Building
Cross-functional Cooperation |
-
Establish
cross-functional
teams and provides them with cross-functional
training
>>>
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Establish
effective bilateral communication between management and
frontline employees
-
Develop
a cross-functional information system to identify any
failure to provide adequate customer service, categorize
these failures, and provide analyses of when and why
they occur.
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Cross-functional Cooperation and Training
→
Customer care
"In many companies, the business units designed
to serve the same customers rarely interact, and when they do, they seem at
odds about how to handle problems or complaints."
To remedy this lack of agreement you must improve your cross-functional
communication and cooperation. This can be done, for instance, by assigning
customer accounts to cross-functional
teams of employees from various areas where contact with customers is
paramount – for example, product/service
design and
→
development
,
→
marketing
,
→
sales, and accounts receivable.
"Eliminating
the layers of bureaucracy between customers and those employees best
equipped to
→
solve their problems
is a first step in the sub-process of
building cross-functional cooperation. As world-class companies have
discovered, the best way to achieve
strategic business success
and streamline the customer service is to provide
cross-functional training so that employees understand
→
entire customer cycle
‒ from the first contact with a company to the follow up that
accompanies a sale and order fulfillment."
>>>
Next, to
stay close to the customer, you need
to establish bilateral communication between management and frontline
employees. Some best-practice companies even require top managers to take
the jobs of frontline employees for a day every month or assume a
contributing role in a cross-functional team. This 'vertical' communication
between managers and frontliners, however, should be truly bilateral. Make
sure your frontline employees have a sense that management will listen
seriously to any observation and suggestions they make.
>>>
→
Create Customer Value:
10 Lessons from Konosuke Matsushita
Finally, you must develop a cross-functional
information system to identify any failure to provide adequate customer
service. You information system should collect those failures, categorize
them, and provide analyses of when and why they occur. Remember however,
that best practices in providing customer service ultimately come down to
people behind the information system. Getting managers and frontline
employees together and giving them a chance to work co-operatively is the
essence of the process.
>>>
Customer Service
as a
Competitive Advantage
Businesses have traditionally relied on
technology and
product innovation for
→
competitive advantage
. However, as products
became commodities due to global competition and relentless technological
advances, the battleground for
→
differentiation
and
→
customer value creation
shifted to customer intimacy
and service...
More
This service-focused
competitive strategy has worked well
for numerous companies across various industry sectors.
>>> |