The Link Between Customer Service and Customer Satisfaction

It is impossible to overstate the importance of good customer service. Customer service representatives are the face and voice of a business, and a client’s experience with a company (and their decision whether or not to return) is based in large part on their point-of-service interactions. It does not always matter if a business has the best products or services; if it is difficult or unpleasant to communicate with a company that will be the emotional impression that the customer recalls the next time they are considering using your service. The secret to customer satisfaction is to ensure prompt, meaningful responses from friendly, professional people that leave clients feeling like they have been heard, their needs will be met, and that the organization cares about them as an individual.

The position of “receptionist” has frequently been denigrated as a low-skill level position that can be given to almost anyone, when in fact that role is crucial to the success of a company. Human beings make up their mind about how they feel about a business very quickly, and those initial impressions are lasting and can be very hard to change. To entrust that first impression to a low-level employee that you do not have faith in is a foolhardy gesture, and one that has cost many businesses in the past. This is why many successful businesses have chosen to utilize call centers such as Personalized Communications or other telephone answering services, in order to ensure that all client interactions are polite, professional, and positive.

The value to using an inbound call center is that you ensure a prompt, friendly, human response every time. Receptionists are expensive and impractical to employ around the clock; however, a 24 hour answering service ensures that there is always someone there to address your clients’ needs, whatever time they may arise. Customers are never forced to wait overnight or across a weekend before they can get answers to their questions, which is critical to maintaining favorable emotional impressions in your client base. A live answering service also means that instead of an automated system, customers will always reach a live human being – and while that may seem like a small touch, for many individuals that is a huge difference. A professional answering service can make a personal connection and address customers’ needs in an empathetic, understanding way, helping them feel like their experience is important to the company.

Studies have shown that people remember the way they felt during a given experience more than the specific facts about what happened. It is the job of businesses’ customer service departments, then, to manage the emotional experiences of their customers. If they have problems, they need to be addressed as quickly as possible, so as not to leave a potentially permanent negative impression of the company. Automated answering services are often cheaper than their human counterparts, but they can never create the kind of connection with a client that turns a one-time customer into a regular.

A business’s customer service department is their front line for all customer interactions, and, as the old shampoo ads used to say, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression.” The first impression (as well as second, third, etc.) is too critical a factor in a

business’s success to be left in the hands of unskilled employees or inhuman robots. The best answering services create connections between an organization and the individuals that interact with it, and the most successful businesses are the ones that create the deepest, most lasting connections; as such, the smartest owners are the ones that never underestimate the importance of good customer service.

Company Bio

Personalized Communications is an answering and call center services provider with over 30 years in the business communications field. They pride themselves on not only providing premier service to their clients, but also on maintaining an experienced, happy staff. Most of their employees have been with the company for 3+ years and are highly skilled with the continually upgraded equipment. Personalized Communications is a standard-setting company providing top-notch attention to all of their clients.