If there’s one thing that could be said to be positive about the recession, it’s that companies are taking customer complaints more seriously.

Recently, there has been a lot of press about the tongue-in-cheek complaint letter sent to Virgin Atlantic by one its customers regarding their appalling food experience. This has resulted in the customer being invited to Virgin’s catering centre to give comments and advice. Virgin clearly want to turn the complaint into a positive opportunity for change, though a sceptic could argue that this may be somewhat prompted by the high publicity surrounding the complaint.

Still, Virgin has just emerged top in a recent survey for customer satisfaction, and there is a lesson here for all businesses.

Generally speaking, complaining customers can be very poor in communicating what they actually want, and instead get embroiled with the emotion and frustration surrounding their complaint.

It’s the job of a good customer service representative to interpret this information calmly and analytically into improving their company’s services, not just for that individual but for all their clients.

Remember, every complaining customer is one that wishes you to take action to earn their loyalty, and by resolving the complaint well, you’re likely to keep them for a healthy period of time.

If you’re a manager or business leader who feels your company could be doing more in handling customer complaints to improve your systems and procedures, you might want to consider sending some of your key staff on some quality customer service training courses.

Registered charity Which? claims to be the largest consumer body in the UK and has been testing products and investigating the service and performance of companies and their products for 50 years.

They have just published the results of a ‘high street shops survey’ in which Waitrose was voted as the favourite by the 14,000 people polled. They beat over ninety other competitors overall in factors covering price, customer service, quality and environment. Which? commented:

“The findings revealed that offering a great customer experience is the way to many consumers’ hearts - so despite their higher prices, Waitrose and John Lewis were praised by Which? members for store environment, helpful staff and quality products.”

This result gives some interesting advice to managers and small business owners. Waitrose are not known to be the cheapest store, and some may be forgiven for thinking their sales and service would be suffering from the economic downturn. Yet if they are going to emerge from it strongly, it’s the work that’s gone in to winning awards such as these that will achieve it.

Keep investing the personal development and customer service training of your staff, and keep ahead of competitors, so you don’t just compete on price.

The British airline operator Virgin, owned by entrepreneur Richard Branson, has won a customer service award from the Institute of Customer Service (ICS), making them the leading practitioner of customer service in the aviation industry.

Twenty-four thousand consumers were surveyed and asked questions relating to issues such as their efficiency and effectiveness in handling complaints, professionalism, and the friendliness and competency of staff. Virgin scored seventy-nine out of a possible one hundred points.

The chief executive of the airline that beat its rivals such as BA, was delighted that his company received the award:

“Virgin Atlantic took to the skies in 1984 with the passionate belief that we could revolutionise the customer experience. Winning the ICS award at the start of our 25th birthday year is testament to our ongoing commitment to this philosophy.”

This is a good example that should inspire business leaders and managers alike to continue investing in the personal development and customer service training of their staff. Many would agree that if the aviation is industry is likely to suffer during this economic downturn (since they could be argued as a ‘luxury item’), then Virgin’s commitment to customer service is only going help them ride it out.

As a result of a partnership between the London Business Support Network, Business Competitiveness Group in Yorkshire and Humber and the Quality Working Group, the not for profit organisation Customer First UK was born.

Using the catchy registered trademark ‘putting the customer first’ they invite companies to apply for their ‘Customer First Standard’ which is a comprehensive award encompassing three key areas; building customer relationships, maximising market awareness and developing your people.

This national standard has just been awarded to Cambridge Enterprise Services whose Chief Exec commented “Cambridgeshire Enterprise Services are no stranger to going out of our way to help customers and I’m delighted we have been officially recognised for this. Our job is all about nurturing the potential of people as new business owners. We always strive for great customer service and tell our customers they should do the same.”

It’s good to see that businesses are being recognised for their investment in personal development and customer service training of their staff. However, as great as they are, awards and recognition is not as important as the learnt skills themselves, and how they are actually applied to the business, its people and its customers.

In trying times (and this is undoubtedly one of them) businesses sometimes turn to outsourcing solutions in the hope of maintaining and improving service, whilst at the same time minimising costs.

Outsourcing customer service solutions can take many different forms, from offsite call centres to ICT integrated semi-automated or fully automated systems. The London Borough of Southwark have recently collaborated with US award winning company Vangent Inc. to integrate a customer service solution:

“The sophisticated solution offers a whole host of services beyond the citizen’s original purpose of call, as well as reducing the costs of service delivery. In one interaction, multiple services can be completed including council tax registration, application for housing and council tax benefits, school meals, children’s clothes, parking permits, library cards and electoral registration.”

To what extent it’s a success time will tell and let’s hope it’s a great solution. Companies looking to outsource their customer service needs should remember the basic issue that comes up in all customer service training courses; customers often benefit from a personal interaction with a knowledgeable member of staff.

It’s undoubtedly critical for your business to get a grip on your customer services challenges. In today’s competitive environment and in the face of a reduction in consumer spending it’s more important than ever to ‘get it right’. It’s important to understand that often when a complaint or problem is handled quickly and efficiently, it can even increase the customer’s loyalty to you.

So what are the five key elements to consider in the spectrum of customer complaints?

Avoidance
How much work at you putting into the ‘back end’ to ensure that the problems don’t arise to begin with? Do some analysis of previous complaint and problem issues and take preventative measures to avoid them in the future.

Handling
How well are you actually dealing with the problems you get? As with everything good in management, this needs to be analysed, measured and corrective action made. It’s time to review your systems, procedures and information flows.

Satisfaction
How satisfied is your customer in the actual way that you handled the complaint?

Outcome
How satisfied is your customer with the actual outcome of the complaint? Note that this issue and the previous ones are two different ones.

Training
How well prepared are your staff to give the very best in customer service? Often, they’ll benefit from personal development training in customer service to have an overall beneficial impact.

International mobile phone giant, T-Mobile, has started making use of its own services as a unique method of gaining feedback from its customers. By using their own text-based short message service (SMS), T-Mobile can contact customers after any sales call, technical interaction or even retail visit to poll them on the level of service they received.

Using customer feedback correctly can be one of the best ways of improving a company’s staff. This method used by T-Mobile is not only innovative, but also means that target improvements can be made based on the information returned by customers. For example, if customers regularly respond negatively after sales calls, the company can consider enhancing their sales training routine.

T-Mobile has managed to make this feedback system work using a service called the Fizzback Engagement Platform. The service is capable of returning real-time results, so overall performance can easily be monitored at all times. It can also filter results out by their associated department, so the company can determine which areas may need further personal development. The filtered results can automatically be forwarded to different to suitable destinations in order to ascertain the maximum benefit from the feedback.

Having some form of customer feedback service combined with professional training courses is important to any organisations success.

Everybody knows that customer service is king and that’s why UK companies invest vast amounts of time and money into the customer service training and personal development of their staff.

It’s a lot cheaper to spend a little money to make sure you keep your existing customers happy, than it is to have to find new ones after losing some from poor services.

However, in this current economic climate some companies are being forced to cut back on customer service staff to save money. Alternatively, other industries that are still managing to grow are trying to avoid recruiting new staff to cope with customer service demands.

Both situations are dangerous, as managers are trying to juggle budgets whilst retaining good business. There are few things you can do to cut down on your customer service man hours, and/or improve your customer service.

Offer call backs
During peak periods, instead of keeping your customer queuing on the line, make sure there call is answered, a brief note taken of the nature of the enquiry, and agree a call back during a specified time period.

Analysis
Analyse typical customer questions and queries and publish them electronically, to give the client an opportunity to seek a solution without having to call your staff.

Tutorials
Depending on the nature of your business you may be able to publish written or video tutorials on the internet to help your clients find a D.I.Y. solution.

Cross Train
Train other people in your organisation (whose typical function is other than customer service), so they can help out with phone support in peak periods.

There seems to be a silver lining for the consumer in regard to the current economic UK downturn. According to the Institute of Customer Service, who recently carried out a large scale survey, customer service seems to be improving - perhaps due to the economic downturn.

As consumers are increasing their search for better value for money, they are becoming more discerning and less tolerant of poor customer service values from companies. In turn, many companies are realising that if they are going to try and retain customers and market share they need to sharpen up on their quality of customer service.

It’s important for your company to take the time to review your customer service policies and procedures. If possible, a root and branch analysis should take place covering everything from client satisfaction surveys, assessing your telephone call answer efficiency and effectiveness, and reviewing the personal development and training needs of your customer service staff.

Cranfield Business School’s Graham Clark, comments in relation to the ICS survey:

“In any economic climate, organisations that succeed are built on sound management principles. The latest [survey] provides compelling evidence for continuing investment in service excellence - it should convince managers to concentrate on service development rather than take knee-jerk decisions to concentrate on cutting costs.”

It’s a tough time for businesses in the UK, and all over the world, and a good deal of focus is being placed by many on battening down the hatches by cutting costs and cutting spending across the board.

However, those businesses that are going to emerge from this economic crisis with strength and market share are those that are placing their focus on excellence in customer service.

It’s time to look at your overall customer service offering and seeing what you can do to improve it. Here are some important considerations you might want to take on board:

Long Term Thinking
It might be difficult, but don’t stop looking ahead to see what product service mix will met your clients needs for tomorrow, next month and next year.

Invest
In your cost cutting mode, beware of steps you take in cutting areas that will affect your customer service experience. Be brave and invest; invest in the personal development of your sales and customer service team with training and brain-storming activities.

Measure
Look at the quality of produce, your service delivery and the customer satisfaction it generates. Only if you can measure it qualitatively and/or quantitatively will you be able to truly know where you can take steps for improvement.

History is littered with instances of companies that have triumphed over adversity in tough economic times to emerge as leaders in their field. When inefficient and inefficient companies fall by the wayside, your focus on customer service might put in a stronger position than ever.