Efficiency is a huge challenge for businesses. However, the drive for efficiency can jeopardise good customer service. In the pursuit of keeping costs as low as possible, many businesses have tried to standardise as much of their service delivery as possible. But the risk is that such organisations often become too mechanistic in their service delivery.
Customers are not generic and therefore it is critical that companies recognise this and respond flexibly to different customer types and behaviour. The art of good business is delivering the right service for the customer, while remaining cost effective.