Customer Service – To some, those words might refer to your work role or your department name. But for others, the words customer service might remind them of long hours wasting time on phone calls, endlessly repeating the same information to representatives but never receiving the information or help needed.
If you think about all the negative customer service experiences you’ve endured, many might just boil down to a very simple concept – a lack of customer focus. That’s because some customer service teams aren’t really working to solve their customers’ problems. Rather, they’re treating their customers like numbers, not people.
Great customer service requires a deep understanding of people and the realization that loyalty is built on cultivating meaningful relationships.
According to WHR Group President, Paul DeBoer, “To truly provide service excellence requires a company to be flexible in its service delivery. That means being available whenever, wherever and however your customer needs you.”
Some larger companies use call centers that operate in an environment that’s not always customer centric. Consider for example, a company that dictates quotas to its call center employees requiring them to answer a certain amount of calls per hour or a certain number of calls per day. These types of environments can lose sight of the personal touch, white-glove service required to provide exceptional excellence.
What does great customer service really look like?
A proven example of great customer service is demonstrated by well-known service provider, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC. In a Forbes article, Ritz-Carlton President, Herve Humler said that he tells his employees, “You are not servants, because unlike a servant, I want you to be engaged with the customer—you have a brain, you have a heart and I want you to use them.” Humler goes on to explain that employee engagement is crucial to his guest engagement. Ritz-Carlton employees are empowered to fix a guest’s problem and can spend the necessary money (up to a certain limit), without asking permission.
A philosophy of great customer service can be seen in Japan. A commonly known word in the Japanese culture, Omotenashi, refers to wholeheartedly looking after guests. It represents the mindset of hospitality that centers around care rather than expectation. It’s about fulfilling people’s needs. More recently, the term Omotenashi has been associated with customer experience.
Japanese car manufacturer Lexus embraces this philosophy. Dealership employees are empowered to treat customers as they would treat a guest in their home. LEXUS embraces Omotenashi by cultivating a customer-centric culture encouraging employees to “go to any lengths to solve their problems, mechanical or not,” according to an article from Lexus.
What these companies have in common is their dedication to putting the needs of their customers first and treating others as they would want to be treated. It’s about empowering employees with the tools needed to deliver service excellence, and it’s about cultivating a culture of employee engagement where employees care enough to want to be part of that gold star service delivery.
At WHR Group, we view our role in employee relocation as a privilege. We understand that when our customers succeed, we succeed. We strive for Omotenashi to ensure our service is at its best so that our clients and their employees can focus on what matters most to them. Our service structure is designed for client flexibility and low file counts while our office dynamic fosters open communication between teams. This customer service structure facilitates a relocation experience that is smooth, pleasant and made simple for our clients’ employees and families. We make it our mission to simplify the relocation experience while bringing hard work, trustworthiness, empathy and proactiveness to every facet of what we do.
If you’d like to learn more about WHR’s approach to customer service, and how we can help your relocating employees feel great about their move, please contact us.