Q&A with Tom Keilty, PHH Arval Chief Operating Officer
January 15, 2010
Recently, we sat down with PHH’s Chief Operating Officer, Tom Keilty, to get his insight on what customer service means in 2010. Tom has spent a lot of time perfecting PHH’s customer service delivery since his arrival with us in 1995, and brought with him over a decade’s worth of customer service experience from previous organizations.
Q: How have customer expectations changed over the last decade?
A: There was a time when customer service was defined by a company’s willingness to do anything and everything to correct something that had gone wrong. I remember in the late 90s we were having lots of issues registering vehicles in the state of
Q: What’s your take on that approach 20 years later?
A: The “heroic effort” has no place in 2010. A good job would have been to never get to that point in the first place. By effectively planning what needs to be done, measuring our performance against established goals, and tightly managing the process, we would have avoided the need for any heroic effort.
Q: Why do you think customer expectations have changed?
A: Customers are busier than ever today. They are having to do more with less and their productivity is critical to the overall success of their employer. Today customers want service providers to anticipate their needs. They want flawless execution and they want simpler, yet flexible processes. Customers want to be delighted each and every time—and they want all of this at the lowest possible cost.
Q: How are companies reacting to the new expectations?
A: Successful companies must continue to build systems and processes that clearly make life simpler for their customers. The goal cannot be to satisfy customers—it must be to delight them!
Q: In the current business climate, with powerful forces putting new pressures on companies to perform in new ways, how can they remain focused on delivering service excellence?
A: To be successful, any company must do the following well:
- Listen to customers – don’t assume you know what they need. Listen attentively, ask questions and don’t make assumptions.
- Anticipate Needs – Tell customers what they need to know when they need to know it.
- Treat every customer like they are the only customer – if customers don’t feel appreciated, and if you are not listening, you may be the last to know – after they have chosen to do business with a competitor.
- Eliminate ‘No' from your vocabulary – there is always a solution to a problem. You just have to find it.
- Exceed expectations – ensure that any commitment you make to a customer is delivered on time, every time.
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