来源：杨翠萍蔡莉主编，大学商务英语综合教程学生用书，清华大学出版社2016.8
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Customer Service Champs
By Jena McGregor Bob Emig was flying home from St.Louis on Southwest Airlines this past December when an all-too-familiar travel nightmare began to unfold.After his airplane backed away from the gate,he and his fellow pasngers were told the plane would need to be de-iced.When the aircraft was ready to fly two and a half hours later, the pilot had reached the hour limit t by the Federal Aviation Administration,and a new pilot was required.By that time,the plane had to be de-iced again.Five hours after the scheduled departure time,Emig’s flight was finally ready for takeoff.
A customer rvice disaster,right?Not to hear Emig tell it.The pilot walked the aisles,answering questions and offering constant updates.Flight attendants,who Emig says“really emed like they cared,”kept up with the news on connecting flights.And within a couple of days of arriving home,Emig,who travels frequently, received a letter from Southwest that included two free round-trip ticket vouchers.“I could not believe they acknowledged the situation and apologized,”says Emig.“Then they gave me a gift,for all intents and purpos,to make up for the time spent sitting on the runway.”
保持的英文Emig’s“gift”from the airline was not the result of an unusually kind customer rvice agent who took pity
on his plight.Nor was it a scramble to make amends after a disastrous operational fiasco,as JetBlue perienced recently.Rather, it was standard procedure for Southwest Airlines,which almost six years ago created a new high-level job that overes all proactive customer communications with customers.Fred Taylor,who was plucked from the field by President Colleen C. Barrett to fill the role,coordinates information that’s nt to all frontline reps in the event of major flight disruptions.But he’s also charged with nding out letters,and in many cas flight vouchers,to customers caught in major storms,air traffic snarls,or other travel mess—even tho beyond Southwest’s control—that would fry the nerves of a asoned traveler.“It’s not something we had to do,”says Taylor.“It’s just something we feel our customers derve.”
流于表面As Southwest recognizes,providing great customer rvice is much more than just a job for the front lines or the call centers.It takes coordination from the top, bringing together people,management,technology,and process to put customers’needs first.That’s true today more than ever.Technology is leveling the barriers between alpha companies and alsorans,making great customer rvice one of the few ways companies can distinguish themlves.Retail,online,and phone shopping channels are expanding,increasingly prompting customers to demand a amless—and painless—experience.Refining time-tested concepts and coming up with cutting-edge ideas is critical for managing rank-and-file workers and measuring what customers think.
补血的药物有哪些
无绝期
For most of us customer rvice is an aggravating maze of automated phone trees and scripted voices resonating from halfway around the world.But while offshoring call-center work is still growing steadily,companies are getting smarter about what they nd overas.“I think we’re eing some backlash,”says Bruce Temkin, Forrester Rearch Inc.’s principal analyst for customer experience.“Companies are pulling some(more complex types of calls)back from offshore,and in other cas are recognizing they need to invest more in tho facilities to give reps more tools and training.”
One encouraging alternative trend is“homeshoring,”in which rvice agents armed with a broadband line,a computer,and a quiet corner in their spare bedroom respond to calls at their homes.Service can be better for customers becau homeshoring attracts more experienced workers with more education than do regular call centers.Stay-at-home moms are a big part of the labor pool and like the flexibility and nonexistent commuting costs of the home-bad model.That makes them more loyal,keeping turnover lower and experience levels higher.Companies that outsource calls to home-bad agents report turnover rates in the10%to30%range,compared with anywhere from60%to100%in the average call center.The home-bad outsourcing model,with its more experienced agents working at home in jeans and slippers,fits well with the idea that happier front line folks will make for happier customers.
色女孩影视The connection between satisfied employees and contented customers is hardly a new concept:Any business-school student can recite by heart the concept of the “rvice-profit chain,”which draws the inextricable link between the front line and satisfied customers.But new rearch from Katzenbach Partners offers an updated metaphor.The firm stress the importance of an“empathy engine,”which looks at the role of the entire organization,including middle and nior management,in providing great rvice.If that engine is thought of as a heart,“the whole company has to pump the customer through it,”says Traci Entel,a principal at Katzenbach Partners who recently studied13leading rvice companies’best practices.“It starts much further back,with how they organize themlves,and how they place value on thinking about the customer.”
Helping employees become more empathetic with customers was a common focus.For instance,all front line workers at Cabela’s,the outfitter famous for its massive retail shrines to hunting,fishing,and camping,partake in a free product-loaner program.Staffers are encouraged to borrow any of the company’s more than200,000products for up to two months,so long as they write a review that’s shared via a company wide software system when the goods are returned.That’s not only a perk for employees;it also helps them better empathize with product issues customers might have.
But few places make empathizing with customers quite as luxurious an experience as Four Seasons
近身格斗术Hotels.At most of its properties,the final piece of the ven-step employee orientation is something the chain’s executives call a “familiarization stay”or“fam trip.”Each worker in the hotels,from houkeepers to front-desk clerks,is given a free night’s stay for themlves and a guest,along with
free dining.
党支部民主生活会
While there,employees are asked to grade the hotels on such measures as the number of times the phone rings when calling room rvice to how long it takes to get items to a room.“We bill it as a training ssion,”says Ellen Dubois du Bellay, vice-president of learning and development.“They’re learning what it looks like to receive rvice from the other side.”
That’s key when your product is out of range for many employees—a$400 room rate isn’t exactly easy to swing on a houkeeper’s budget.But the perk doesn’t stop at orientation:After six months of rvice,employees may stay up to three nights a year for free.By10years,they get20free stays.As you’d imagine,“there’s a very healthy uptake,”says du Bellay.Four Seasons’creative but practical approach reveals one of the most powerful crets of world-class rvice:helping employees to understand what it feels like to be a customer.Thinking like that distinguishes our customer rvice champs from the rest of the field.
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From Business Week
