Why Is Research Into Customer Service Important?
Most companies have customer service departments that handle questions from customers, correct product issues and complaints, and, sometimes, reimburse customers. As part of customer-service feedback, some companies use marketing-research surveys to measure the effectiveness of their customer service departments or customer service in general. There are several key advantages to using research in evaluating a company's or retailer's customer service.
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Significance
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One of the main reasons research into customer service is so important is because of competition. Most industries are highly competitive, especially during economic downturns. Companies that do not get feedback from their customers through research run the risk of losing them. Also, if a company does not ask customers or former customers why they are unhappy or stopped spending money with them, they will not have the knowledge to make the necessary changes.
Identification
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Research into customer service issues is particularly important for handling product or service issues, especially for more technical products and services. For example, some customers may have trouble installing a certain type of software on their computers or laptops. They may call customer service of a new company in the evening and not reach anyone. Research into the issue would help the company discover this problem, so they could devote some customer service people to evening shifts.
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Function
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Research into customer service issues is also important for discovering operational issues within a company. Many customer service departments deal with business or corporate customers. A comprehensive customer research study may reveal that there is a consistent lack of reliability among key company representatives when approaching a business customer: The account managers or sales people are inaccessible or the training for implementing a new corporate payment system was highly inadequate. Without knowing about these issues through research, a company ultimately will suffer from lower sales and profits, especially if the problems continue.
Considerations
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Marketing research also may uncover certain problems with customer service itself. Many technical companies have several customer service levels, including email and regular phone customer service, which is often designated as tier 1 or 2, and technical support, a higher level tier. Customer research may reveal a disconnect in one of the areas of customer service, or, perhaps, the entire customer service department exudes a lack of professionalism. A company can garner feedback from research, so customer service managers can correct problems.
Prevention/Solution
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It would certainly behoove an organization to conduct more longitudinal or continual marketing research on customer service issues. That way, the company can pinpoint and correct problems and issues on a regular basis. Too many company conduct periodic customer service research, which is often just a snapshot of a particular issue during a specific time period. The downside to occasional customer research studies is that it may be too late to make the changes.
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References
- Photo Credit customer service image by gajatz from Fotolia.com
