Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase. According to Turban et al. (2002), "Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation."
The importance of customer service may vary by product or service, industry and customer. The perception of success of such interactions will be dependent on employees "who can adjust themselves to the personality of the guest," according to Micah Solomon. Customer service can also refer to the culture of the organization - the priority the organization assigns to customer service relative to other components, such as product innovation or low price. In this sense, an organization that values good customer service may spend more money in training employees than average organization, or proactively interview customers for feedback.
Starting a customer service consulting business typically involves writing a business plan detailing the consulting service you plan to provide. Customer service consulting businesses typically help companies define their strategic direction for customer support. After analyzing customer service processes, consultants typically realign the customer service staff and technology to strategic goals. These efforts lead to increased customer satisfaction, cost efficiencies and optimized staffing. Successfully starting your customer service consulting business depends on comprehensive planning and research.
Instructions:
Step 1
Create your business plan. Include an executive summary, company description, service details, long-term goals and financial projections. Include a marketing plan. Describe how you intend to promote your services. For example, create brochures, business cards and other promotional materials. Create a website to describe your services so that you can establish a brand for your particular services.
Step 2
Obtain financing. The overhead costs to set up a customer service company can vary widely depending upon whether you directly employ your workers and must provide benefits, how much you spend in marketing in order to secure your first customer, and whether you have an office and centralized equipment. (This may be required for clients with high security needs.) Obtain a bank loan or investment capital from friends, family or angel investors, making sure that you take enough funding to fully cover your costs until your business posts positive revenue and cash flow.
Step 3
Purchase or license a customer relationship management (CRM) and call center software package. There are integrated options, such as provided by Salesforce.com, or higher end PBX hardware and software systems. The easier your software is to use, the more efficient and productive your workers can be.
Step 4
Secure a contract from a customer. When you are just starting out, you may target very small businesses who only need one or two customer service agents at a time and for whom you can provide an attractive pricing model. Establish a quarterly or annual contract in order to guarantee revenue for yourself.
Step 5
Hire and train customer service agents. You will need to train agents on your company's standard of customer service quality, on using your software packages and on the specific products and services provided by your customers. In most cases you will need to pay agents for this training time, and may need to produce training booklets, videos and other materials.
Step 6
Evaluate and upgrade your services. Call monitoring and reading your agents' emails to customers are a necessary part of quality control for your customer service company. You should also survey the customers that your agents have served to determine their level of satisfaction with the service quality. Finally, you should also follow up with your clients to ensure their needs are being fulfilled, and they are happy with your service. Constantly train, evaluate and motivate your employees to get consistently high results.
Step 7
Validate the need for your service. Ensure that your qualifications, experience and credentials meet the needs of potential customers. For example, if you plan to consult to companies that provide cell phones, document your expertise in handling customer service calls regarding mobile service.
Step 8
Conduct market research to establish the industry outlook. If your area contains call center operations, identify the existing consulting businesses in your area. Evaluate your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses. Identify the gap you can fill.
Step 9
Generate a portfolio. Describe how you can design, develop and implement or improve a client’s organizational structure. For example, use the resources at the Consortium for Service Innovation website to show how you can propose to develop a knowledge management strategy for a customer service center. This strategy enables customer service representatives to create articles as they solve real customer problems and create a database of solutions. Show how companies can reward collaboration, information sharing and process improvement.
Step 10
Demonstrate expertise in generating customer relationship management business requirements to help your clients select software that allows them to administer customer contracts and orders. Provide samples of reports that show details on how you can produce a return-on-investment, such as cost reduction or cost avoidance.
Step 11
Gather testimonials from clients to show how you have helped them solve customer service center problems, such as achieving call center consolidation, improving first call resolution and maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction.
Step 12
Measure your success by conducting online satisfaction surveys with clients and their customers. Identify trends, such as product defects, and report these problems back to the development teams so they can incorporate changes to fix the problems in subsequent releases.
Step 13
Establish a pricing model for your services and a method to conduct transactions. Arrange for receiving payment, such as credit cards or PayPal.
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