Importance of Training for employees in an Industry

In this blog we are going to see the "Importance of training for employees in an industry & how it accelerates the growth of an industry". We all know that in the current trend industries have got lot of technologies and they are updated regularly in order to keep themselves in line with the market requirement. So it also makes the employees to be updated with their respective technologies & along with that they have the required documents available readily Online. So why we have to emphasize more on In house trainings on a regular basis and in what way is it going to add value to an employee? How is the current trend of Training in today's industries? Are companies making a financial budget  for Training? Do HR work with the respective teams of their organization to know their team requirement? How a system should be made for such in house training? Do training have to be made compulsorily as part of KRA metrics? Let me provide an explanation below for these questions.

An employee may be well versed in his technical skill set but will be moderate or poor in his professional skill sets likewise vice versa with some employees. In this scenario it is important for a team leader  to make a note of these weakness of an employee and try to check with HR if there can arrange some programs for Soft Skills or respective technical training which can eventually benefit the employee. Employee should consider this training in positive approach. Team Leaders should have a meeting with the employee not only for the progress of the project but also should motivate his team member to share their requirement which will help up the ladder of their career. We have got portals for Project Management System likewise there should be portal for team requirement which HR should check and provide their support to the respective team. 

In the current trend of industries HR try to give the initial training or directly make the employee to work as trainee under the guidance of senior staff before assigning their respective job responsibilities or project. So the scope of getting them updated with the latest technologies becomes limited & they are forced to check with the training institutes to get them updated with the technologies This initiatives if it is taken by HR would actually benefit even many employees as they work as well as attend the training without making the employee to go in search of institute. Training has not been made compulsory as many industries try to focus more on projects and client rapports thereby generating revenue to showcase it in their year end financial reports. Unless an employee get the required training he/ she will not be able to grow up the professional ladder of the organization. If a company supports an employee in getting technical and professional training they would really be trustworthy for that Organization. HR should be make training as a metrics in the employees KRA and it is the duty of an employee to highlight their requirement on regular basis. HR has to review this requirement with the respective team leader and project manager in order to arrange for those respective training. A schedule has to be made for those training on a monthly basis along with that they should check if they sufficient budget for that financial year. A report has to be made on the feedback of the training which need to be checked with the success of each project & in what way it has added value to the customer satisfaction.

HR in many companies today doesn't make proper financial budget for training. Training and development should compulsorily be there in an organization with some well versed in house trainers. Financial Budget should be made based on the project they have and soft skill is something essential for every young professionals. HR should constantly work with every team and get their inputs on regular basis on the training requirements. This has be highlighted to the management to get the necessary approvals. HR should not work for getting the right resource but should also work towards employee satisfaction by providing trainings and other professional benefits. In many small industries concepts of training lacks thereby putting an individual into trouble as he has completely depends on Online resources and external trainings to get himself inline with the current technology in the market.

HR works comparatively less with their internal team thereby give less importance for training. In the present trend an employee focus on the completion of the task and also make sure that they get the require financial growth if not quit the organization. This is something similar to function of a machine which takes the required input and stops after providing the required output. Their life time based on the quality, brand and the cost. That is How is today's involvement of HR in training. They make re-reimbursement for the trainings attended by an employee by not seeing how that training going to add value to their organization or assignments. This is important reason why HR has be emphasize more on in house training system thereby benefiting both employee and organization. If I am SAP employee he/she has to be updated regularly in order keep themselves updated with the technology & the market. This is what is going to boost "Employee Satisfaction"

System as know is a life cycle of a process or a target. HR should have a system that they would have a team for training who constantly works on the Employee Training Portal & check what is the current months requirement. Then arrange for a meeting with middle management staff to see the requirement of those training. Accordingly work for external training institutes or freelance consultant. Get the required quote and put forward the proposal for the approval of senior management. Schedule the training and email the employees on their slot. Once after the completion of training they should be compulsory assessment and feedback on the trainer. This is something can be termed as "Trainer Management System" which is going to maintain the information on the respective trainers thereby simplifying their need for trainers.

Training should be compulsorily be part of KRA and it should based on their project or required soft skill training. Training attended by employee with his own interest which is directly or indirectly helping the industry should also be considered. There should always be an appreciation if an employee takes an initiative to learn new technologies or improve their soft skill. To the maximum extent a company needs to motivate an employee to grow within the industry and ensure he stays with the organization for long with a lot of satisfaction both professionally and financially based on merit.

So HR should make it a point that Training should be made compulsory in every organization which will not helps in the growth of an organization but in getting employee satisfaction. HR should always have a budget and system before commencing with Training. Training is an art and it has to be framed properly.

Behavioral Aspect in Customer Relationship Management

In the last blog we have seen the role played by a "Leader" and the quantities that determines an individual as a "leader". Now we are going to see "how to understand and handle a customer based on his or her Behavioral aspect". The core concept of Customer relationship management remains the same in all industries but the approach varies from industry to industry. Let us see how it varies along with behavioral aspect of a customer. Before proceeding let us understand what is the behavioral aspect of a customer? A customer's behavior varies from person to person based on certain parameters like expectations which includes quality of service, time taken for providing a resolution, clarity in providing the information, return on investment etc.., family situation like his personal & official life status, financial status, work pressure, availability of time to understand the information or product etc.., domain  or technical knowledge. The agent has to understand the customer based on some of these parameters and then address his query or problem. But this has been lacking in today's customer support industry as the agents blindly follow the flow of  product information scripts to address the query which has been very well provided in FAQ's & product manual's & it is not much appreciated by a customer. Agent has to initially understand a customer behavior based on his tone, the way he put forwards his query, the pace as which he expects a resolution, his previous experience with their product which can be got only if an organization maintains a structured customer relationship management system in place. Accordingly the agent has to align his flow of conversation with the customer. Let us see examples based on industries

In Luxury hotels we have Front Office Professionals at the reception who has to address various queries on the services provided by their hotel like availability of rooms, laundry services, complimentary services which includes usage of hotel facilities, Breakfasts, transportation services etc to the customers. In this industry these professionals have to address customer's queries spontaneously and make the customer delighted as in hostel industry the growth of the business is based on the percentage of delightful customers. Here also hey have SLA's for corporate customer so expectation of service & professionalism are seem more in today's market trend. Here the customers put forwards his or her queries in varies behavioral aspect but the way Front office professionals handles the query decides the growth of that hotel but also highlights his smartness in handling a customer that add credits to his career growth.

In an IT industry, customer & technical support varies in terms of approach. When a agent provides a technical support he or she should understand the severity of the issues then have to check immediately if there is any work around for that incident. If not should proactively escalate the issues to the backend team along with that should simultaneously address the issue. This requires clarity in understanding the issues, understanding customer's behavior, domain knowledge, SLA (Service Level Agreement), escalation matrix etc. Agent should then document the issues clearly for future references. But the same industry has got Customer support which takes cares of Annual Maintenance contract, modification of Service Level agreement, clarifications on the support services, marketing management to up-sell new product or version etc. So in both support verticals understanding the customer's behavior is important and the approach to support varies as the time management & clarity in addressing a query or issue are important parameters in today's industry.

In the above two industries the concept of customer relationship management remains same but the approach to handle customers of various behavioral aspect has to be clearly understood by the support vertical of an organization. In both technical and customer support there will be variation in the approach of support workflow as each query or issue in both verticals are different. There is no book or research article says a standard approach has to adopted for various customer behavior. They only provide us guidance on how to handle a customer based on their experience. There comes logical approach of handling a customer which tells understand the customer's situation, value their time, think smart rather putting forward unwanted probing questions, proactive way of addressing an issue, clarity in providing information. These doesn't comes just by attending a training or certification but it comes through logical viewing of an issue or query.A same query will be put forwarded by customer in different ways based on experience with your product or service of an industry. If a person recommend a product to his friend and relative are purely based on his experience which is customer relationship management of that company. This customer relationship is continuous as it begin from the meeting the sales team to customer or technical support team. Understand a customer is must before the organization thinks of rolling out their product or service in the market.

Things to be kept in mind

1. Welcome the customer

2. Allow him or her to put their query or issue (No personal questions even if they are a well known customer as we can't judge a customer to be same at every visit)

3. Don't put much of sympathy questions. Customer won't encourage these statement if they are in bad mood.

4. Not to sell a product by making false promise or wrong information. If he or she not clear on the information check and provide the customer.

5. Don't say later versions you might/will get this requested feature. Marketing is a domain to analysis the customer's needs based on the market trend. But today marketing is calling customers again and again to sell their product after which they are left alone in the dense forest when it comes to support.

6.  Customer behavior varies most only after getting the product or service as he or she might not get their requirement but would have been told by marketing executive that you have this feature.

7. Customers today are most proficient in varies domain so try to understand a customer based on his or her situation and provide a appropriate resolution for his problem.

So understanding customer behavior is most important in every move of an organization. Aligning the support vertical is a must in every organization and periodic reviews will assist the organization in having a good relationship with the customer. A organization should have a team who keeps in touch with the customers mainly for corporate customer to give them updates on the value added services but also understand their situation in the market. If a customer is having a downfall and a company tries to up-sell his new product will land the company into problem as they will negative feedback on this team. This is important aspect in every industry. Agents or support professionals should remember the following

1. Personal review which tell about your experience with the customers on day to day basis. 

2. Have a mind set support is nothing but making a customer delighted even if he in bad mood.

3.Think twice before putting forward an information for even a simple query.

4. Request the customer if you them on hold or make them wait while you check for the information.

5. Clarity in speech is must in any industry as it doesn't forms a part of technical or non technical aspect of query.

6. Value customer's time while addressing their issue or query.

If these are brought into practice then handling a customer of any behavioral aspect becomes easy in any industry. Only the information changes within industries but the approach to support remains the same. We would understand the main difference between a customer and technical support along with the support provided by contact centers. Accordingly the alignment of support matrix has to made by the organization. Above all organization should compulsorily maintain customer feedback for their future reference accordingly to understanding a customer would be better. In the forthcoming we will also see some of models of customer behavior handling. I value your comments and suggestions regarding this blog.

Importance of Leadership in Customer Relationship Management

In the last blog we have seen the negative influence of Commercialization of a Business which directly or indirectly affects the relationship with customer. Here we are now going to see what is meant by leadership? How a leader plays a vital role in building an effective relationship with customer or supplier? What are the key skills that transforms an individual as a leader? How to identify a leader? These are some questions which are going to explained in brief in this blog.

As we all know Leadership is a quality of an individual that drives the entire team towards the same goal. Unless target is not focused at the initial stage itself the end result will go negative or against the organization. The person who aligns the target of an assignment is known as a Leader. Leader is a person who guides or mentor the team on a project or assignment based on his previous experiences and reference to many research articles. Lets takes an example of a Team Lead of Marketing Department. He would have definitely come across various people, attitudes, sectors etc which are his past experience. Here he should have taken failures as his learning areas and would have made many analysis on to handle customer of those attitude or sector. This is something that has been practiced for years and today it has become a part of Management Curriculum. Based on these analysis a leader mentors or guides the team and learning continues with different projects. Unless the leader is potential enough the success rate of any project or assignment will be less than the expectation. Leader should not only be well versed in domain knowledge but also should have effective management skill set like time management, documentation, communication, presentation, attitude, follow ups, project management, metrics design, clarity in clarifying the queries, escalation matrix management, work break structure, team building and management etc.. are some of the important skill sets.

Time Management, Communication and Documentation plays an important role as every assignment has got a project plan which comes has to be prepared based on the team skill set and availability of the resource. Accordingly the project has to be divided among the team along with the time limit or number of days to complete that part of the project which is termed as Work Break Down structure. Then comes communication unless there is no proper communication on the progress of the assignment there won't be other phases of a project in line like Software testing which is handed over to a different team. Documentation is very important as a team lead he should ensure that the complete documentation of the project is properly maintained to provide report on the project to the management before handing over to the customer. In order to achieve this a leader has to be an effective team builder as he should know the resource he requires with the following skill set along with have to set the metrics for his  team. In customer relationship we have metrics like time to resolve the issue, customer feedback, number of calls addressed are some of the metrics followed in Business Process Organization and many customer support providing organization.Escalation matrix should normally be designed based on the capability of an individual like for support there are L1-L3 support. Team Lead should have the capability to analyze the team domain knowledge and build the escalation matrix. Then the pilot batch should be initiated to see how they support the customer or client with their expertise in that domain. Based on this Team Lead should analyze on the domain they require training. That is what we term as employee satisfaction areas as the employee is provided the training and made sure that he provide better support along with getting additional knowledge.

A detailed report should be made at regular intervals on the team performance and have regular meetings to inform the team member on the areas of their weakness and how to address those areas. That makes the team to have a got relation with the team lead thereby completing the task on time, within expected metrics & quality and above all getting a satisfied customer into their credit. So Team Lead with some of these parameters plays a vital role in building the team and also growing the business of an organization in turn also building a list of satisfied customers.

Team Lead should be identified based on the above discussed potentials. He will be normally evaluated based on the success of the project and his ability to manage the team. Hard work alone doesn't  makes an individual as a Team Lead but how he delivers an assignment in an efficient way. When a assignment is provided to a Team Lead he should have the ability to understand the customer need which in turns should compare with his resource skill set. Accordingly he has to prepare a documentation to HR on resource requirement. Those knowledge are based on his past experiences and proper logical thinking caliber of an individual. It is known to all of us that the "Success of an organization is based on Team work not by individual's effort". Team Lead should have the efficiently to have a good relationship with his team member by having some fun by taking them for a outing, giving them the opportunity to do some MDP or certification programs. Giving them some assignments from research articles to make get them involved in knowing other domains also. Team Lead should be a friend, mentor and not to dominate the team. These are some important aspects about the Leadership quality in an organization that assists in the building the client or customer relationships.

 

Negative influence of Commercialization on Customer relationship management

In today's busy business world, many industries have got commercialized which directly or indirectly affects their relationship with the customer. Let us see with an example on how it affects and what have been the consequence?

In traditional system education was given to students in order to gain knowledge and also guided them on the right path which gave them the success throughout their career with minimal failure. Knowledge should be well balanced, it should provide both theoretical and practical aspect of a subject. Here the "Guru" or teacher thought of providing knowledge to student and aligned them toward the bright side of life. But the same educational system  has got commercialized in various ways in today's trend. If a student have to study they have to pay donation for admission, payment for the dresses, sports, books, shoes, bags etc...which many parents won't be affordable to pay. Every parent expects his/her daughter/son to study in a good school with better coaching and discipline. Above all today's parents wait in queue for the admission of LKG/UKG in most of the best schools around various metropolitan cities & Towns. Even after this they try in government schools where the quality of infrastructure, hygiene, environment to study etc...have been pathetic. Here the customer for the school is Students and their vision should be "Providing quality education". So in order to provide a customer satisfaction school should restructure their admission system, fees which will be affordable for students from every category of society. Education should always teach them the discipline in life and not aversion for studies. This makes the parents of the students as a delightful customer. Commercialization would only give capital to the school but not customer satisfaction & quality education system.

Likewise lets see this w.r.t Yoga or any other health related sector. When a patient goes to a hospital his prayers to Almighty is should return healthy. In traditional system doctors have great respect and affection towards their patient. Even though there was no sophisticated technology like today in those days doctors always gave positive energy to their patients which have cured many of them. This made the doctor and their clinic/hospital famous due to their customer relationship i.e. patients. But in today's fast moving and technology world many doctors see patients as a headache or burden for them. They do their duty for cost and not for making the patient as a delightful customer. If we refer a hospital "X" as a famous for cardiology, it will through our experience or information from our relatives, friends. But the same X hospital might have not been customer satisfactory for Y person might be due to some reason. But this percentage has been more in today's hospital due to commercialization. If a doctor is famous/best he is not a GOD, he is a human being like us. Hospital should have a system in the cost it can be more but the approach to treat a patient should give him/her the confidence that they will return back "Healthy and be a satisfied customer". This depends on their hospital facility, system of processing their health related reports, proper appointment system to meet the doctor, their stay if they are admitted which includes their attitude of the Nurses, transportation facility if any, payment system etc all together makes a customer delightful. This is seem very less in today's medical system which includes even Yoga. Yoga is a systematic approach to keep oneself healthy and above all resistant enough from various ailments which includes back pain, headaches, obesity etc. But this has been commercialized by many consultant who charges 1000 per sitting and by the time the patient becomes he should have paid Rs. 20000-30000. But the same was taught free by many volunteers which has now turned as a business. Every aspect has turned to be business rather sharing of knowledge. 

So how this affects the customer satisfaction?

1. Customer lands up paying enormous amount until he arrives or not arrives at a solution.

2. He/She will be dissatisfied with the institute/hospital once after undergoing a treatment or training but the quality may be as specified in their website or the ways they should have convinced the customer before joining them.

3. Company goes into a loss once customer spreads this information over social networking media. Today media delivers the information to many within seconds

4. Customer will be both a well wisher and an enemy for any organization. But for commercialized organization he will turn as an  enemy once after going through their process or system.

So organizations should see how to develop a process that focuses on providing the service to the society which will  "add value to the customer" rather not making them a dissatisfied customer. Commercialization will only lead an organization to drastic downfall in their growth along with not providing an opportunity to revive back and build a customer satisfactory image in the market.

Importance of Supplier Management to Customer Relationship Management

In my last blog we have seen how Communication plays a vital role in effective Customer Relationship Management. In this blog we are going to see how supplier management has got same importance as customer relationship management in the growth of an Organization. As we all know unless we keep proper relationships with suppliers an organization will not be able to deliver the desired output on time which will eventually bring drastic collapse of an organization. At each stage supplier act as an input and customer act as an output so these two sectors always go together in any organization or business in general term. We have got an application dedicated for customer relationship management as well as for vendor management. Here we should make sure that the required raw material / finished part is captured effectively in the vendor management thereby getting more output in customer relationship management. So tool pertaining to Vendor Management should be efficiently handled to make sure we make the right decision while placing any order from supplier management which should tally with the market requirement. Excess or shortage will be a cost for the organization which has got negative result. An apt example for this if a medical shop vendor places an excess order for less moving medicine and shortage in large moving medicine will directly affects his business which will also bring down his business due to poor customer relationship management.

Customer relationship is not just handling the customer with efficient communication but to capture his exact need / requirement. As we know a business should move with the customer requirement and not with business requirement i.e. termed as Mass production which was practiced earlier. This is an important part of Marketing executive who should always keep themselves updated with the people's requirement thereby aligning the business accordingly. When this analysis is made efficiently then that the input will provide an efficient decision making when it comes to supplier management. An organization can provide a clear input to the supplier that we would require these many resource/ this quality of raw material in this mentioned time frame to keep themselves in line with this challenging market. Supplier management decision making requires the following input

1. Current market requirement analysis report.

2. Any new replacement opportunity i.e. bringing new model in the market.

3. Time in getting the raw material to time the it takes to reaches the market - Based on the current requirement decision has to be made.

4. Alternate supplier availability & logistic mode.

These are certain inputs that needs to be taken into consideration before making a procurement of raw material which should also carry the decision making report from higher executives. This would eventually make an organization to take proper supplier management decision thereby satisfying the customer needs. Supplier Management when it comes to agriculture requires a lot more decision making skill set along with time management. Unless a Farmer / wholesaler / retailer doesn't have proper time management along with market trend the entire business goes to a loss. Here time plays an even more important roles as the requirement is continuously growing without any reduction.

For every business supplier management should always go with proper decision making reports or frameworks thereby satisfying the customers needs. Customer will be satisfied with the product but getting that quality, availability on time, right cost make him a delightful customer that can be achieved only with this supplier management. How we can say that the supplier management is not efficiently management in our country? In our country every day there is loss in crores especially in agricultural product due to improper management of supply and demand. So in order to resolve these gaps there should be an analysis on the quantity of need of a specific product at a specific market thereby fulfilling their needs on time making them a happy customer. So the wholesaler has to see what is the requirement in the market then make a decision on the stock requirement thereby ensuring that the customer get the required product of the required quantity.

So it is a must in every organization to make a proper management of their supplier in line with the need of the customer thereby gaining a positive growth of an organization. In a way it is a must for an organization that getting more delightful customers depends on their supplier management. Supplier also should make sure that they deliver the requirement of an organization thereby they get more business which is very much applicable in software industries. So now we conclude that an organization should have an efficient, structured supplier management team who actually makes plans & categorize their suppliers according to market analysis report prepared by Marketing Team thereby giving much focus for the "need of customer" and not "as per the need of organization" 

Importance of Communication in Service Management

As we have seen in my previous blog the importance of Traditional Approach of Service Management over Service Management with IT. In this blog we are going to some vital parameters while providing Service Management. The most important comes is "Communication". Service Management in today's market is provided through different medium Chat, Phone, e-mail, Front Office etc. In every form the importance of Communication Skill Set lags with many individuals. Communication cannot be made perfect by attending classes in training institute. Communication skill set should be improved by speaking with someone who is good in that area, watch news channels, reading newspapers etc. Why communication is given greater importance when it comes to Service Management. It is because when we deliver a service to a customer we need to provide him/her with the right information for his/her query. It should be precise and customer should feel satisfied with your answer. Let us see an example.

A customer who has a query on his/her Telephone Bill calls the customer support to get it clarified.

Agent :- Good Morning, Thank you for calling Airtel customer support

Agent : - I am Abhijeet. How may I assist you today?

Customer :- I have few clarifications on my current telephone bill.

Agent: - Sure I would be more than happy to assist you with this. May I have your telephone number to get the information from our system?

Customer: - It's 8939645058

Agent: - Thank you. Can you please let me know your query?

Customer: - I have been charged for the caller tune which I have not activated?

Agent: - I am really sorry to know that. Let me check the same from the system. Kindly provide me 2 minutes while I provide you with the information.

Customer: - Okay

Agent: - Thank you for being on line. I see that the caller tune have not been activated in the system. 

Agent: - I shall forward this information to the billing department. 

Customer : - When can I expect the refund for this?

Agent:- It will be processed with 5-7 working Days. Also you will receive an e-mail from our billing department.

Customer: - Thanks for the information

Agent: - You are welcome. Is there anything else I shall assist you with?

Agent: - You will receive an e-mail by the end of this chat session on the feedback. Kindly provide me with your valuable feedback.

Customer: - Okay Sure.

 Agent: - Thank you for calling Airtel. Have a pleasant day.

So here in the above brief conversation we see that the communication is to the question, that makes the customer comfortable and confident that he/she would get the required information clarified.  So the following are important parameters in communication 1. Be Precise 2. Time Management 3. Proper probing question 4. Clarity in speech 5. Focus on Customer. Time is now not there for many customers, they except the service within no time. In order to achieve the satisfaction of customer, agents should not be well trained on communication but should be regularly assignment on his/her support. A review feedback should be provided on a weekly basis which is normally a best practice to be followed in every organization.. Lets see another example of customer service in Banks with the above important parameters

A customer comes to the branch to open an account.

Bank staff should initially wish him/her and ask "How may I assist you Sir/ Ma'am?" Followed by that they should give then the account opening form along with they should ask for valid identity proof. While the customer is filling the form they should put forward some new schemes available in their Branch. Here the staff should again answer to the question of the customer so that the customer might be delightful to look into that scheme and might take it. So here the staff looks for the right opportunity. This is rarely visible in today's customer service. Especially in Super Markets, Malls etc we never come across such delightful customer service.

Providing service to a customer or a company is an art. It should be more creative rather seeing it from the perspective of Technical/ Management/ Research. It is more a Logical approach of satisfying a customer. Let us a see a scenario of Service Management where a software development firm provides support for it client i.e. a Book Store "Newage Book Store"

Customer calls the technical support and informs that their application is giving an error and it should be addressed immediately.

Here agent who addresses the issue should check for the error and then check if any work around available.  If not immediately check with the escalation team for the solution and get back to the customer, so here how should the agent put forward his reply " Sir, we have forwarded your issue to our escalation team and they will call you back with 12-24 Hours". This statement should be taken serious as they map with the agreed Service Level Agreement.

When we provide service to a customer we should keep the following statements in mind

1. Value the customer.

2. Treat every query as important

3. Direct the customer to the right person

4. Make him satisfied not just by providing offers, discounts etc.

5. Satisfactory feedback by providing right resolution.

6. Have a clear communication flow. Not to grasp by reading communication book.

7. Review your communication randomly at EOD after providing support.

8. Deliver the service based on the scenario. Communication remains same but how the agent delivers matter a lot. 

9. Be time conscious. Deliver the support on time, clarify the query on time, call back on time etc are some important customer expectation when he get a service from a provider/dealer.

10. Lastly if we are not good in communication never hesitate to learn from our colleagues, friends or anyone who can actually guide you to succeed.

 Communication in not only important but it connects people around the globe. Business of an organization completely depends on customer as products are made based on customers requirement. At the same time service management through proper communication adds values to the customer requirement on support/query. So see communication as a medium of getting not only business but also confidence in a customer that they have chosen the right product which actually makes a positive impression on a company's products and employees. When we say "Cisco", immediately the word "they are the best in the Networking products". This is attainable only through proper service management right from Sales -> Implementation -> Continual Service Management. Communication is applicable irrespective of Sector, departments etc. Many organizations know communication is directly related to Service Management but it lags because of an individual. Privacy of information is highly valued by a customer this also add a part of customer value in Service Management

Summary of this Blog

Every Organization should treat communication as a metric as it plays a vital role in Organization Growth by getting satisfactory feedback from their customer for the Service. Communication = Right information + Precise + Time Conscious + Privacy. Lastly always an organization should ensure that communication is seen with importance thereby growing in the market along with valued customers.

Let see a model of Communication in Service Management in the next blog. Kindly provide your suggestion and comments.

Customer Relationship Management - Model based on Process Excellence & Tradional Approach

As we all know "Customer Relationship Management" plays a vital role not only in retaining it's valuable customers but also in growth of an organization in this competitive environment. It gives clarity to a customer on wide range of their queries w.r.t company products, usage, ordering procedures etc... The process flow of customer relationship management varies with industry to industry but focus should always focus towards "Satisfying the customer". But what is the difference between the traditional customer relationship approach and current system of customer relationship management which is system based? How far customer are satisfied with this current approach?

Traditional Customer relationship management before the existence of IT was given importance but was not known much to all of us as technology in those period was limited. The process excellence framework was already in practice and was systematically followed even without the usage of IT. The only drawback was review of feedback reports, market trend reports where not available in graphical or tabular format as we get by means of sophisticated applications and even the requirement of information's in those format where not much required as the business areas where limited. Let us take an example of Library Management System in traditional approach  was mainly managed using the library registers and card system. A registered member of a library takes their required books. Then he/she has to get it marked on the register of the librarian by producing their ID Card. Librarian will then enter the date of taking and return date of the book in the card attached at the back of the Book. If the customer has a query on the availability of the book the librarian was in a position to tell the exact status. He can tell the relocated rack of the requested book and also the alternate book written by different author if not available. Here he adds a value to a customer. But the same process is structured as a application but the time taken has been the same by adding less value to customer satisfaction. But the time spent by a librarian on seeing the stock of the book and providing the alternate author is less as he relies on the application to fetch the information. Librarian should have knowledge on application and also be updated with most of the frequently moving books available in the library. That small additional knowledge will delight the customer. When a librarian sees a new customer he should give an introduction on their library and ranges of books available with them along with that he should share the portfolio that gives an idea to a customer who might become their member.

Main Expectations

1. Organization of books in the library.

2. Process flows of library management right from guiding the customer, getting the information updated in the system, giving the information on membership charges, days the book can be used, additional days extension procedure etc... which includes even the customer support executives

3. Providing special offers to new & existing customers.

In today's scenario many areas there had been a drawback right from customer follow up for their membership card, getting the right information for the query, hardly few libraries have updates on the special offers available, many library have information which are outdated. Many of us have started giving less importance to library rather diverted to e-books or going for ordering new books. But in case of students or a reader from a background of less incomes prefers library so their customer relationship management with IT should be even more systematic and customer focused. In traditional approach librarians knows most of the members names and the books he/she prefers. That was the real "Customer Relationship Management".

So in the traditional approach importance for the customer was equally provided along with the growth of the organization. In today's trend many sector focus on the quantity of the customers and movement of their products but doesn't much importance on the quality of product or service. Service or query the information provided to the customer should be Precise and it should answer to their question. It should not make the customer to put the same query. So customer relationship management is all about following the right process to provide right information to the right customer at right time.

So always first comes the process which is finally going to the feedback and decides the growth of any organization. In 1980-90's when we get a product we were assured that the product last for 10-15 years if we maintain them well but today a customer relationship agent says that the part not available in case of a mobile phone after 6 months. So buying a mobile or any product for feature is not going to satisfy a customer but the life of a product.

Customer Relationship Model (Traditional Approach) = Systematic + Reliable + Customer Focused + Proper Time Management + Additional care for known customers + Quality & Quantity focused + Everyone aimed for positive growth of an organization + Belief on customer

Current Approach using IT (Model: - Traditional) = System (Systematic) + Not Reliable + Not truly customer focused + Quantity focused & not quality + Not focused on continuous positive focus of an organization + Not adding much value to even known customer + No proper information (Majority) + No proper communication channels followed (especially HR, Customer support from Telecommunication, Car Dealers, Government Offices etc)

In today's Government Services with IT how many citizens of this country are benefited especially in agriculture, small sector industries, education system, Aadhar card system.  Many of these are not been addressed to the level of satisfaction as there is no knowledge to these citizens from rural and urban region. They only have belief that the Government will do Good. But it is the duty of Tech savy & literate people to teach them the process w.r.t to IT. Many organizations have taken initiatives to teach people in these regions but how this can made as a wide spread which in turn benefit these sector to execute their task efficiently, customer & time focused. In what way process can be realigned to address these gaps to make Current approach as same as Traditional approach in terms of Customer relationship Management.

So based on this current topics kindly provide your valuable comments and suggestions. Also any queries kindly let me know.