The Importance of Consistency in Processes and the Role It Plays in Customer Satisfaction

     In today’s markets, companies which deal with customers on a daily basis have came to a serious conclusion: An important key to success is superior customer service.  Customer service therefore has came to the forefront of goals set by most companies striving to gain a competitive edge in its current market.  Companies spends thousands of dollars in training each year to ensure that its staff members are up to speed in providing speedy resolution to customer issues. This provides temporary satisfication for the customer until he or she is transferred to another department to further provide assistance where he or she is told something totally different and the customer is driven back into a state of dissatisfaction.  This dissatisfaction can be prevented.  But how?  It all begins with ensuring consistency in processes not only in each department but among interrelated departments that have daily interaction with customers whether directly or indirectly.

     A key to effective employees is their ability to learn how each and every department in an organization works in the entire scheme of things in regards to helping the organization reach its goals.  This means learning not only their own job function and processes but gaining a knowledge of other department processes involved in dealing with the same customers that they do.  Whether through management or some other type of liaison to act a go-between to ensure that processes are consistent, this can be accomplished easily.  This knowledge prevents departments from relaying incorrect information to its customers and potentially prevent the customer seeking resolution from being bounced around from department to department because of this breakdown in communication between departments.   

     Companies should strive to provide sufficient training programs to produce well-informed employees. This means giving a general overview of other departmental work flows to ensure correct information is being given to customers especially if their own departmental processes can not provide resolution.  A common complaint from companies who do not promote consistency in overall processes who deal with customers is “They told me one thing and now you are telling me another.”  Statements like this should be a red flag to management that there is breakdown in communication somewhere in its organization.  Departmental managers should be made of aware of this to help eliminate this breakdown.  Knowing what is causing the customer dissatisfaction can be prevented if the employee is properly trained.

     This poses an argument that employees become to overwhelmed trying to learn other departmental work flows in addition to their own.  This is not a problem if there is a consistency in work flows.  As long as the work flow is consistent with their own, employees do not seem to be loaded down with information.  Of course this whole idea is irrelevant if the processes do not correspond with each other, but a general overview of the processes will allow employees to quickly give the needed resolution for the customer.