Ensuring your company is easy to do business with is becoming one of the most critical factors for consumer service, according to Jo Causon, chief executive of the institute of customer service.
Causon told this week’s Abta Travel Convention that a new world order was emerging in which businesses had to endeavour to make things more convenient for customers.
“I believe we are moving into a completely new order. The world is changing, moving from a transactional economy to a relational economy,” Causon said.
Customer satisfaction scores across all sectors had been rising for four years but over the last 18 months they have been on the wane, Causon added.
She said this was down to two main reasons: customers are far more savvy, demanding, and knowledgeable and some organisations have taken their eye off the ball.
Causon said: “The big change is around convenience and ease of doing business with. Do you really know me and do you really care?
“There is a direct correlation between trust and customer satisfaction and customer satisfaction drives sales growth.
“In the retail sector there is a 3% advantage for those firms with good customer satisfaction. It’s absolutely critical to the performance of our organisations.”
Firms should prioritise collaboration over competition working with others to improve their service and products.
They also need to focus on authenticity and exclusivity, be engaged, transparent and not remote or opaque.
“Communication has also changed,” Causon added. “We are now into the mode of conversation from monologue to dialogue. This has implications for organisational structures and who we employ.”