ENCOURAGING staff to take ownership of customer complaints is reaping dividends at software giant Microsoft.

Such an initiative can create a culture within the business where staff are passionate about sorting customer problems out for themselves.

Simon Leech, Microsoft’s customer partner and employee experience lead, told delegates the need to better serve Microsoft customers came out of research into consumer’s perception of the company.

He said: ‘I asked analysts where Microsoft sat in customer satisfaction ratings and the results were not good. I obviously wasn’t popular when I reported that back but I had to say to people ‘all I’m doing is putting a mirror in front of your face so you need to ask yourselves questions about why our rating is so low’.’

The company’s customer service is improving, Leech said, but he recognised there was still work to do.

‘We have a huge audience to look after but we are getting there,’ he said.

Explaining how some staff members within the company did not believe customer service was relevant to them, Leech said: ‘Some of the technical guys said they wrote codes so had nothing to do with customer service but I told them that what they write has an effect on the customer.’