Revenue Leakage And Diminishing Brand Value From Poor Customer Service Management

By Author: Rakesh Kumar
Total Articles: 33
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Nearly all industries in today’s hyper competitive global marketplace require superior after-sales support and service. Offering quality products, good market reach and competitive pricing have long been accepted as “must-haves” for a successful brand. Superior after-sales is the new guru-mantra that not only helps in winning you best customer experience, but also add to your bottom-line. Many companies who have not responded effectively to the changing conditions by entailing customer service management practices have experienced revenue loss due to poor service management. While there are companies that do not pay much importance to the after-sales service and support management, and believe that manufacturing quality product and setting competitive prices alone can help them win the race. Here is something for those who follow this school of thought.
Surveys, polls and market research reports from worldwide show that consumers who do not experience superior customer support are motivated:
A)Not to buy same product of that brand again
B)Not to recommend the product to his peers
C)To give negative ...
... feedback about the product in open forums
The logic also works this way- suppose a mother uses an electronic item say washing machine which lasted for 20 years due to its product and service quality- the probabilities are quite high that her children will also buy the same brand because they have experienced the brand satisfaction for all those 20 years. Word of mouth advertising also plays a key role here. Surveys have proved that a customer who has experienced good after-sales service and support would advise at least two other people about his happy experience, while a disgruntled customer would persuade 5 other people not to buy the same brand. So you see, the percentage of revenue generation gets directly proportionate to service quality and customer satisfaction.
Measures taken by Companies to Empower Service Management
Companies that invest in empowering their service management practices are the clear leaders in achieving customers’ continued loyalty. The five steps series mentioned below is a pathway to superior service and support management, and thereby minimize revenue leakage due to poor service management.
1.Align capacity and cost to service requirement
2.Establish ways to automate information handling and streamline data
3.Optimize inventory and asset management
4.Manage and secure customer and servicing data
5.Improve workforce efficiency and meet customer expectations
Service management can fetch a sizeable amount of profit, and if not It can be a substantial drain to the bottom line. By following the points mentioned above an organization can reduce operational costs considerably and align service levels with business requirements. The mobile handset industry is a case in point. Imagine a customer’s pain whose mobile phone is lying at a service centre because the engineers do not have the spare part to repair the phone. Lack of an automated service management system provides little to no real-time view on the status of inventory and work-in-progress.

Recommendations:
After-sales service and support is not a stepchild to the core business, it is vital to business success and a revenue generator if handled properly. Even if companies rave about the steps they take to minimize its overheads, poor customer service can erode all such efforts and lead to revenue loss. So don’t let your Service process become a cost centre without ROI. Start serving customers with high performance and quick turn-around time at an optimal cost by automating the complete service life-cycle and ultimately creating a Strong Brand Value for your company by winning over the customer satisfaction & Brand Loyalty.

Rakesh Kumar is a business consultant of Zed Service. Zed Service is leading service management software in India. Zed Service has lots of innovative features including repair management software, Claim Management Software, work order tracking software etc. For more information about customer service management software visit Zed Service Website www.service-management-software.net now!