Customer Loyalty Improvement Programme

An approach to build Customer Focused Organisation. Customer care is an approach to understand the customers better and realigning the processes, people, products and performance in order to achieve customer satisfaction and thereby harnessing loyalty & brand image.

Both reactive & proactive strategies are essential to build a loyal customer base. Our Customer Loyalty Improvement Programme [CLIP] focuses on both these strategies right from customer complaints to loyalty enhancement through customer engagement in various stages of product / service design & offering.

Complaint is defined as an expression of dissatisfaction made to an organisation, related to its products, or the complaints handling process itself, where a response or resolution is explicitly or implicitly expected. [ISO 10002]

Customer Care

Organisations that regularly lose customers face an uphill struggle to repair their damaged reputations.

• In most industry sectors that it costs at least 4 times as much to recruit a new customer as to maintain an existing one.
• Customers are demanding higher levels of services which can result in increasing number of complaints.
• Meeting customer expectations is a basic requirement of organisations, of all types, in the private, public or voluntary sectors.
• Using Customer Care to achieve Competitive Advantage.

Guiding Principles

• Openness: Well publicised, visible, accessible and understood by the concerned
• Impartiality: Avoiding any bias in dealing with the complainant. Emphasise on solving the problem not on assigning blame. Complaint on personnel should be carried out objectively & independently.
• Confidentiality: Process should protect complainant's identity, as far as possible to avoid inconvenience or discrimination
• Accessibility: Allow complainant to access the complaints handling process. Information on the progress to be made available in clear language. (Joint) Action plans, where necessary to be evolved and made available to all concerned (supply chain)
• Completeness: Establish a common ground by talking to people from both sides and find out relevant facts and verify explanations
• Equitability: Give equal treatment to all customers, be customer focused.
• Sensitivity: Consider each case on the basis of merits, paying due care to individual differences and needs.
• Responsiveness: Clear defined roles & timelines of responding, reviewing & resolving the issues gains customers' confidence and is the essence of this programme.
• Accountability: Establish a framework with clear accountabilities within the organisation with regard to delivery and complaints resolution, including the accountability for and reporting on the actions and decisions of the organisation with respect to complaints-handling, escalation timelines and financial implications for any non-fulfilment by the organisation
• Charges: Access to the complaints-handling process should be free of charge to the complainant. Any subscription or management fees or charges for resolution must be well defined and communicated to the customers. Additional charges arising out of handling any complaint must have customer’s consent, notwithstanding the responsibility to resolve the complaint within its defined lifecycle
• Commitment: The top management shall endorse their commitment to customer care in unambiguous terms and ensure the required infrastructure and competence are available to establish, operate and manage customer relationships with the aim of enhancing their loyalty
• Consistency: These processes to deal with customers at appraisal stage to complaint resolution should follow a predetermined workflow and where deviations are sought, the impact of resultant actions on other existing customers be evaluated and standardised
• Continual improvement: The continual improvement of the complaints-handling process should be a permanent objective of the organisation.
• Credibility: Make the customer care & complaints handling process robust to become reliable through periodic evaluation and feedback mechanism
• Customer-focussed approach: The organisation should adopt a customer-focussed approach, should be open to feedback including complaints, and should show commitment to resolving complaints by its actions.
• Escalation: Make aware the customers about their right for a fair appraisal and escalation within the organisation. Establish service levels of deliverables and their escalation route until resolution or a refund with or without cost for inconvenience.
• Objectivity: Each complaint should be addressed in an equitable, objective, and unbiased manner through the complaints-handling process.
• Visibility: Information about how and where to complain should be well publicised to customers, personnel, and other interested parties. All customers should be able to know and follow the route to resolution of their queries, concerns, complaints & feedback. These arrangements shall be made visible to customer visiting the organisation or through contracts or websites or designated network.

Benefits

• Builds customer confidence & affinity
• Encourages customer feedback
• Evaluates feedback processes through audit and management review
• Customer support - proactively assisting dissatisfied customers to address their concerns
• Empowers employees at all levels to resolve complaints
• Investigate and improvise from customer feedback
• Reduction in cost of appraisal & resolution
• Improved efficiency
• Better relationship with customers
• Satisfies customers
• Transparent & auditable system
• Satisfies customers every time
• Enhances brand value perception & credibility
• Enhances customers loyalty and reduces attrition / migration

We assist / guide organisations for implementing and integrating a Complaints Management System Programme and getting it certified to ISO 10002 or integrate with existing ISO 9001 certification. We look forward to help you in your pursuit to maintaining customer loyalty and build a sustainable customer care programme.

We also design, construct and conduct robust feedback programmes that help them to identify key drivers of customers experience, glean insights to health of the company and detect early warnings of any erosion of your relationship or value proposition. It must resonate as the DNA of the organisation. Contact us for a complimentary Executive Presentation on CLIP implementation roadmap.