Question

Read the attached case and answer the questions at the end of the case:

After 3 months in her new role as Director of Human Resources (HR) at Customers First, Deborah Ketson feels confident she has identified the significant HR issues at the company. She has prioritized the issues and is meeting with company president Joan Bates to make her recommendations. Deborah is prepared to discuss her top priority, which is to conduct an organization-wide job analysis and job evaluation project in order to start building a more internally consistent pay structure. Customers First is a company that provides customer service for other companies. Small-to-mediumsized companies outsource their customer service function to Customers First, which manages all customer service for their clients through a call center and also via an online customer service center. The company works with a diverse group of clients ranging from small retail stores to larger online retailers. Customers First has grown quickly in the 5 years since Joan started the company and now employs more than 150 customer service representatives (CSRs) and other support staff. The company’s quick growth has led to several problems with its compensation structure. Much of the company’s hiring has occurred in response to a new contract, and pay was set based on the current market rate for CSRs in order to attract the right talent. For example, an early client was a small retail store that needed fairly simple customer support. Four CSRs were hired and their pay was set at just slightly above minimum wage. In comparison, a more recent client required hiring 18 CSRs. The labor market was competitive at the time, and the company hired these 18 new employees at a pay rate well above what others at the company were paid. Such variance has occurred often in the hiring process, resulting in groups of CSRs at much different levels of pay for doing substantially similar work. Deborah has heard many complaints from the supervisors about inequities in the pay of the CSRs. The supervisors are concerned that the inequities may lead to turnover among some of the staff. Deborah has examined the pay rates of the CSRs across the organization and agrees with the supervisors that there are some concerns. One particular concern is that the lowest paid group of CSRs is primarily female, while the highest paid group includes all male employees. By talking with the supervisors, Deborah has learned that there are some CSRs with different levels of responsibilities and skills, but they all hold the same job title. Deborah believes that an organization-wide job analysis and job evaluation is necessary to build an internally consistent compensation structure. However, when she shared her recommendation with Joan, she did not receive the response she expected. Joan is resistant of the job analysis and job evaluation process as she thinks that having such a structured compensation system will limit the company’s ability to be flexible in the marketplace. Often hiring happens quickly in response to a new client contract, and they must hire the right skill set, which might vary based on the current market rates. Further, Joan suggested the entire project would be too timeconsuming for Deborah and the other staff that would need to be involved. She felt their time would be better spent on other concerns such as recruiting new staff

question:

3. What do you recommend Customers First do? Why? (50 Marks; Word Limit – 500 words)

Answer 1

Solution :-

Customer First is a simple concept. It’s a cultural strategy that businesses use to put their customers at the center of everything they do.

TAKE CARE OF YOUR EMPLOYEES.

If you’re going to secure the satisfaction of your customers, you have to think about the welfare of your employees first.

You should realize that every employee in your business plays a critical role in executing your customer-first strategy. Your developers create the quality products your customers love. Your UX team sees everything from the perspective of your customer. Your marketing department creates an engaging experience.

It’s critical for every member of your team to be satisfied. Then they can play their parts in your customer-first strategy. If your team members are overworked or undervalued, you can’t expect them to focus on your customer-first strategy. When 85% of employees aren’t engaged in the workplace, there’s a serious risk that’s your workplace is unengaging.

Work alongside your HR department, and really listen to your employees. Then you can make sure they have everything they need to delight your customers.

UNDERSTAND YOUR CUSTOMER.

If you decide to put your customers first and build your decisions around them, it’s only logical that you’ll be the first to understand who they are.

Therefore, you should use buyer personas to their full effect. This useful tool can help you better understand who your users are, what they need, and how you can help them reach their goals.

Buyer personas can also help you shape your communication strategy throughout the customer journey—from marketing to sales to customer success and beyond. This impact can give you the power to understand your customers and make the right decision at every turn.

FOSTER HUMAN CUSTOMER SERVICE AND CUSTOMER SUCCESS DEPARTMENTS.

After your prospect becomes a customer, he or she will have the majority of his or her contact with your customer service and customer success departments. Therefore, it’s important for you to be able to deliver personalized contact with a human touch.

Your customer-facing teams need to be the driving force behind your customer-first strategy. They should offer friendly support and upsell new items in an authentic way that will drive value to your customers.

IMPROVE TRANSPARENCY WITHIN YOUR ORGANIZATION.

If you adopt a customer-first approach, every member of your team needs to be engaged and understand how their work impacts the customer and their experience.

Therefore, you should try to boost transparency in your organization. Many customer-centric businesses decide to hold regular company-wide meetings, where customer support and customer success teams can relay feedback.

PROCESS CUSTOMER FEEDBACK.

Your customer feedback is invaluable. It almost goes without saying that a business with a customer-first strategy will want to develop a robust system to help process and implement customer feedback.

To collect valuable customer feedback, you’ll want to make the most of all the communication channels (live chat, hotline, Facebook, review platforms, …) out there. That feedback should then be collated and interpreted, in order to shape your priorities and decisions.

How to Build a Customer-First Strategy

Now that we have a better understanding of the best practice, let’s dig deeper into how you can put together a customer-first strategy.

1) IDENTIFY AND AVOID CUSTOMER-FIRST PITFALLS.

Before you start adjusting your strategy, you should take the time to identify the key risks that a customer-first strategy might pose. This tactic can help you avoid the common pitfalls that come with a customer-first strategy.

Here’s a look at some of the key risks that businesses face if they fail to properly implement their customer-first strategy.

Having the tendency to lose focus

As human beings, our needs and wants can be very fickle. If you overcompensate the whims of your customers, you might find that your business is pulled backward and forwards in different directions.

You should make sure that you have a customer-first strategy that helps you surface appropriate, consistent customer needs. If not, you run the risk of losing focus and harming your business.

Knowing which feedback to follow

Let’s imagine a scenario in which you ask two of your customers about their priorities when they’re working with you. One of them says “price,” while the other says “features.” Which one should take priority?

You must develop a method for processing and categorizing the feedback you receive. In other words, you can find the correct course of action in the confusing, bewildering moments when your customer feedback seems to be pulling you in different directions.

Neglecting business health

It’s important for you to understand that a customer-first strategy doesn’t mean that you sacrifice the health of your business for the good of your customer. In terms of price and the level of service that you can offer, you need to have your red lines in place. In other words, what is your business’ point of no return? if you don’t clearly define these boundaries, you could harm your business.

You should also remain firm and clear about red lines. This tactic will help you avoid making extravagant promises to your customers that you can’t keep.

2) FOCUS ON THE RIGHT METRICS.

If you’re going to change your strategy, it’s critical for you to know what success looks like. This strategy will help you set accurate goals and determine whether the change has been successful, in terms of approach.

In order to measure your success, you’ll want to pay attention to a range of metrics. Here’s a look at the key metrics you should examine…

Churn

Losing a customer can be very costly. The cost of acquiring a replacement customer is very high, and it can raise costs and cut into your profits.

Therefore, you should use your customer-first strategy to reduce your churn rate. Statistics show that an average company will lose around 10% of its customers each year.

You should pay close attention to your churn rate, in order to see whether your customer first approach helps reduce it. If it does, you could consider your strategy a success.

Net promoter score

One of the clearest, most effective ways to measure your customer satisfaction is to focus on your Net Promoter Score (NPS).

You can uncover this simple metric by asking your customers one very simple question: How likely are they to recommend you to a friend or colleague? The NPS is a very attractive metric because it’s easy to track over time, and your customer-first strategy should have a direct impact on your score.

NPS divides respondents into three key groups, according to the score they give you. You want as many of your customers as possible to be in the top bracket: active promoters who will stick with your business.