Introduction
An organisation that is planning to build good relationships with customers cannot evade investing in customer service. With regard to Turban et al. (2002), “customer service encompasses a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation” (p.23).
Arguably, customer service entails giving services to customers of an organisation before and after making purchases. Across all industries, customer service plays an amicable role in fostering the success of a business. In most organisations, customer service is an integral part of marketing since its focus is on helping consumers to make purchases.
However, it is significant to note that the preciseness of the value of customer service in an organisation varies in relation to the industry, the service offered and or the product being offered for sale.
From the perspective of being the customer insight manager in an organisation dealing with software applications, this paper highlights the role of customer service within the software applications company. It also investigates the role of customer service within the organisation and its contribution towards achieving an ongoing competitive advantage.
Role of Customer Service within Organisation Selling Software
Conducting any business in a technology industry prompts the owners of such organisations to put incredible measures to ensure that consumers receive guidelines on the appropriate software that meets their demand coupled with how to use it. Consequently, a software sales company cannot strategise to reduce the wage bill and hence the cost of operating business by simply forgoing the customer service personnel.
The exposition holds because building and maintaining cute management of customer relationships is highly required in the technology industry. In particular, “customer relationship management reveals any flaws in the systems of a business. Besides, it provides valuable customer feedback” (Selden 2008, p.61).
Therefore, it is arguable that customer service in software sales company has a noble role of ensuring that there is a two-way communication between the organisation and the customers. This case creates a feedback loop, which aids in making organisations garner information on the perception of the customers concerning the organisational image coupled with the impression of the services offered.
Such information is critical for enabling an organisation to correct possible areas that may send customers away thus making them not to consider making a repeated purchase of software in the future. In technological industry, products and services keep on evolving. Consequently, in theoretical terms, customers would prefer being loyal to organisations that provide amicable information on the usage of the new products offered.
This means that an organisation that does not offer detailed and comprehensive services before and after selling of the software may be out powered by an organisation, which heavily invests in such services through customer service. This argument implies that an organisation engaging in sales of software has high probabilities of losing competitive advantage in case it ignores the contribution of customer service in retaining customer loyalty to the software products being sold by the organisation.
Similar to an organisation dealing with edible products, an organisation in the technology industry cannot survive in the industry without a magnificent operational arm of customer service. The relevance of this point of view is crucial upon considering Mbiito and Osarenkhoe’s argument, “the adage ‘the customer is always right’ has been the foundation of many organisations” (2012, p.179).
Hence, the central principle of gaining competitive advantage while operating in a technology industry is endeavouring to make customers happy and satisfied always. In fact, the chief reason why many organisations manage to manoeuvre an intensively competitive market to gain profitability rests on the platforms of according customers a service that is personalised.
Dall and Bailine (2004) also share a similar perception of the role of customer service by further asserting that customer service “is the human touch that warms and enlivens an organisation in the customer’s mind going towards building a relationship” (p.57). Arguably, this relationship is the one that culminates into the success of any organisation.
Now, it is crucial to note that it is vital to maintain regular and sustained customer interactions in the technology industry with the chief objective of inducing consumers to be attached to the organisation. For instance, in the case of a software organisation, it is essential that the organisational personnel identify the operating computer platforms of the most regular customers whether corporate or medium-established organisations.
Based on this knowledge, the personnel can chat about the compatibility issues of various software with the computer operating systems and platforms of the customers. This helps to make them belief and have the confidence that the products they are acquiring from the organisation are just the appropriate ones.
This step helps to create good organisational experience among the customers. Hence, in case of any arising issues after the sale of products, the consumers would feel free to seek further clarifications and solutions to the problems. This goes far in enhancing customer satisfaction and hence increasing the probability of making repeated purchases.
Apparently, the more the units sold by an organisation, the higher the profitability of the organisation. Additionally, organisations that are more profitable are also likely to have higher competitive advantage than those with low sale margins. Since customer service aids in increasing the sale volumes, it is also arguable that it plays pivotal roles in enhancing the competitive advantage of an organisation in the technology industry.
Customer service acts as the only way through which clients can contact organisations. From the paradigms of the roles of customer service to an industry operating in the technological sector, Suttle (2011) asserts, “companies that produce highly technical products such as software or satellite television often have a technical support staffs to resolve problems” (Para. 2).
Therefore, it would be incredibly difficult for an organisation dealing with sales of software to survive in a business in the absence of people to handle prospective interrogatives emanating from the customers relating to the software products via emails, person-to-person communication, and or through cell phones.
Depending on the manner in which an organisation handles customers’ complaints, it becomes possible for the software organisation to cutely differentiate itself from all other competitors dealing with similar products. In many nations, software companies are located within one industrial estate.
Surprisingly, some of these organisations may be selling similar software. Therefore, it becomes incredibly difficult for customers to cite the differences between two organisations selling similar software.
In such a scenario, investing immensely in customer service may substantially aid in giving one organisation a competitive advantage in comparison to the other organisations. This argument implies that customer service has a central role to attract new and maintain the clientele of an organisation dealing in a technology products such as software applications.
Importance of Customer Service in Organisation Selling Software
In the technology industry, customers often have immense issues with usability coupled with trouble shooting of software applications. In the resolution of these problems, customer service is noteworthy since it helps in building subtle experience of organisations’ products. Such experience is notable since it “can change the entire perception a customer has on an organisation” (Mbiito & Osarenkhoe 2012, p. 191).
Another importance of the customer service in high technology industry is that it helps in building positive publicity about an organisation. Suttle (2011) is also inclined to the same line of argument upon further reckoning, “people who have a positive experience with a company’s customer service department will tell two or three others about their experience” (Para. 6).
Consequently, customer service stands out as crucial in an organisation that sells software since it acts as a means of promotion of the company’s software products. In direct contrast with this importance, Suttle (2011) argues, “a person who has a lousy customer service experience will tell between nine and 20 people” (Para. 7).
In overall, this means that poor customer experience among the costumers of the products of a given organisation irrespective of its area of specialisation has the capacity to reduce the clientele of the organisation in a much rapid manner in comparison to the time consumed in building the clientele.
For an organisation dealing with software, good customer service is crucial in the effort to mitigate risks of being sued by the clients. In this end, Suttle (2011) argues, “consumers can file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, Consumer Affairs, or even a class action attorney if they are dissatisfied with a company’s customer service” (Para. 9).
In fact, within the period that clients possess merchandise, they anticipate to utilise and service it. In case they fail to achieve these anticipations, they turn to the organisation from where they bought the product for further guidance and clarifications. Thus, the customer service arm of the organisation must be able to assist the customers as part of the service given to them after any purchase made and throughout the usefulness period of product.
When the customer service fails to give this service, customers may consider suing the company concerned apart from presenting the image of the organisation in a negative way since “they have certain rights to sue the company as consumers are protected by the Federal Trade Commission” (Suttle 2011, Para.10).
Arguably, the cost going into resolution of the resulting conflicts coupled with the cost of administrating the legal proceedings goes into reducing the profitability of the concerned organisation. This effort has the utmost repercussion of dwindling down the competitive advantage of the software selling company.
Upon contemplation of the roles and the importance of the customer service in an organisation operating in a technology industry, the question that arises is how such an organisation; for example, a software company can improve customer service. This question is addressed in the following section on recommendations.
Recommendations
For organisations operating in the technology industry to improve their customer service, it is recommended that they focus on investing in customer support. According to Dall and Bailine (2004), customer support involves “a range of customer services to assist customers in making cost effective and correct use of a product” (p. 95).
For the company selling software, investing in customer support would include committing the resources of the company in the creation of systems for assisting the customer in planning, training, upgrading, installation, maintenance, trouble shooting, and finally disposal of the products once their useful life is over.
For the case of software products, this customer support is termed as technical support. Stemming from the importance of customer service in helping to make organisations acquire a competitive advantage, it is recommendable that the approaches that are adopted to enhance technical support for customers to be cost effective while also having the capability to handle an immense number customer complaints.
In fact, “companies cannot focus on running their contact centres primarily as cost centres to provide acceptable levels of technical support” (Pass et al. 2011, p. 127). Consequently, a subtle approach for improving customer service in an organisation, which sells software, is embracing a technical support call centre that is IP-based.
Conclusion
Customer service is paramount in every organisation that seeks to build long lasting relationships with its customers. From this dimension, the paper has focused on scrutinising the roles of and importance of customer service in an organisation operating in the technology industry specifically a company selling software.
Recommendations have also been made on how such an organisation can improve its customer service to reap optimally from the benefits of the customer service in helping it to gain a competitive advantage. Therefore, based on the expositions made in the paper, it suffices to declare customer service a crucial section that all organisations need to work on in a bid to increase their pool of customers and consequently their profits.
References
Dall, M & Bailine, A 2004, Service this: Winning the war against customer disservice, Routledge, London.
Mbiito, J & Osarenkhoe, A 2012, ‘Competitive Advantage in Relationship Marketing’, Journal of Customer Service in Marketing and Management, vol.11 no. 3, pp. 174-198.
Pass, M, Evans, K, Lastovicka, J, & Schlacter, J 2011, ‘Manufacturers’ Representative-Principle Relationship Management: A Principle Leadership Style And Support Perspective’, Journal Of Customer Service In Marketing And Management , vol.10 no. 2, pp. 125-148.
Selden, P 2008, ‘Sales Process Engineering: An Emerging Quality Application’, Quality Progress, vol. 3 no.1, pp. 59–63.
Suttle, R 2011, Why is Customer Service Important to an Organisation?. Web.
Turban, E et al. 2002, Electronic Commerce: A Managerial Perspective, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, NJ.