Insight article
It’s all about attitude
Much of our work focuses on the need to improve customer service as a key driver for increased revenue and greater profitability. In a recent customer service poll of six European countries, we Brits came second. Amongst the least helpful and most surly are the French. Germans top the poll for efficiency, knowledge and customer service. And queuing.
Having said that, Britain came bottom at customer service in fast food outlets which suffered from ‘clutter, untidiness and unhelpful staff’, but top in financial services. Nowadays customers are much more savvy and discerning, and often go to retailers knowing more about the product they want to buy than the shop staff themselves. It’s a no-brainer, then, that better customer service / attitude and product awareness can make a massive difference to the bottom line. Just think for a minute about the level of customer service you get in the US and compare it to Europe.
And how do you get there? For a start, getting employees to focus on such aspects as service, innovation, change, value and efficiency and help them to think about what they are currently doing and how they could be doing it better. Turn this into a language that everyone can understand, and tell a few memorable stories that inspire people, and it’ll happen. Maybe not overnight, but you can see some pretty spectacular results in a very short space of time. We’ve got the answer, you see. You have my number.
