ADD ADVICE TO FAVCustomer service
Customer service has always been recognised as important by those in business, but only fairly recently has it been viewed as a graduate-career area in its own right.
Customer services is not a passive role designed to keep customers happy. Nor is it something unimportant tacked on to other management and administrative duties. Good customer service can make a huge difference to a business’s profitability. Research conducted by NOP Research Group suggests that keeping customers happy and so reducing the number who go elsewhere for products or services can boost profits by 25% to 85%. Not only that, but the UK service industry creates 83% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Companies sell products or services to customers by raising their expectations of what those products / services can do for them. The job of the customer-service sector is to ensure that those expectations are fulfilled. The work of customer-service personnel is often assisted by sophisticated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software systems which contain huge amounts of information about customers and their purchases.
The importance of customer service
Customer service is one of the few parts of a business that has real direct links with customers. Staff are therefore able directly to learn the customers’ needs, opinions and preferences. As such, customer-service staff can make valuable contributions to future business plans.
Many firms still fail to stress the importance of customer service, but those which do make it central to their operation by encouraging all staff, not only those directly in touch with customers, to focus on customers’ needs. In such companies, customer-service staff are invested with considerable authority and flexibility to back their own decisions.
Customer service - the pros
Customer service is the public face of any business and, as such, graduates who work in it are ambassadors for their company. Solving customers’ problems and helping them get the most out of the product or service they have purchased can be enormously satisfying.
Travel can also be a part of customer-service staff’s job, particularly if the company sells a relatively small number of high-value items. In such cases, each customer assumes a greater importance in the firm’s overall profitability and maintaining a good relationship with them is particularly significant.
Customer service - the cons
It’s a sad fact that most customers only get in touch to complain. Those working in customer services routinely deal with complaints and are far more likely to have to calm, placate and satisfy angry and disappointed customers than receive praise when things have gone well.
At the end of a long day when staff have had to deal with numerous difficult customers it requires disciplined self control to remember that customers are difficult only because their expectations have not been met.
Graduate jobs in customer service
Only those who really enjoy working with people should contemplate a graduate job in customer services, but for those who do, it can be a hugely satisfying career. Customer service staff usually enjoy a high level of autonomy and are encouraged to be tenacious in solving customers’ problems.
It’s possible to divide the customer service sector roughly into two: those jobs which require a lot of face-to-face contact and those where most contact with the customer is via phone or e-mail. Graduates need to decide which is most suitable for them.
Salaries can start at around £14,000 to £16,000, rising to around £25,000 with experience. Senior staff may receive salaries of £35,000 to £60,000. Many firms also operate incentive schemes which provide additional rewards according to performance.
Job descriptions
Skills required
Customer service is predominantly about working with people, so all people-related skills are important. Particularly desirable are:
- good communication
- empathy, sympathy and diplomacy
- teamwork
- patience
- reliability.
In addition, language skills may also be very helpful for those working in multinational corporations.
