Good customer service has always been a differentiator and a value-added business tool. It commands a reasonable level of customer loyalty, all other things being equal. Bad customer service is remembered for a long time. It opens the door for competitors. It becomes part of a company’s reputation and is reflected in a company’s brand identity in the marketplace.

What constitutes “good customer service” today, however, is different from what it was 20, 10 or even five years ago. Direct personal contact has always been a cornerstone of good customer service. This includes a field sales force providing personal contact and building relationships with customers. It may include staffing of a separate, easy-to-access, live customer service team to answer questions on the phone.

As an alternative or complement to a direct sales force, companies rely on their distributors to provide personal contact with customers. While either of these conventional approaches to maintaining good customer relations are still important, companies must now consider incorporating newer methods into their customer service program to stay competitive.

The task of implementing and administering an effective customer service program today is much more complex. The rapid increase in the number of indirect customer contact options available to companies via the internet, social media, etc., has encroached on traditional customer service methods.

What adds to the challenge of designing a good customer service program is that customers, at all levels of the organization, are reliant on computers and cell phones for communications every day. As a result, customers now expect to have both direct and indirect options available.

Today, a lot is written about achieving and maintaining a high level of customer service by adopting these newer customer service methods. This includes a variety of indirect customer contact platforms such as live chat. It also includes remote customer access to information about company products or technical information about products and services which do not incorporate an option for interaction.

A variety of software is currently available to companies which is intended to improve or be a complement to an existing customer service program. Most of these software options are at least intended to deliver an immediate response to customer questions or provide on-the-spot information on products or services. Certain software provides a portal where customers can obtain direct access to company information, place orders, or get answers to questions. In all cases, this is accomplished without the need to talk to a real person.

Table 1 provides a list of indirect communication channels available today to companies as enhancements to their customer service program.

Establishing and managing a quality customer service program increasingly requires a willingness to adjust and adapt the company’s approach. By expanding the number of channels through which customers can get answers to their questions quickly, it reduces the chances for a bad customer service experience.

E-commerce portals, for example, provide customers ready access to order entry, order tracking and product availability information. This has become an important tool for businesses that sell directly to the individual consumer. In the case of markets where retail sales play an important role, such as architectural paints, e-commerce is now a necessary part of a company’s overall customer service program in order to stay competitive.

Analytics is another tool that can play a role in customer service. Much of the software associated with the various alternative channels listed in Table 1 is designed to collect data. This data is then used to develop metrics. These metrics provide management with a real-time assessment of business activity, market trends, customer preferences, and customer satisfaction. The actual value of the data collected through these programs varies significantly, however, depending on the number of variables involved and how the process of data collection is structured.

Customer Service in The Coatings Industry

In the coatings industry, the diversity of the individual market segments that comprise it along with the size and structure of companies that serve it makes it almost impossible to generalize on what is “good customer service.”

As a result, developing and managing a quality customer service program is somewhat individual to each organization. It is also guided by individual customer needs and expectations for service and the benchmarks established by key competitors within a given market space.

Table 2 identifies several of the most important issues that determine a company’s approach to customer service in our industry.

A company’s approach to providing quality service to their customers is not always guided by what the customer wants or needs from their supplier.

Internal constraints can limit the company’s flexibility and adaptability to change. In some situations, the organization can be slow to make changes to their traditional approach to service. This may be the result of the way in which customer service is incorporated into the overall structure of the organization. Alternatively, resistance to change can be related to how customer service is budgeted within the current business model.

The size and geographic scope of the business can have an overriding influence on how the company approaches customer service. Global companies increasingly want to provide a seamless approach to customer service worldwide. This includes the desire to strengthen the company’s global image, brand value, and company leadership in key issues such as sustainability.

When the organizational structure, even within a specific market space, segregates the responsibility for customer service by geographic region, universal changes can be difficult to implement.

The markets or industries that comprise a company’s business landscape play a significant role in determining the types of customer service needed. In the context of formulated products, certain markets are a much better fit for adopting many of the indirect customer service tools now available. Markets where the manufactured products are sold directly to the individual consumers favor expanded use of indirect customer service methods.

In contrast, markets that involve high performance end-use applications or employ advanced technology platforms need direct access to knowledgeable individuals at their suppliers. Personal contact is necessary to address problems or get advice on product use. Indirect contact, through various portals, will not do the job. Nothing is more frustrating to customers in these situations than to listen to a recorded voice while trying to get a real person on the phone that they can talk to.

Product lines and value-chain position have a definite influence on the way a customer service program is constructed. Product lines that are considered more commodity and lack significant differentiation in the marketplace are a target for many of the indirect customer interface methods listed in Table 1.

In many cases the same can be said for additive product lines that are a step removed from formulated products. In this circumstance, a lot depends on the end-use markets and the unique or specialty nature of the additives themselves. The more unique these products are in determining the final performance of a finish formulation the more important access to direct customer service support becomes to the customer.

Benchmarking the present competitive landscape (in a particular market space) gives a company an understanding of how their competitors provide customer service. A valid SWOT analysis should reveal areas for improvement in the company’s existing customer service program. Identifying the type and level of service offered by key competitors is a gut-check on a company’s own program.

The channels-to-market used by a company to reach their customers has a significant influence on the way a company structures its customer service program. For example, when distribution is the principal channel-to-market, there is a significant difference from one distributor to another in the way and the quality of the customer service they provide in support of a company’s products.

Companies considered as principals (by their distributor) normally receive more attention, and a higher level of customer service. In contrast, companies that are secondary or line-card suppliers to their distributor are limited in the attention given to their products at the customers level. Every distributor has its own approach to customer service. It is important to make sure what you are getting or are not getting from your distributor in terms of customer service and then adjust accordingly.

The costs involved in providing a competitive customer service plan are always a consideration. In addition, the channels-to-market a company employes to reach customers in various markets has a significant influence on how customer service is provided to their customers and the cost associated with supporting it.

One of the most difficult things for management to assess is the actual value of the services they offer to customers. Meaningful analytics are not easily attainable for many of the businesses serving the coatings industry. Select metrics are sometimes put in place to provide management a basis to gauge the overall quality of company performance versus company business goals and where possible key competitors. Unfortunately, they do not normally address the value of their customer service. Voice-of-customers is one approach that is sometimes used to try and gauge the effectiveness of a company’s customer service program.