1 Introduction

Everyone tends to assume that customer contact is the most important part of customer care, but it isn't.

Of course, the way we deal person-to-person with our customers is important. It's just that it is more important to be able to provide the right product at the right price at the right time in the right place. When you've got all that right, it's time to start fine-tuning the personal issues.

In Session B the point was made that, although some staff are specifically responsible for customer contact (receptionists, sales people, customer order staff and so on), virtually everyone has direct contact with their customers at some time or other.

This is even more true of internal customers than of external ones, which is why all staff need to develop basic customer contact skills.

In this session we will consider customer contact as it takes place:

• on the telephone; and

• face-to-face,

We will also look at some standard guidelines for quality customer contact which you and your team can follow, and we will also consider the difficult matter of customer complaints.

2 Whose Customers are They?

Many people think that the responsibility for customer care lies with those staff who are employed specifically in customer-contact roles.