“Being on par in terms of price and quality only gets you into the game.
Service wins the game.”
Tony Allesandra

Organisations are often judged by the quality of their customer service. You may have great products or services but in a highly competitive environment customers are unlikely to stay loyal if they haven’t also received good customer service. Whether you are in a large organisation or a small business customers regard the interactions between your team and themselves as highly important. Good customer service will promote repeat business and recommendations to others. Poor customer service will adversely affect the business.

Improve-customer-service-quality

Here are 4 ways to improve customer service that make a big difference to customer service excellence:

1. SET HIGH STANDARDS FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE INTERACTIONS

Without standards people will make up their own version of what should be done when interacting with customers and this leads to inconsistency and mixed messages. Standards are essential if you want members of your team to deliver consistently high levels of customer service.

Examine all aspects of the customer cycle when developing customer service standards. As a minimum make sure you identify the key touchpoints with customers and have standards for these.

Always ensure the standards are in writing and are easily available, for example on an intranet. Team members should be regularly coached and trained in these standards. Part of this is to ensure people understand why these standards are in place. It is the role of a team leader to monitor that the customer service standards are being consistently applied. Where the standard is not being applied corrections must be made using performance management.

Example of setting clear standards – Answering the phone

  • Phone should be answered within 4 rings
  • When answering the phone call say: “Welcome to [insert organisation name] this is [insert your name]” – this will allow the person on the other end to know which organisation they have called and who they are talking to (particularly useful if they have called through before and spoken to someone).
  • If you are unable to speak or if you must take some action e.g. looking something up either put them on hold or offer to call them back in a few minutes

 

2. SEEK AND RESPOND TO CUSTOMER FEEDBACK

It’s a good idea to actively seek feedback from customers and act on it. Feedback can be gained through formal channels with questionnaires or interviews. Informal feedback should also be gathered. Feedback that is collected should be organised and preferably stored into a database. The feedback results should be reviewed on a regular basis and then actioned based on the feedback can be planned and implemented.

It is a good idea to respond quickly to customer feedback, especially to complaints.  Ensure that people are made available to respond. Staff should escalate complaints quickly from customers to managerial level as appropriate.

A customer complaint that can be fixed quickly and effectively can in fact be used to build customer loyalty. Staff should be open with customers and admit mistakes if made rather than trying to cover up. This restores confidence. Analyse the situation and explore options with the customer to make things better. A problem solved will help build customer loyalty.

After the problem is solved follow up with the customer to check they are satisfied.

For difficult customer conversations see 6 steps to dealing with difficult customer situations.

 

3. EMPOWER AND ENGAGE THE TEAM TO DELIVER TOP SERVICE

Wherever possible it is a good idea to empower team members who are dealing directly with customers to be able to take appropriate action to deliver good service. This may mean delegating authority to frontline staff rather than having them refer issues to managers. Certainly all minor issues should be able to be dealt with by frontline staff rather than having them referred up to managerial level. In order to do this team members need clear guidelines as to what their authority is and what its limits are. These guidelines may be supplemented by examples of case studies of common customer interactions and how best to deal with them.

Team members who are highly motivated to give good customer service will help promote your brand. Customer service attitudes are an important factor to be considered when selecting people for customer interacting roles.

 

4. IMPROVE CUSTOMER INTERACTIONS THROUGH A PERSONAL TOUCH

Improve your customer interactions through providing a personal touch. Where you have representatives ensure they can build the relationship with customers through identifying shred interests with customers. A good relationship makes it easier to overcome any issues that might arise in the future.

Good communication skills are essential for customer relationships. Listen carefully to customers and ask questions to clarify their needs and interests. Empathise and use statements that reflect their feelings. Where there are issues focus on solutions to these issues.

If you would like further details of customer service training, coaching and consulting please contact the Frontline Management Institute at fmi@fmi-au.com or phone +61 2 9660 0199. We can help you analyse development needs in your organisation, contact us for a free initial consultation