| "Our Guarantee - If you do not see improved results we will work with you until you do" - Samuel Day, Managing Director Happening People | | "Happening People are highly responsive to the dynamic needs of the Nine Network, delivering cost savings and great people focused results" - Scott Soutar, Station Manager Nine Network Australia | | "We experienced measurable performance change…" - Matt Newcombe, TSA Employment Plus | | "We have grown our business thanks to Happening People" - Mark Flinn, Principal & Wealth Manager, Yellow Brick Road | | "Happening People was able to design solutions which effectively tapped into the idiosyncrasies of our teams" - Elaine Wilson, HR Director, Boehringer Ingelheim |
What's Happening
The newsletter for switched on people
Issue 80 | Autumn 2008

Customer Service

The strength of the Australian economy can have a significant impact on an organisation s customer service delivery.
Undersupply of skilled employees means:
• Organisations need to fill customer contact roles with inexperienced people or people with lower capability/knowledge than required when dealing with
customers.
• Lead times to fulfill roles lengthens and response/fulfillment times for customers increase.
• Wages increase putting pressure on employee turnover and resourcing if competitors pay more, again increasing response times for customers.

Addressing these points presents an opportunity for
organisations to capture greater market share and increase performance if they are prepared to focus on customer service differentiation within the realities of their industry.

Customer service (internal and external) includes how customers are greeted, how fast rapport is built with customers at each moment of truth etc.
Yet it is far more than these behavioural skills.

So what can managers do to ensure customer
service helps differentiation and organisational performance in a tight labour market?

1. Increased employee turnover means implicit customer knowledge is lost. Effective Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) systems are therefore critical.
2. Undersupply puts more pressure on other employees who need to be rewarded and motivated. 3. New unskilled employees need fast up-skilling and coaching to better fit roles.
4. Poaching from competitors and loss of knowledge requires retention programs.
5. Seamless internal processes are needed including cross functional team work to achieve best practice customer fulfillment.

Personally speaking

Our anecdotal evidence suggests that improved customer service is a key focus for organisations
differentiation strategy hence the topic in this issue. If you are not onto this yet you could end up too far behind. Please let us know if you need any help.

New Professional Development Show

Check our new online professional development show about people management, leadership and
organisational cultures. It includes interviews with Bernie Brookes CEO of Myer and Major John
Simmonds CEO of the Salvation Army Employment Plus.
Please remember to tell others what you like about this company and if there is something you don t please tell us

Kind regards, Sam
PS I hope everyone in Adelaide are
enjoying their extended summer!

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