JAGDEEP KAPOOR
is a Brand Guru and CMD of the successful Samsika Marketing Consultancy
A Customer Service Professional needs to shower his customers with love, care and a lot of attention. Especially when the customer’s need is acute and deep. When the Customer Service Professional over-indulges the customer, use my Prescription – Pampering Customer Service Prescription.
There is a certain set of customers who have a higher expectation than the others because of the lifestyle they are used to. They are quite willing to pay a higher rate and expect the service quality to be, in keeping with the high standards they are used to.
The segment needs to be treated differently. The Customer Service Professional needs to go far beyond the threshold level of service that is otherwise provided. Naturally, this does not mean that regular customers should get bad service.
The reason why they demand and should get service quality, which is rated ‘excellent’, is because they give large volumes of business or that they aspire to the best and are willing to pay for it. That is why they must be pampered with a superlative Experience.
A good example of my Pampering Customer Service Prescription in action is the Airways Privilege Card holder who gets pampered every inch of the way while flying the airline.
To get a feel of what my Pampering Customer Service Prescription is like, let us dine at the Southern restaurant in the Chennai five star hotel. This is one eating experience in which the rich strains of history and culture are orchestrated with the nuances of taste to provide an experience that is truly divine. The regular South Indian dishes suddenly have a flavour you can never savour elsewhere. The soft ambience of the place adds to the glow. And the subtle, invisible yet omnipresent Customer Service Professional makes it a Brand Experience the customer will cherish forever.
Another example brings out the thoughtfulness and the concern, for the customers, that the Pampering Customer Service brings to the fore.
It was the first day of Navratri, the nine-day festival that heralds the Indian feast of Dussera. Traditionally, Indians fast during these days and vegetarian is the food of choice even for those who normally eat meat.
So, it was on the morning of the first day of the nine Navratri days that a regular customer strolled into a cake outlet and asked the counter sales person for items that contained chicken. The items were packed, but when the bill was being totalled and the customer was getting ready to pay, it suddenly struck the counter staff that it was a day of abstinence. She could easily have ignored it, and notched one more sale for the cake outlet, the largest cake franchise and fast food store chain in India.
Instead, she said, “Isn’t today a day of fasting?” and the customer sheepishly realized that, she was saved by the bell. This caring attitude of the staff endeared the brand to the customer.
My Pampering Customer Service Prescription highlights the fact, that all Customer Service Professionals should treat some customers better than others.
Everyone cannot be treated alike because there will always be a premium segment of customers, who have to be pampered. Regulars should get service, which never dips below a certain standard. Special customers should get special treatment.