Query Scorecards Improve Company Customer Service

The success of business is often attributed to the quality of customer service it provides its current and potential customers. People always have something to ask about the products the have bought or are planning to buy. Most customer queries will be about how to operate the product, assistance for repairs, spare parts, and others. People who are canvassing will ask for specifications, what the product can do, prices, warranties, and delivery and payment methods. All these need to answered in manner that will make them return to buy a replacement or buy the product. If the company is a big one and areas covered is large, they would set up a separate unit for customer care or engage the services of other companies specializing in this type of work. Handling queries is an essential part of marketing and sales that query scorecards are becoming an integral method of measuring the effectiveness of customer care services.

The most desirable way of handling a query if done personally by a customer is to answer it with a smile and give a straight answer. It is a good way of establishing rapport with customers. But there are others that are more focused on improving the quality of customer services and the product that a company offers.

The kinds of queries that a customer service unit of a company or a third party engaged to do the job reveals a lot about the value of the product. When most queries are about how to operate or troubleshoot the product, you can be sure that it requires a bit of refinement and the company can certainly benefit from the feedback. Queries about why the products are not working properly or about premature breakdown mean that perhaps, it must go back to the drawing board. If there is a great volume of queries about the product that does not translate to actual sales, either the specifications do not suit customer’s needs or the price is a let-down.

Scorecards for queries can be classified into two groups: as to the kind of information gathered and as to how the queries are handled. While a customer service representative is at it, he might as well get as much information he can. Beats taking a survey, right? It could a source of great ideas not only in terms of how the product can be improved but also what kind of products is preferred.

As to manner of handling, the best kind was already mentioned. Smile and smile some more even if the customer becomes a little testy or on the edge. But there are others, like having the correct answers to give. That means that people tasked with responding to queries must have at least working knowledge on how the product works. Another thing, the time consumed answering queries should be limited to the time required to accomplish the essentials. It is not at all good to force customers to wait in line for long hours before their calls are taken.

With the importance of query handling to customer care service and to the improvement of products, there is a great need for formal company query scorecards.