Why customer service should take pride of place in your strategy

In a world where everything is on sale in some way, there is one thing which you can guarantee will bring customers back: Good customer service. No, not good, amazing – Amazing customer service.

In some companies’ yearly targets the most you’ll see is: “Improve customer service”. Most will probably boil down to those three words, given the amount of detail some companies put in. Let’s get this straight as well, I’m not just talking about major companies, I’m talking about small independent shops or e- businesses. Some may not even have a map for their customer service.

We all know the success of any e- business is down to the ease of the customer experience. You see, you click, you buy. But what’s beyond that? In days gone by you could get away with having people that just keep your company out of court when things go wrong, but not anymore. There are hundreds of user review websites out there now and they are gathering ever more of a following as people are far more scrutinous of online buying than they ever were.

I work up in The City of London and wanted to join a gym. First thing I did? Google Maps. I found my workplace and typed in “gym”. Clicked on a few gyms in the local area to bring up the basic info and only clicked on the websites of the few which had more than 4 stars. Why? Because each of those little stars is worth far more to me as a potential customer than the £/$thousands spent on a website. Those stars are given by real people with real opinions, not a PR/Marketing team.

You can’t buy those stars, you can only earn them. How do you earn them? By giving those customers who’ve handed over their money the best experience possible.

No blog can tell you what your company needs to do to improve your service levels, or what targets to set, but let me tell you what I think you should consider:

1. Goal setting. It’s of paramount importance, as with any business planning, to set a target to be reached. If you don’t, you will never know when you’ve achieved what you set out to do. However, customer service is not quantifiable, so make it quantifiable. How? Read on.
2. Go to your customer. Don’t wait for customers to come to you. You’ll only ever get complaints unless someone’s in a particularly good or charitable mood. Those little things which the customer feels aren’t serious enough to raise will go unheard and your reputation will begin to whither. That doesn’t mean hound them day and night, but showing your customers that you care about how they felt about their dealings with you goes a very long way. Don’t forget it needs to be simple, quick and unobtrusive otherwise people wont bother. Your customers don’t want to do your work for you, so there needs to be incentive. If it’s fast then it doesn’t cost them time. Something as simple as a 1-10 scale with an option of whether they want a call back to discuss any problems is great.
3. Don’t settle for anything less than perfect. There’s no use having a scale or a measure of customer service if you’re not aiming to surpass it. You’re also in a bad place if your goal is to simply not dip below a number. Remember you’re not setting a minimum requirement.
4. Be proactive, not complacent. The idea of maintaining good customer service is what makes companies complacent. Always, always, always proactively aim to achieve better customer service.
5. Talk to your staff. Your staff and colleagues are your resource. Ask them what problems they encounter with customers, what customers are regularly asking for. Use this feedback to help plan your strategy.
6. Incentivise your staff. Every employer wants staff who give 100% but more often than not this isn’t the case. The worst customer service I’ve received seems to stem from staff who couldn’t care less. Customer service is about providing a positive experience. You will not achieve this by threatening your staff with punitive measures if their service target dips below your accepted level. They will resent you and resent the act of providing good customer service. Give them incentives. Something as simple as “Employee of the month” can be very effective if there’s a clear structure as to how each employee is rewarded. Work out what incentivises your staff and play to it. Young staff, older staff, married staff, family staff, single staff… If incentives fail across the board, question your incentives. If incentives fail with individuals, think hard about whether they fit their role or your company. Happy, respectful staff make customers happy.
7. Transparency. Provide your whole company and your customers (if you’re confident!) with a clear message which shows how highly you regard their custom and your customer service. A service graph on your website showing your “rating” with customers is a great way to show this and is a brilliant sales tool.
8. Keep up to date with your companies ratings on popular ratings websites. Set aside time to check weekly or every 2 weeks the reviews your customers are giving you. Encourage them to review you on the websites.
9. Staff meetings. Whether you’re one of a 2 person team or the head of a 3,000 strong company, your staff or departments should have some sort of team meeting and team building at least once a month, ideally weekly. Again, make them look forward to it – maybe do it over company paid breakfast? Give your staff a chance to share their experiences of customers and their issues, how they handled and resolved it. Use this time to evaluate your staff and your road map. Is it working? Are they getting it? Do the customers know about your strategy? Is it too much too soon? How can your team improve? How can the road map improve?
10. Language. How your staff communicate with your customers is important. Be aware of the image that is portrayed by different terminology. Having staff referring to customers in ways like "Mate" "Buddy" "Love" immediately tells them that they don't respect them, that they are equals. I think "I'm not your mate, you're here to help me." Language like "Sir" "Madam" and "Thank you" "You're welcome" "Please" go so far. You don't see those words round much nowadays so their value is high and they are free to use - so make sure your staff make good use of them. Age or social profiling can back fire. It's best to play safe with the Sir's etc. Be aware that not every 18-30 year old wants to be referred to as "mate".

Create a strategy. Commit to surpassing what is expected of your customer service. Clearly show yourself and your staff how you’re going to achieve it. Be prepared to review it whenever you have to.

Thanks for reading,

Chris