Using Customer Service to Promote Satisfaction
Customers have high expectations when purchasing goods or acquiring services, which necessitates businesses to deliver excellent services and products that satisfy their needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Service delivery in the logistics sector entails tracking of shipments, timely delivery, customer engagement, and activities that facilitate business-customer interactions and long-term business relations. However, successful businesses must use customer service to build loyalty and trust amongst clients to boost their organization’s performance and competitiveness during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, efficient customer services not only aim at improving the reliability of clients, but it also helps in creating an agile team with experience in handling customer needs. Additionally, organizations want a customer-base where there is transparency in the use of the data, and they value the offer to customers (Ilias & Shamsudin, 2020). However, changes in the business environment during COVID-19 are inhibiting businesses from rending quality services. Hence, customer service drives the logistics industry, influencing customer satisfaction, and organizations’ competitiveness during the COVID-19 pandemic as the rest of this discussion reveals.
Satisfaction Measurement in Customer Service
Businesses use positive feedbacks from clients as the means of measuring satisfaction from their experiences when purchasing or making inquiries. Mmutle & Shonhe (2017) reveal that customer satisfaction in the tours and travel industry is measurable by comparing customer feedback regarding their expectation and their experience with an agent. From their study, Mmutle & Shonhe (2017) reveal that 77% of clients used the same tour company when they had a good experience in their first service, while 84% will seek services elsewhere when the services were not what they expected. Moreover, Hirata (2019) suggests that the quality of sales personnel, digitalization, and customer service have a strong relationship with excellent customer experience in the shipping industry. When conducting the study, Hirata (2019) considered customer service factors that inspire customer satisfaction and found out that customers are 50% more attracted to a business with high quality of sale representation, customer service, and digitalization. Thus, positive feedback is the traditional mechanism of measuring satisfaction, and suppliers can tell the areas customers have lousy experience through the feedback.
Satisfaction measurement is essential in developing reputable, reliable, and satisfying customer-base with cognizance of customer needs in the logistics industry. Stopka et al. (2016) found that the efficiency of customer service is measurable through bad experiences customers encounter when buying, such as receiving wrong goods, damaged goods, or delay in delivery. Furthermore, Stopka et al. (2016) indicate that the attitude of customers in a bad buying experience such as receiving damaged goods, lost goods, delay, or receiving the wrong goods can damage their views towards the supplier. However, 60% of customers will still buy from the supplier if the customer service can satisfy the client by amending the mistake amicably. Moreover, 65% of customers will not buy from the same supplier if the customer service handled the unfortunate experience of the customer in a casual manner. The management of a bad customer service experience determines the satisfaction of a customer, and if the customer forms a final lousy perception of the supplier, their chances of buying again diminishes. Therefore, a bad experience allows the supplier to evaluate satisfaction after tackling the unmet customer needs.
Customer satisfaction is measurable using traditional methods that deal with positive feedback and new techniques that manage the opinion of a client after negative feedback. Still, the outcome affects the business as follows. Customer satisfaction affects business performance, business success, and competitiveness of the company. Below is an explicit explanation of the use of customer service in inspiring business success, improved performance, and competitiveness in various industries, mostly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Customer Service Relations and Organizational Performance
The quality of customer service is critical to the service industry and affects organizational performance through customer retention and loyalty. According to Zendesk (2020), the performance of businesses that operate in the service industry depends on customer relations and satisfaction in which 89% of customers decide to buy due to a quick response from the seller. Additionally, 97% of respondents in the study by Zendesk (2020) revealed that lousy quality of customer service influences the buying behavior, while 87% of participants feel that excellent services make customers buy again. Similarly, Sule & Iyabo (2013) reveal that a good relationship between service staff in an organization and a customer stimulates customer loyalty such that the client buys again from the business. Moreover, 47% of customers will change their buying behavior up to two years after a bad customer service experience (Zendesk). Hence, customer service influences the performance of a business, such that poor relations diminishes customer loyalty and reduces the chance of customer retention while good relationships motivate clients to buy again.
Customer service improves organizational performance through customer retention and loyalty that emerges from the quality of services offered during inquiry and aftersales. Sule & Iyabo (2013) indicate that the quality of response a client receives during investigation determines the kind of relationship the sprouts between the client and the customer care personnel. A client will buy and promise to buy again when the quality of response during the inquiry was timely and satisfactory. Sule & Iyabo (2013) emphasize that the customer is the king, and businesses open their operations with the vision of having loyal customers that they can meet their needs; hence, the company should retain them by forging a good relationship. Similarly, Kihombo (2015) found that Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) increased its customer base from only 200 new customers in 2009 to more than 7000 by 2009 after it established a customer relations team. Additionally, 75% of the management of KCB attributes the improved performance of the bank to the establishment of a capable customer relations team that handles customer needs and creates relationships with the bank (Kihombo, 2015). Therefore, customer loyalty and retention improves when a business runs a capable customer relations team, and this improves organizational performance.
Customer service relations improve organizational performance by giving the business a good reputation compared to their peers, which enhances competitiveness. A good relationship between sales agents, customer care officials, and the customers make a customer suggest to their friend to buy from a particular business. Kihombo (2015) reveals that the establishment of the customer relations department improved the rate KCB gets new clients between 2009 and 2014 because the new clients suggested the bank to their friends. Besides, Sule & Iyabo (2013) reveal that 78% of businesses surveyed in their study believed that they obtained new clients from existing clients that bring their friends or from friend suggestions. Besides, Sule & Iyabo (2013) also reveal that customers not satisfied with services owing to relations with the sales agents or customer care personnel will not talk positively about their buying experience to friends. Thus, organizational performance improves when customer services enable clients to recommend the business to their friends, which gives them new clients.
Customer Service and Business Success in Logistics
Customer service relation forms a vital input into the success of the logistics organization through addressing customer needs and establishing positive relationships with clients. Many logistics companies selling their goods online during COVID-19 can only be effective in meeting customer needs through timely response to the inquiry, politeness of the customer care official, and quality of delivery of orders (Rapaccini et al., 2020). Online businesses that fail to give a timely response on inquiries by clients lose the business opportunity to their competitors, as some customers need an urgent response so that they are decisive (Song et al., 2020). For example, Amazon.com improved its sales volume and recorded the highest dollar spending in online transactions in the first quarter of 2020 because it established a focused supply line for customers during the period (Spurk & Straub, 2020). In essence, Amazon.com increased the number of employees handling customer inquiries and those conducting deliveries to ensure that there are no inconveniences despite their large volumes of orders (Spurk & Straub, 2020). Therefore, amazon.com is an example of a logistics and online business using customer service relations to enhance business success by addressing customer needs with proper client-employee relationships.
Business failure in logistics also arises due to unmet customer needs arising from poor customer relations services, as is evident in many organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Park et al. (2020) indicate that a good relationship between employees and customers of an organization makes the clients want to do business with the entity in the future. During the COVID-19 pandemic, customers are relying on companies that can assure them that they can meet the expectation of a customer with stringent laws on the movement of people (Rapaccini et al., 2020). Many businesses dealing in fast foods, grocery, and liquor that only sell in their premises are losing business opportunities because they cannot connect with customers physically (Rapaccini et al., 2020). However, a business that established customer relation units that make door-to-door supply is still afloat, and they have employees dealing with customer inquiries, packaging, and delivery of orders. While some businesses are large enough to run a customer service team, others are small such that the owner handles all the functions of a manager, accountant, and customer service (Rapaccini et al., 2020). In essence, running a small business with a customer service unit is ideal, but such enterprises lack the capital to sustain a customer service group, which works as a weakness. Hence, during the COVID-19 pandemic, some businesses are failing due to their inability to establish a customer service relations team that can help them meet client needs through door-to-door delivery.
Logistics companies embrace reliability as a customer service relations strategy that makes their business successful. Customers expect businesses to make quick responses to inquiries and make timely delivery or communicate promptly to prevent inconveniences. Late delivery of goods or services makes clients unsatisfied, and 97% of clients claim that they will look for the same products or services elsewhere in their next purchase (Stopka et al., 2016). Additionally, delivery of the wrong goods or incomplete components of an order placed by a client arouse dissatisfaction, which results in customers being unhappy with the supplier (Stopka et al., 2016). However, a supplier that has functional customer service relations can use it to convince the customer for patience as they address the deficit or the raised concern. The aim of creating the customer service unit is to ensure that customers have the best experience in dealing with a business, and they feel treated like a priority when purchasing (Pantano et al., 2020).
Additionally, customer services are vital in managing bad experiences between a client and the organization. For instance, during a bad experience, the customer service unit makes assuring statements to the client to ensure that the experience does not ruin relations with the business. Nevertheless, logistics companies are thriving by becoming reliable through timely delivery and supply of the correct package to customers. Still, excellent customer service relations can dispel fears and dissatisfaction from clients when mistakes occur during delivery.
Customer Service Relations and Competitiveness
Logistics companies are struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic, while others are thriving due to customer satisfaction and an improved supply chain built by their customer service teams. Ghelber (2020) indicates that COVIV-19 is piling pressure on businesses such that many are striving to attain customer satisfaction through faster and cheaper delivery. In essence, most consumers are shopping online due to restrictions set by authorities to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the community, with USA recording 49% increase in online shoppers (Pantano et al., 2020). For example, amazon.com in the USA increased its customer service unit by 30% in the wake of COVID-19 in the USA to cater for the growing number of online shoppers acquiring their services at the time. Pantano et al. (2020) add that amazon.com had a customer service unit even before COVID-19 struck. Still, the professionalism embraced in the team during the pandemic is helping satisfy customer needs and boost business performance.
Similarly, e-commerce businesses thriving in the unnatural business environment brought by COVID-19 are employing customer-focused measures that aim at satisfying the need of customers such as timely delivery and rapid response to inquiries (Pantano et al., 2020). In contrast, businesses that cannot match customer needs leads to dissatisfaction, which makes them lose clients to competitors. Thus, while some logistic companies are struggling during the pandemic, some are successful due to active customer service activities that lead to satisfaction and excellent experience.
Customer relations stimulate logistic companies to develop a feedback mechanism that allows them to deal with client needs in a better way during the COVID-19 period and be competitive in the process. For instance, customer feedback forms the basis of developing strategies used in service delivery by logistic companies that have active customer service relations teams. Hirata (2019) reveals that the satisfaction of clients in logistic business has a strong correlation with establishing top-quality customer services, digitalization for data comparison, and top sales representation. Contrariwise, the feedback could be that a client was happy or satisfied with the service, which will assure the customer service relations team that they have an effective strategy (Pantano et al., 2020). However, negative feedback such as delayed delivery shows that the company needs to improve, which the customer relations group will communicate to the operations management team. For example, in 2009, KCB found that they had weak customer interaction and customer care, which necessitated them to set up a customer service team, and by 2014, they had more than 7000 new clients (Kihombo, 2015). In the case of KCB, customers just lacked touch with the bank because the bank required a customer service unit that could answer their questions and convince them to invest with KCB.
Similarly, amazo.com is enjoying business during COVID-19 because they have a customer service unit that can handle customer expectations in all their product categories. In essence, evaluation of customer feedback keeps the business in a state of continuous improvement, which not only satisfies their clients but also gives them a competitive edge. Nonetheless, feedbacks systems are helping logistic companies to address their shortcomings, improve continuously, and be more competitive.
Customer service enables logistic businesses to help their clients make decisions through effective client support systems that will allow them to make clients understand operations. The client support system will allow customers to relate with the business in a close manner such that the support team helps clients to address the difficulties they are encountering during purchase or delivery (Ghelber, 2020). The support system enables clients to ask relevant questions concerning the new methods set in most businesses, like paying bills through money transfers to avoid the spread of coronavirus (Weinstein & McFarlane, 2017). Furthermore, companies with support systems that understand the concerns of clients can convince the client to buy. When satisfied, the client promises to buy again from the same vendor because they have a good relationship with the customer service. However, clients not satisfied with the amount of support accorded during inquiry or purchase ends up trying another vendor, as the quest is always to get a satisfactory service. Therefore, customer support services are essential during the COVID-19 because it helps clients decide on purchases and enables the business to forge good customer relations that promotes loyalty.
Therefore, logistics businesses operating during the COVID-19 can enhance business success, business performance, and competitiveness through customer services. Organizations employ feedback systems such as the traditional positive feedback system that evaluates satisfaction in terms of the high number of positive client feedback. In contrast, the current negative feedback evaluation of customer satisfaction helps businesses control the feeling of the client after a bad experience with the supplier so that they do not lose the client. The measurements reveal that customer satisfaction achieved by customer service enables businesses to perform better through customer loyalty and retention. During COVID-19 pandemic, business performance and customer satisfaction are positive in some stores are showing better performance in improved sales and attracting new customers. However, business in the logistics industry without proper customer services is unable to match customer expectations, which is reducing their performance. Besides, through customer satisfaction, the customer service unit is allowing organizations with proper customer-care teams to develop a competitive edge because such businesses attract new clients and retain the old ones. Nonetheless, logistics businesses are successful in achieving customer satisfaction through their functional customer service teams, which enable them to be competitive, successful, and perform better than those that have none.
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