try to challenge best practice and we drive training initiatives across all functions of the business so we can arm our customer service teams with everything they need to give great service. Call monitoring also takes place in all our functions and is an important part of ensuring the customer experience is as good as it can be.

What steps do you take to ensure the customer returns again and again?

We endeavour to not only wow customers with a great experience when they talk to our staff but to provide a functional service that resolves all of a customer’s queries in one call.

How do you know, for sure, that an individual customer is happy/content?

We measure the customer experience carefully and monitor dissatisfaction as well as complaints. Customers are asked to evaluate the service they’ve had via customer comment forms, phone surveys and SMS feedback.

What steps have you taken or do you take to ensure that a customer’s expectations are met and exceeded?

We do our best to answer a customer query, be that via the phone, email or letter, as quickly as possible. Internally, we are constantly training our staff to give them the resources and knowledge to resolve queries first time. We also rely on our staff to tell us what will help them give great service and we take great lengths to nurture an innovative spirit across the business where we listen to the customer, listen to our staff and challenge accepted call centre norms.

How can you be proactive to ensure that a customer is satisfied?

We provide avenues for customers to feedback to us in all areas of the business. We also have Customer Experience Managers and Quality Managers whose job is to constantly innovate, listen and rectify. We also strive to make the customer journey as slick and enjoyable as possible.

How do you deal with complaints?

We have Quality teams in each customer facing function as well as a Central Quality department. Our call handlers are trained to deal with complaints, however, if it needs to be escalated, all team managers have complaint handling training, and are happy to listen to our customer’s complaint.

British people are renowned for not complaining how do ensure that people make you personally aware when they are not happy?

The use of comment forms and SMS feedback is key to this. Senior managers from across the business also spend time every month calling customers to ask their opinion on the experience they’ve had with Admiral. There are also various initiatives which encourage our staff to put themselves in the position of the customer, challenge current procedures and not to accept things they don’t agree with.

Do you use social such as face book, Twitter or another if so how do you use it and how do you manage negativity? For example do you reply personally to a negative feedback?

We monitor social media closely but we do not use it as a customer service tool. Where we can, we do our best to resolve any customer issues that come to light on social media sites and we continue to review our social media policy regularly.

Social media can be useful for your business but can it also be a problem?

It’s important and interesting for us to see what our customers are saying, whether good or bad, and social media is a part of that.

Word of mouth and increasingly social media plays a part in customer satisfaction how do you ensure that everything that is said or broadcast about you is positive or if not is addressed as soon as possible?

We accept there may be negative comments about Admiral on social media but it’s important we resolve any issues a customer has as quickly as possible whether it’s broadcast on social media or not.

Is there such a thing as a difficult customer?

Insurance can be an emotive subject and sometimes our customers will be unhappy. However, it’s amazing how picking up the phone and speaking to people, cutting through red tape and jargon and resolving issues quickly can turn an unhappy customer into a happy customer.

Questions for Business Argus feature on customer care.

James Pugh from County Industrial Supplies Ltd. Pontnewydd, Cwmbran. County Industrial Supplies supply goods and services to the public and into businesses from the small to the large.

How important is it to your business that your customer is completely satisfied with the service you offer?

It is vital no customer leaves with buyer’s remorse. Word of mouth is important for driving our business forward. In such a competitive industry it is all too easy for people to shop around so we have to offer above and beyond what anyone else does, as return business is the key to our growth.

How do you ensure that the customer’s experience before, during and after, is as good as it can be?

As a business we constantly review what our customers think of us. Many of the lines we carry are down to our customer’s suggestions on what they want rather than what we think they need. It’s easy to see when you have done a good job as you see that person again and again. To ensure this is the case we aim to be professional and transparent so that every transaction can be done with the knowledge of value for money based on the service and item purchased.

What steps do you take to ensure the customer returns again and again?

The important thing to get a customer to choose your business over someone else’s is building relations and not pressurizing someone. Many of our customers return because of our staff and it can become part of their daily routine to come and talk to that person. Carrying a large amount of stock is also important as it can become extremely costly for a business or tradesman if they need to pick a certain item up while on a job. So many customers always get the wow factor when entering our showroom and seeing how much stock we carry.

How do you know, for sure, that an individual customer is happy/content?

There is no definite way of knowing a customer is completely satisfied, but as a general rule of thumb no news is good news. We are conscious to listen to what a customer is saying and acting on that rather than listening but then carrying on doing the same things.

What steps have you taken or do you take to ensure that a customer’s expectations are met and exceeded?

We have always prided ourselves on service. This is why we drive into our staff that if a customer expects delivery in two days work hard to get it there in one, as this shows we value their business.

How are you proactive in ensuring that a customer is satisfied?

We are constantly reviewing how to improve our service for customers. This is why we are extending our stores and showroom, looking at putting a coffee room in and most importantly bringing new products to our customers before they even know about them.

How do you deal with complaints?

Complaints are handled with care and consideration. If a customer has a problem then our first aim is to solve it, nobody wants an angry customer and worse is other customers seeing it, so we make sure that customer is satisfied with how the problem is resolved.

British people are renowned for not complaining. How do you ensure that people make you personally aware when they are not happy?

We have many avenues for a customer to make a complaint discreetly if they are embarrassed to complain face to face, this way we can resolve it without causing distress to anyone.

Do you use social media such as face book, Twitter or another? If so how do you use it and how do you manage negativity? For example do you reply personally to a negative feedback?

We are fairly active on social networking, and as of yet we have not received any negativity, however we are not to so arrogant to think we won’t and I would personally respond to resolve the issue

Social media can be useful for your business but can it also be a problem. How?

Social media can only be a problem if you are getting a lot of negative press, and if that’s the case then it’s time to listen to the complaints and be reactive to them. You’re never going to please everyone but you have to at least show willing.

Word of mouth and increasingly social media plays a part in customer satisfaction how do you ensure that everything that is said or broadcast about you/your business is positive or if not is addressed and rectified as soon as possible?

We have a team in house monitoring social media on a daily basis, so all praise and negativity is addressed as quickly as possible, and in some circumstances a face to face meeting is organised as typing will never replace talking.

Is there ever such a thing as a difficult customer?

There are plenty of difficult customers out there, but if you are professional and completely transparent in how the business is run then there is very little reason to be difficult. So long as you’re not difficult and abrasive back to the customer than in most circumstances and trickiness can be dealt with comfortably.

David Pell, restaurateur and Publican. Currently my portfolio comprises the following: ‘Bacaro’ an Italian Tavern taking inspiration from the Venetian backstreet bars of the same name and the recently re-opened Ridgeway Bar & Kitchen. The Ridgeway Bar & Kitchen is a showcase of British cuisine with fantastic real ales and gorgeous wine with gourmet coffee, loose leaf tea, cakes and more in beautiful New England inspired surroundings.

How important is it to your business that your customer is completely satisfied with the service you offer?

Operating in the service industry these factors are critical in ensuring the continued and future success of my businesses. In order to stimulate recommendations for new and repeat custom it is vital that all of our customers associate us as being synonymous with the highest quality for service, quality of product and atmosphere.

How do you ensure that the customer’s experience before, during and after, is as good as it can be?

From the moment we first speak to somebody be it on the telephone or in the venue we make it our utmost priority to make that person feel relaxed and welcomed. During the course of their time with us we aim to provide attentive and courteous service specifically tailored to their needs at the time, whether this is a quick business meeting over lunch or a celebratory meal in the evening. Finally should our customers choose to do so and sign up to our mailing list we like to keep our customers up to date with the latest from each venue including special events and occasional exclusive offers to ensure that they know we value their business.

What steps do you take to ensure the customer returns again and again?

By providing welcoming, professional, attentive service; excellent value for money and high quality freshly prepared food we believe that the standards that we set ourselves for customer satisfaction help us stand out against the competition.

How do you know, for sure, that an individual customer is happy/content?

We have set out particular elements in the training of our front of house team to ensure that our guests are regularly monitored during the course of their visit to maintain the highest levels of customer satisfaction.

What steps have you taken or do you take to ensure that a customer’s expectations are met and exceeded?

We have a comprehensive staff training programme to ensure that our front of house team continually monitor all of our guests sensitively during the course of their visit. Staff product knowledge is paramount about the dishes and items that they serve so that any guest queries can be responded to appropriately. Regular ‘checkbacks’ are made during the course of their meal to ensure that the customer’s expectations are met and indeed exceeded.

How are you proactive in ensuring that a customer is satisfied?

Extremely pro-active, our customer satisfaction is our number one priority – ultimately it is what has brought that customer to us in the first place and hopefully is what will allow them to recommend us to friends or colleagues.

How do you deal with complaints?

Should any complaints arise we have a series of procedures in place to ensure that they are handled sensitively and appropriately.

British people are renowned for not complaining how do ensure that people make you personally aware when they are not happy?

All of our team regularly check back on our customers during the course of their time with us to provide them with a direct and personal opportunity to check their satisfaction level.

Do you use social media such as face book, Twitter or another. If so how do you use it and how do you manage negativity? For example do you reply personally to a negative feedback?

We have a social media presence for both businesses on both Twitter and Facebook, we might not perhaps be the most prolific users but we try to interact with our customer base where we can as well as keeping them up to date with any news we think might be of interest. We are extremely fortunately that we have not been in a position where we have had to face much in the way of negativity. Should we face any then we would take the matter very seriously with the intent of resolving any issues both internally and externally as soon as possible.

Social media can be useful for your business but can it also be a problem. How?

It can be a useful tool in gauging customer feedback on various topics as feedback can be fairly swift which has its uses. Sadly though it can become very time consuming and if you are unable to invest significant amounts of time there is a chance you might not realise its full potential.