Blog: What is the importance of customer service?

Customer service should be at the heart of everything you do, no matter what the business sells or provides. It might be an old adage that at times bears little resemblance to its meaning, but without it and without considering every detail, including starting at the absolute basics, the customer journey and above all experience stands little chance of being joyful. Getting the basics right will ensure that everything thereafter should naturally fall into place.

This begins with understanding who your customer really is. And for me, that begins with your colleagues. Unless you truly understand how you can serve your colleagues with World Class Service, then how will you be able to carry that ethos through to the end customer; the customer that without whom you would have little purpose being there for? Once the basics are set in place, understanding the customer journey and how you, as an individual, influence and control that journey also gives you a greater sense of responsibility, as this is where those basics that you now have a better appreciation of, come to life.

Although that journey on foot may have a beginning and end; the actual journey, which nowadays also includes by digital means, never ends.

Customer service is not complicated, it should not be a long drawn out process; it is the simplest expectation - being listened to, understood and needs met. It is not hearing; but listening to what is being said and engaging with the senses. It is not about the end product, or purchase; it’s about the journey and customer service carries you along that journey.

Delivering our World Class Service program to not only the people on our shop floors; our front line, but also to those who support those positions including those at the top, has given me great confidence that we had not forgotten what customer service was all about, but maybe we had not realised how being passive was not allowing us to be part of that journey. World Class Service is about initiative and empathy; looking at what you do and can do from your customer’s point of view and asking yourself; how can I go the extra mile? So to come to end of 2013, and to now see colleagues lift their heads more to what is around them, and for them to show more engagement with their customers, and realise that they are the personality of that, and all our centres, for me has made the beginning of our journey, very rewarding.

Ben Davison, Intu