Southern Crescent Technical College

1. Southern Crescent Technical College Customer Service: Your Responsibility & Opportunities Pete Tosh The Focus Group Pete.tosh@thefocusgroup.biz 1 1

2. Lou Holtz? 2 2

3. Customer Service @Southern Crescent Technical College I. Your Service Objective & Your Challenges II. Utilizing a Customer Focused Approach III. Designing the Value & Experiences You Want to Provide Your Customers IV. Delivering Positive Customer Experiences While Building Relationships V. Measuring Your Customers’ Perceptions of Their Experiences with Southern Crescent 3 3

4. I. Your Service Objective & Your Challenges 4 4

5. Southern Crescent Technical College’sService Objective: The objective of any business is to attract & retain customers Everyone has a customer. If you are not serving the external customer, you better be serving someone who is The best predictor of an organization’s future financial success: its customers’ perceptions of their experiences with the organization 5 5

6. Service ‘Givens’ • You are a service business: education, hospitality, food-service, financial-resources, etc. • You serve multiple customers – students, parents, donors, alumni, etc. • Students are the most immediate consumers of your services • Your sustained success is in part related to the quality of your service

7. Customer/Student Retention a Key to Your Success • Significant revenue is lost when a student leaves: tuition, fees, bookstore & food purchases, etc. • 1,700 schools collectively lost $16.5 billion due to attrition • Primary reasons students leave higher education: educational quality, grades, personal, schedule, not worth it, college doesn’t care, & poor service/ treatment Dr. Neal A. Raisman, ‘The Power of Retention: More Customer Service in Higher Education’

8. Calculating the Value of a Customer • Allows you to determine the profit increase from a reduction in the loss of customers • Puts the cost of customer requests in perspective • Illustrates that recovery efforts are an investment & not an expense • Gets the attention of everyone concerned with the financial health of the institution

9. Your Service Challenges Enhanced customer expectations for speed, reliability, convenience, etc. Customers demanding greater value while showing less loyalty • Unprecedented competition driving continuous improvement • Your competition: any service provider your customers come in contact with – UPS, Amazon etc. 9 9

10. II. A Customer Focused Approach 10 10

11. Customer Focused Organizational Strategy • Organization-wide, long term commitment to focusing your strategy toward customers’ needs & experiences • Delivering value by tailoring your services to your customers’ needs • Increasing revenue & profits by making enhanced customer loyalty a primary objective 11 11

12. A Three Step Customer Focused Approach #1 Designing Value & Experiences You Want To Provide Your Customers #3 Measuring Customers’ Perceptions of Their Experiences #2 Delivering Positive Experiences & Building Relationships 12 12

13. Step #1: Designing the Value & Experiences You Want to Provide Your Customers 13 13

14. Your Customers Expect Value: Value=GOT COST 14 14

15. Your Customers Expect Value: Value=Product + Service + Experiences Price + Effort

16. Your Customers Expect Value: • What level of service do you provide? • What type of customer experiences do you create? • How much effort do your customers have to exert? How easy are you to do business with you?

17. Differentiating Southern Crescent Through Positive Customer Experiences • Take-away impressions formed by encounters with an organization’s employees & it’s service • Sensory information that creates: • Perceptions • Recollections • Awareness • Impressions • Sensations • Effects 17 17

18. You Cannot Not Create Experiences for Your Customers

19. What Feelings & Reactions Have You Had When You Were a Customer? Buying a Car? Ordering a product or service from a supplier? As a patient in a doctor’s office or hospital? Having dinner in an up-scale restaurant? 19 19

20. Step #2: Delivering Positive Customer Experiences Which Build Relationships 20 20

21. Customers Have Expectations Regarding the Quality of Every Service Encounter Expected Service Explicit Service Promises Implicit Service Promises Past Experiences Perceived Service 21 21

22. Quality Service is Closing the Service Gap Expectations Perceptions 22 22

23. Most Important Dimensions of Quality Service Tangibles - appearance of offices, grounds, employees, etc. (What Customers See) Disney Reliability – performing to your service promises consistently & accurately (Keeping Your Promises) Ritz Carlton Responsiveness - willingness to help customers & provide prompt service (Readiness to Serve) Amazon Assurance - knowledge of employees & their ability to convey competence & trust (I Made the Right Choice) Fed Ex Empathy - caring & individualized attention provided to customers (Commitment to the Customer) Nordstrom 23 23

24. Moments of Truth = Customer Service Encounters Moments of Truth: - any interaction in which a customer comes in contact with an organization & forms an impression - customer experiences that contribute positively or negatively to relationships with customers 24 24

25. At a Disney Theme Park Each Customer Has 70+ Moments of TruthWhere Do Your Customers Experience Moments of Truth?

26. Cycle of Service Map A series of Moments of Truth in the sequence in which the customer experiences them • Example – think of the Moments of Truth you experience on a flight? 26 26

27. Step #3 Measuring Customers’ Perceptions of Their Experiences with Southern Crescent 27 27

28. Not Knowing Customers’ Expectations:ARoot Cause of Unsatisfactory Service 28 28

29. Customer Satisfaction Survey Methods • Face to face interviews • Electronic • Focus groups • Mystery shoppers • Comment & complaint cards • Customer panel or advisory board • Mail • Telephone

30. Customer Complaints: Feedback You Don’t Have to Ask For • If Southern Crescent is typical, 25 percent of your customers are dissatisfied enough to consider switching to your competition • But only 1 percent are likely to tell you before they do leave 30 30

31. A Complaining Customer is Saying He/She: • Cares • Thinks you care • Thinks you have the potential to do better • Expects to see improvement • Wants to continue the relationship Customer complaints are an excellent source of market intelligence 31 31

32. The Psychology of Service Recovery:Complaints are Inevitable • Complaining customers are assets giving you opportunities to improve & excel beyond your competition • Service recovery - a strategic method for increasing customer retention & profits

33. Customer Service: Your Responsibility & Opportunities I. Your Service Objective & Your Challenges II. Utilizing a Customer Focused Approach III. Designing the Value & Experiences You Want to Provide Your Customers IV. Delivering Positive Customer Experiences While Building Relationships V. Measuring Your Customers’ Perceptions of Their Experiences with Southern Crescent

34. ‘Avoid the Lou Holtz’

35. Thank You Pete Tosh The Focus Group www.thefocusgroup,biz pete.tosh@thefocusgroup.biz 478-746-6891 35