Michael Huff, MA, ERM
File Keepers, LLC
GLA President
Don’t Let Customer Service Slip
As a result of the historic financial and mortgage crisis, businesses have announced organizational restructuring and downsizing plans. In their haste to reduce expenses some organizations decrease staff too drastically, which ultimately begins to significantly undermine customer service (both internal and external). Letting customer service slip is necessarily short-sighted and risks alienating internal customers (stakeholders) and losing external customers (clients). Decreasing organizational efficiency and losing market share is clearly counterproductive to an organization’s mission. An organization’s internal operational effectiveness and its external client relationship is dependant upon maintaining customer service.
Implementation of these six steps will insure that your department continues to provide exceptional service to internal as well as external customers.
1. Set a departmental goal to strive for consistent and exceptional service.
2. Schedule monthly or quarterly departmental audits to review and revise your procedures.
3. Develop and circulate (internally and externally) departmental service surveys to document your service benchmarks.
4. Communicate your survey results frequently to organizational stakeholders; remind them of how well your department is doing.
5. Establish an effective problem solving template for your department.
6. Create departmental service innovations which fulfill your client’s realized and unrealized needs.
Don’t Sacrifice Customer Service; remember that “Customer Service is Still King”; especially now when companies are counting each dollar and striving to get the most value (service and quality) for each dollar.
Now is also the time to take advantage of the numerous entry-level volunteer service positions available in your local ARMA chapter—Greater Los Angeles. Your local ARMA chapter provides volunteer service opportunities, which facilitate leadership development. See you at the next meeting!!
Tell Us What You Think
<-Previous Article
Table of Contents
Next Article->
