Hi there and welcome to this edition of Arizion’s customer service news letter!
 
In this issue you will find:

1) Currys invests in service
2) NatWest listens to its customers
3) Why attitude is so important?
4) Easy to do business with

1) Currys invests in service

Over the past 2 years, Currys, the electrical store group, have invested heavily in their staff with a view to improving the level of service in their stores. The first indications are that the process has been extremely successful, with some impressive statistics to back this up. Research by the Institute of Employment showed that a 1% increase in staff commitment drove a 9% rise in monthly sales. So what sort of results have Currys seen?

• Staff morale has improved from 58% to 82%
• Overall engagement has improved by 2.8% since 2004
• Loyalty has improved by 6.9% since 2004
• Over last Christmas period, the initial pilot stores delivered nearly £3 million in additional profit

Clearly the proof of the pudding is what you, the customer find instore (do let me know of your experiences!), but it would appear that investing in your people pays dividends.

2) NatWest listens to its customers

In the September issue of this newsletter, some of the benefits of really listening to your customers were highlighted, followed by an article about the benefits of effective customer feedback in November. Currys were spurred on to undertake the project described above, following customer feedback, and the NatWest bank has recently generated some very positive national publicity following their commitment to providing banking services to local communities where other banks have walked away. The implication is that they have LISTENED to their customers AND taken action, initially in an innovative way, using mobile banks. NatWest were also a bank who committed on national television advertisements last year that all their call centers were UK based – a trend which looks to be followed by a number of other organizations in the UK following customer feedback.

So, how do YOU listen to your customers? And IF you do, what ACTION do you take?

3) Why is attitude so important?

If you walk into a room full of grumpy, miserable people, how might you start to behave? Probably being miserable and grumpy. If you walk into a room full of happy smiley people, how might you start to behave? Probably happy and smiley!

Very often we are influenced by the attitudes and approach of the people around us – attitudes are infectious. This is equally applicable in business as in a social environment. When you consider the well researched statistics that it costs around 5 times more to attract a new customer than to retain an existing customer, it makes economic sense to create an environment where customers feel wanted and cared for. It has also been suggested that postive people live longer and have more life and job satisfaction. From an organizational point of view, postive organizations tend to have less absenteeism, fewer accidents and greater productivity. In the November issue, we suggested recruiting for attitude rather than skill.

What are YOU doing to maintain a postive attitude in your business?

4) Easy to business with

How customer focused are you? And this question does not just relate to face to face service. It might be worth considering how customer friendly you are in the following areas:

• Administration – is it designed to make YOUR life easier, or your customer’s?
• Trading hours – how convenient are they for your customers?
• Access to your premises – how easy is it to find and enter your premises?
• Communication media
  - the phone (0800, 0845, 0870?)
  - e-mail
  - fax
  - website – ease of navigation
  - the spoken word (more on this in April!)

The list goes on – what do YOU do to make it even easier for customers to do business with you?

Lastly, a monthly reminder about National Customer Service Week – for more information go to
http://www.nationalcustomerserviceweek.co.uk/. Why not share any activities that you are considering with other readers?

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Have a great week  
 
 
 
Geoff

Geoff Langston
 
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www.arizion.co.uk
07780 60 58 68
 
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