Introduction
Many customer relations experts acknowledge that the satisfaction of customers’ expectations is crucial to the success of businesses (Angelova & Zekiri, 2011). This implies that the profitability of a business venture greatly depends on how the business handles the needs of customers who seek to purchase goods and services.
Therefore, customer service recovery is a theory that proposes that a customer who experiences bad services from a business entity and obtains a quick response to his or her issues is likely to be more loyal than the one who does not experience bad services. It is argued that the rationale behind this is that a bad experience for a customer offers a business entity a chance to demonstrate how much it values its customers (Angelova & Zekiri, 2011).
Customer Service Recovery
In all the searches, the major message regarding service recovery is that the main objective of service recovery is to accurately identify customers who experience issues of dissatisfaction and then promptly address those issues to retain the customers’ loyalty (Fogli, 2007).
The searches also reveal that service recovery is a gradual business process that needs to be designed in a systematic manner and strictly implemented within a business organization (Gibson, 2011). In addition, the searches also acknowledge that a corporate organization must have a culture that supports the idea that customers are always very important to a business and that the voices and concerns of customers must be given top priorities (Withey, 2012).
There are many reasons customers may decide to defect to other goods and service providers. One of the reasons is the quality of services they get from service providers (Hollmann, 2008). In this case, it is important to note that customers are highly likely to defect when they have varied options to select from (Hollmann, 2008). This implies that any slightest dint in the standard of services provided may probably result in customer defection to other service providers (Hollmann, 2008).
The quality and standard of services provided to customers play a significant role in the relationship between business organizations and customers (Hollmann, 2008). Besides, it is evident that customers seem to be very fastidious as regards the way their service expectations are handled. Therefore, based on this fact, customers are most likely to defect should they perceive that their service expectations are not likely to be met (Hollmann, 2008).
The other reason for customer defection is how their service providers respond to their complaints. In cases where customers make complaints and do not get any confirmation that their concerns are either being dealt with or have been noted, they are likely to turn to competitors. Based on this, business organizations that ignore or provide slow responses to complaints by customers provide negative signals that drive away customers (Ryals, 2009).
The other reason that may give rise to customer defection relates to customer complaints. Customers who are not able to find the right persons or department within an organization to which they can give their complaints are likely to defect to other service providers with efficient systems that handle customer complaints (Ryals, 2009).
However, despite all the reasons for customer defection, it is important to note that there are many ways through which the defection can be thwarted. One of these is that service providers may ensure their services are of standards that satisfy the expectations of customers.
Besides, it is important that business organizations respond to customers’ complaints however minor they may be. Equally important is the fact that business organizations should have specific departments or personnel to whom customers can easily direct their complaints (Hutt & Speh, 2012).
Service breakdown occurs when a service provider makes mistakes during the service delivery process thereby not meeting the exact expectations of customers; this results in customer dissatisfaction (Mok, Sparks, & Kadampully, 2013). Many customers may not be concerned about how mistakes happen but how organizations respond to and resolve those mistakes (Mok, Sparks, & Kadampully, 2013).
In this case, a customer supervisor can minimize the events of service breakdown by establishing strict service protocols and policies to ensure that customers are provided with high quality services and standard responses to their complaints. In addition, it is important that a customer supervisor should learn how service breakdown events occur by establishing the contributory factors. After this, proper mechanisms should be put in place to avoid repeats of service breakdown in the future (Mok, Sparks, & Kadampully, 2013).
One of the strategies that can be used to prevent customer dissatisfaction is listening to feedbacks from customers. Business organizations need to be aware of the the importance of messages they receive from customers in relation to their services. The messages can be utilized as a means of determining customer satisfaction (Mok, Sparks, & Kadampully, 2013).
In relation to this, a customer supervisor may also utilize customer surveys in order to determine the experience of customers with respect to services provided by his or her organization. The surveys help organizations to realize inefficiencies and defects in their service delivery process and hence make improvements. The other strategy is dealing with individual customer problems (Mok, Sparks, & Kadampully, 2013).
A customer supervisor should provide immediate solution to a customer’s problems or promptly explain the reasons the problems may not be solved. In this case, a proper alternative advice should be provided to the customer. It is important for a customer supervisor to understand the various needs of different customers. This implies that the supervisor should be conversant with the unique needs of every customer who seeks services from his or her organization (Mok, Sparks, & Kadampully, 2013).
In order to enhance service delivery to customers, especially within the hospitality industry, service providers should emphasize on engaging their clients through the social media. Many customers discuss business organizations through the social media.
Therefore, the social media provides an opportunity for organizations to learn from their clients for the sake of enhancing service delivery (Odden, 2012). This is where Toyota, as a car manufacturing company, failed while trying to manage the crisis in which it recalled thousands of vehicles from the market. The use of the social media could have enabled it to easily connect with its clients across the world.
Conclusion
It is important to note that even though many business organizations have tried to enhance their service delivery to their customers, many of them still have cases where customers get dissatisfied with service delivery processes (Odden, 2012). This is the basis of having a strong and efficient customer service recovery system.
The reasons for customer defection include poor services, delayed handling of customers’ complaints and customers’ inability to access the right departments and personnel to deal with their complaints. Therefore, customer dissatisfaction can be ensured though listening to customers, paying attention to feedback and utilizing customer surveys to determine the level of satisfaction among customers (Mok, Sparks, & Kadampully, 2013).
References
Angelova, B., & Zekiri, J. (2011). Measuring Customer Satisfaction with Service Quality Using American Customer Satisfaction Model. International Journal of Academic Research in Business & Social Sciences, 1(3), 249-257.
Fogli, L. (2007). Customer Service Delivery: Research and Best Practices. Winchester, Hampshire: John Wiley & Sons.
Gibson, P. (2011). The World of Customer Service. London, UK: Cengage Learning.
Hollmann, T. (2008). A Process Theory of Customer Defection in Business-to-business Relationships. Ann Arbor, Michigan: ProQuest.
Hutt, M., & Speh, T. (2012). Business Marketing Management: B2b. London, UK: Cengage Learning.
Odden, L. (2012). Optimize: How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media, and Content Marketing. Winchester, Hampshire: John Wiley & Sons.
Ryal, L. (2009). Managing Customers Profitably. Winchester, Hampshire: John Wiley & Sons.
Withey, F. (2012). CIM Course book 03/04 Marketing Fundamentals. New York, US: Routledge.