Exploring Customer Service Inside Out! Should it be critically paid attention?

Are we still craving for job satisfaction at the end of an exhaustive, productive day? How often have we
realized that the organization we are working with has not made an attempt to explore our talent and
potential to do things differently?
In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for external customers, customer satisfaction is
seen as a key differentiator and as an element of business strategy. Organizations focusing on core
functions strive in wooing and retaining external customers by designing loyalty programs, retention
strategies. Little or no attention being paid to effect poor internal customer service thereby has an impact
on overall customer satisfaction. It all starts within the organization! Sooner or later the ripple effect
reaches external customers. To really walk the service talk, our commitment to internal customer service
must match our company's external focus on customer service. But how often does an organization think
about consistently achieving and maintaining an impressive customer satisfaction score for internal
customers too in other words listening to the “Voice of the employees”
Irrespective of the type of industry, the talent pool is getting exhausted by loosing employees with
excellent skills and knowledge and whose performance takes the organizations to a competitive progress
level

Statistics that compare Attrition Rates across industries

Source: Emmay HR/ Business World, 4 Feb 2008

% change Expected
Statistics are bandied around that
Sl.
No
Sector 0-3 years 4-7 years 8-12 years 13+ years suggest that the cost of keeping a
from 2006 increase in
to 2007 2008
customer is only one tenth of
Pharma &
winning a new one…
1
Chemicals
25.00% 10.00% 5.00% 2.00% -5.00% 6.00% A 22% expected increase in the
2 Manufacturing 8.58% 2.46% 2.46% 3.00% 5.00% -3.50% attrition rate is quite a huge price
to pay (refer statistics)
3 Financial Services 20.00% 20.00% 20.00% 20.00%
Employee satisfaction is a measure
4 Hospitality 35.00% 25.00% 20.00% 7.50% 13.00% 20.00% to know how services provided by
5 Ad & Media 40.00% 35.00% 20.00% 15.00% 17.00% 22.00% a company have met or surpasses
6 BPO 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% employees’ expectations and is
7 Automobile 7.00% 3.00% 2.00% 2.00% No visible 14.00% seen as a performance indicator.
8 Auto Component 12.00% 15.00% 20.00% 12.00% 5.00% 6.00%
Good internal customer service
starts with good morale within our
9 Banking 10.00% 5.00% 2.50% 2.50% 2.00% 2.00%
group, having a healthy work
10 Infrastructure 16.00% 11.00% 7.00% 11.00% 9.00% 20.00% culture and environment. Efforts
11 IT & Telecom 32.00% 25.00% 10.00% 5.00% 5.00% 9.00% to know if employees are “Happy”
and if they feel good about
themselves and their contributions to the goals of the department and to the company on an overall should
be on consistent basis. Happy employees are productive, and are also better team players.

Many organizational charts has inverted pyramid with external customers at the top, some companies
instead put their employees at the top. Let’s not forget in many senses, the employees are management's
customers. Corporate values that emphasize treating employees well translate to good customer care.
Invariably, companies caring about their employees can ask their people to measure their satisfaction.

1
Now what does the measurement mean? And how do we measure the employee satisfaction?

Most of the companies measure employee satisfaction annually by conducting surveys within the
organization thereby deriving customer satisfaction index. Some companies use only the rating of the
overall performance of the organization to satisfy the employees. Some use an average of the two key
measurements - overall performance of the organization in satisfying the employees and the intention of
the employee to remain in the organization for a longer period (an indication of loyalty). The average or
mean score of satisfaction attribute provides a league table of strengths and weaknesses.
An employee satisfaction index is a snapshot at a point in time. Employees’ views and opinion changes
continuously and the performance of companies in delivering customer satisfaction are also changing.
Measuring satisfaction must be a continuous process. Tracking surveys provide benchmarks of one’s own
company’s performance. The sample of each survey must be large enough to provide a reliable base and
the selection of the sample must mirror earlier surveys.

This entire process will make the organization to understand the needs of the internal customers’
essentials which is a very important criterion to develop customer value proposition. The needs is then
derived at; employees seek for security benefits, improvised wages that will support their living and
lifestyle, getting recognized and rewarded for effort and results, to improve skill sets, knowledge and
abilities constantly.

The next crucial step after learning the needs is designing loyalty programs for internal customers to
retain and satisfy existing and future talents successfully. Surveys show where exactly the attention is
required but in many respects it is the easy part. The result should be financially beneficial with stronger
brands and reputation, and happier staff. However this process is time consuming and will be spent
working out an action plan which can include developing and synchronizing learning and development
programs to focus on business objectives, develop an employee engagement strategy and identify how to
involve employees in various activities to create a feeling of being recognized and appreciated for the
contributions made. Right resources, tools and information to perform in all these activities and involving
them in key planning and designing business activities is also necessary. It is also important to formulate a
distinct career development road map for the employees, where career progress within the organization is
visible, measureable and predictable.

Creating a symbiosis between the employee and the organization is the greatest challenge for an
organization to encounter, since both the entities are mutually dependent to nurture themselves and can
mutually be benefited. These analyses help us to determine the degree to which employees are committed
to the organizations and on the other hand the vulnerability to quit the organization. Consistently
focusing on the “Voice of the employee” is essential for smooth functioning of processes within the
organization.

Nirupama Vaishnav Jina

Training & Development
ICICI Manipal Academy
Bangalore