Filed under: business, Customer retention, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service, Increased sales, Marketing, sales, Technology in business, Uncategorized | Tags: Business development, Business improvement programs, Business practices, Business retention, Complaint tracking database, Consultant, Costing models, Customer relations, Customer retention, Customer Service, Improved market share, Management service, Market share, Marketing, Marketing plans, Marketing programs, Measurement systems, Personnel assessments, Training
The countries largest municipal transit organization has realized what many have been saying for years. That good customer service is important if one wants to not only retain the customers they have, but to also increase ridership.
The TTC got caught not providing what their customers wanted. While the service might have been great 10 years ago it is not any more. A few incidents in the media and it is now a feeding frenzy.
There’s a higher expectation today and the TTC needs to line up to that expectation,” said TTC chair Adam Giambrone.
What is true for the TTC is true for any transit company. Are they providing the service their customers require? Unfortunately many do not have formal tracking programs so, one, have no idea how many complaints they may be getting and, two, have no idea of what their customer’s expectations are.
Cornerstone Management Services Inc. has a formal tracking system for customer complaints, “Customer Relationship Management Reporting System”. This system, in short,tracks every complaint ,encourages rapid resolution and then allows for reporting by complaint type for management information and action. It also measures the complaint resolution rate by department. It is easily manipulated for each organizations configuration.
A system like this would show what the customer’s expectation trends were long before they hit the media and caused a frenzy in the public. So why doesn’t every transit organization have this? Many try to keep track by hand, but can’t keep up. Others do resolve their complaints, perhaps not as quickly as they should, but then do not or can not easily retrieve reportable past history. There are some that have too many projects to bother implementing the tracking system.
In light of what the TTC is experiencing perhaps every transit organization, even smaller ones , should be looking at a reporting system so they could improve their service. Improving customer service should be priority one. Making no improvements will cost business. This is lost business that many can ill afford to lose.
As written in the Toronto Star by Royson James, “Maybe Giambrone will make customer service his highest priority. After all, as the TTC goes, so goes his soon-to-be announced candidacy for mayor. Can’t run the TTC; can’t run the city”. Clearly the TTC is losing ridership and a young Chairman could well lose his political aspirations, all due to poor customer service.
Our reporting system is easy to use and in expensive. We can tailor it to your own configuration. Don’t wait to find your organization is in a hole, call or e mail us today.
2 Comments so far
Leave a comment
Regarding your statement on customer service…” Improving customer service should be priority one. Making no improvements will cost business. This is lost business that many can ill afford to lose.” What do you recommend when customer service is good yet internally, that is taken for granted? what are the strategies to raise the awareness regarding the goodwill and earnings that a company retains due to great service?
Comment by Tammy McLeod January 31, 2010 @ 3:22 amMy first question would be, how do you know that the customer service is good? A survey across all your customers should be done by an independent service verifying the fact. Many companies claim they provide good customer service and yet may have no idea at all or are not telling the whole storey. Good customer service can not be equated to not having any complaints. Customers will always complain – how quick you are to resolve them is important. If there are no complaints – perhaps the customers have just become too tired of the problems to complain.
Customer service should never be taken for granted. It should be directed from the top down. There are good news stories – an employee did something that helped a customer resulting in sales. This could be publically acknowledged. On the other side one can show the cost of poor customer service – one customer will tell 9 customers etc and the cost to get a new customer to replace him. Ideally you want to share and promote good customer service – perhaps even an employee of th emonth.
Comment by cornerstonemanagement February 1, 2010 @ 11:47 am