Incentive Pay Programs for Customer Service Representatives
Abstract
Quality of Customer Service becomes critical for company's success on the market. If planed properly, incentive pay plans may increase customer service representatives' interest to providing better service to the customer. Specifics of Customer Service brings its difficulties to setting standards for quantity and quality measuring of the Customer Service productivity, as basics of incentive pay determination.
Customer Service definition and role in the business.
Customer Service topic is both easy and hard to research. It looks easy because everyone can tell that they know what Customer Service is. It is also hard because there is no academic definition of Customer Service, but at the same time there is a number of different meanings of this term for different people. According to the Barron's Business Dictionary (n.d.), customer service is "department or function of an organization that responds to inquiries or complaints from customers of that organization." Customer Service is an important part of the business strategy, as it's goal is ensuring that customer will be satisfied with the service or product and will come back to obtain new product or service from the organization, that means new sales and revenue increase for organization. According to Answers.com Business Encyclopedia (n.d.), "building long-term relationships with customers has been given a high priority by the majority of America's most successful enterprises". As technology continues to develop very fast and become available for greater number of product manufactures, better customer service helps to attract and keep customer. "Customer Service can be defined as those activities that enhance or facilitate the purchase and use of product." (Answeres.com, n.d.).
According to Reece (n.d.) well-conceived service strategy includes three important elements. First is market research, devoted to discover what customer needs and wants. This research will also include review of what
Quality of Customer Service becomes critical for company's success on the market. If planed properly, incentive pay plans may increase customer service representatives' interest to providing better service to the customer. Specifics of Customer Service brings its difficulties to setting standards for quantity and quality measuring of the Customer Service productivity, as basics of incentive pay determination.
Customer Service definition and role in the business.
Customer Service topic is both easy and hard to research. It looks easy because everyone can tell that they know what Customer Service is. It is also hard because there is no academic definition of Customer Service, but at the same time there is a number of different meanings of this term for different people. According to the Barron's Business Dictionary (n.d.), customer service is "department or function of an organization that responds to inquiries or complaints from customers of that organization." Customer Service is an important part of the business strategy, as it's goal is ensuring that customer will be satisfied with the service or product and will come back to obtain new product or service from the organization, that means new sales and revenue increase for organization. According to Answers.com Business Encyclopedia (n.d.), "building long-term relationships with customers has been given a high priority by the majority of America's most successful enterprises". As technology continues to develop very fast and become available for greater number of product manufactures, better customer service helps to attract and keep customer. "Customer Service can be defined as those activities that enhance or facilitate the purchase and use of product." (Answeres.com, n.d.).
According to Reece (n.d.) well-conceived service strategy includes three important elements. First is market research, devoted to discover what customer needs and wants. This research will also include review of what
References: Customer service. (n.d.). Dictionary of Business Terms. Retrieved July 29, 2007, from Answers.com Web site: http://www.answers.com/topic/customer-service Customer Service and Support Customer Service Performance Measures Definitions. (2004). Window on State Government. Retrieved July 25, 2007, from the Governor 's Office website: http://www.window.state.tx.us/comptrol/compact/service04/pmd.html Incentive Pay Plans Job Description for: Customer Service Representatives (n.d.) CareerPlanner. Retrieved July 30, 2007, from CareerPlanner.com website: http://www.careerplanner.com/Job-Descriptions/Customer-Service-Representatives.cfm Knez, M., Simester, D Martocchio, J. J. (2004). Strategic compensation: a human resource management approach (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.