THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT Telephone based customer service communication styles that lead to customer satisfaction

Abstract: This study deals with a telephone based customer service and the communication styles that make the communication in this setting successful or unsuccessful. Many companies in Sweden have a telephone based customer service, and often times the customer’s initial contact with the company is through the customer service. This is why the future of a company may depend on the quality of its customer service, and the implications and suggestions are given in order to answer the question of which communicative styles lead to customer satisfaction in a telephone based customer service. An online survey was created in order to get the data, and the answers from one hundred participants were analysed. A combined method of quantitative and qualitative analysis was used to get the results. The quantitative method was used to get the age, gender, and country of birth numeric differences, and the statistical data, and the thematic analysis was used in the qualitative method, in order to get the qualitative data. The results show the positive connection between the so called ‘warm’ styles of communication and the customer satisfaction, and the negative connection between the cold, impersonal communicative style and the customer satisfaction. The correlation with the theoretical implications, shows that finding the right style of communication, thus providing every customer with the personalized, not tailored to fit all service, leads to gaining a satisfied and loyal customer. Managerial, and suggestions for interpersonal communication employee training according to the customer needs, are given in the last section.