Alpha Gamma Solutions urges Businesses to test their Customer Service and Build on their Techniques

Leicester based, direct marketing firm, Alpha Gamma Solutions has discovered a way to test how well their customer service is working and is urging more firms to give this a go and decipher the areas that need to be improved, to benefit their businesses.

Alpha Gamma Solutions says that the test should take no longer than 10 seconds and will tell the business if they have an existing customer service culture or whether one needs to be developed immediately. The test is similar to a mystery shopper; the idea is to try, or to have someone else try, standing around looking like they are lost in a corridor or lobby. (If it is an online or phone-based business, the equivalent is calling in or typing in a confused, flustered manner.) The idea is to see if any employees help the person to find where they are going. Or do they rush past looking distracted, not realising that the confused customer/prospect that needs help is their job, rather than an interruption of their job?

In a company that has a good customer service culture members will notice the lost, mystified expression on a prospects' face. They will know that it is their job to help. In turn, their managers will understand the value of what the worker is doing and will celebrate an individual that was late back from lunch because they stopped to help a customer, rather than punish them for it.

For those companies who do not pass the test, Alpha Gamma Solutions has outlined some steps that can be followed to develop a customer service culture.

Why does the company need a customer service culture?
The first step is for a firm to understand what a customer service culture is and why they need one to be a successful business. The way to ensure extraordinary, sustainable customer service is to involve everyone in the firm in a pro-customer corporate culture, a culture that values something beyond the immediate padding and protection of the bottom line. If a member believes in the organisation and its customer-orientated goal then that belief will tend to lead to appropriate action.

The goal, the framework, then the practices.The next step is to identify the goals for the business and how it wants to be seen by customers. Then it is important to build the framework and then prepare and train the workforce for how they are to deal with customer situations rather than throwing them in at the deep end and expecting them to already be experts.

Start at the beginning or create a new beginning. Start again. This does not mean totally rebuilding the company from scratch, it means identifying the vision and building that into the gut of the company. Try not to start with the details, but with the goal and the framework, a skeleton that can support the achievement, over and over, of that goal. Then get to the details. How a firm addresses the details can, and will, change over time, but only in service of the unchanging goal.

Alpha Gamma Solutions is an outsourced sales and direct marketing firm located in Leicester. The firm specialises in face-to-face interactions with customers and prospects which builds long-lasting and personal relationships with them. This, in turn, helps to improve their clients’ brand awareness, brand loyalty, customer acquisition and drives quality sales.

Customer service is especially important to Alpha Gamma Solutions because they connect with customers face-to-face meaning they have to be extremely well trained and attentive. The firm’s sales force is extremely passionate about improving their clients’ brands which means they work hard to identify a prospect or customer’s needs and offer products/service in relation to that. Alpha Gamma Solutions understands that good customer is at the heart of a successful business.