Customer service has to be more than a department, more than a call back number, more than a ‘robo’ chat on your website. Customer service must be intentionally at the forefront of everything we do. Are customer service expectations part of your employee training process? Do you talk about it as part of your organizational goals? Do you have a customer service policy? If the answer is no to any of these questions, I’m sharing 3 tips for you to consider that will help your business’s customer service stand out in your industry.
- Establish Culture – Establishing culture starts by setting expectations of the entire organization from the top to the bottom, from the first hire to the last hire. When you hire, make sure you hire employees that have the personality, aptitude and willingness to take on the company culture. To make sure your culture has been established as it relates to customer service, there are a few questions you can consider about your current customer service practices. Having pre-determined standards for questions like these ensure the culture of your customer service is intentional, imbued and engrained throughout your business.
- What is the expectation of the staff when a customer walks in and out of your door?
- How many times does the phone ring before it is answered?
- Do you take messages or send to voicemail?
- How often is voicemail checked?
- How long before emails are returned?
- Do you try and answer questions or transfer to the “right” department?
- Engage the Customer – The word engage means to“participate or become involved in.” That is what you want to do with your customers, become engaged with them AND become engaged as quickly as possible. Becoming engaged is deliberate in hopes of building a relationship with your customer. To really flourish as a corporation or organization, you have to be less transactional and more relational. Relationships allow you to not only get to know, but also, to understand and develop rapport with the customer which provides valuable information. You’ll get an understanding of your customer’s communication style, buying cycle, decision process and anticipate future needs. In Tilman Fertitta’s book Shut Up and Listen!, he says hospitality matters, no matter the business. From standalone small businesses to fortune 500 corporations, they don’t exist without your customer. Once you know who your customer is, the quicker you become engaged with them and the better it is for you.
- Empower the Employee – Each employee in the organization should be empowered to make things right regardless of their normal set of responsibilities. This does not mean that every customer is absolutely always right, but part of your culture has to be customer satisfaction. In Horst Schulze’s (co-founder and former President of Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company) book “Excellence Wins”, he says each employee at the hotel had up to a $2,000 allowance to resolve issues and make sure guests were happy. This type of support for your employees encourages them to freely make decisions to improve the customer experience. Those decisions can then be shared up the organizational structure. If enough staff members are dealing with the same thing, policy adjustments can be made. If the culture has been established that each staff member should become concerned with and empowered to satisfy the customer, it will provide long term and profitable benefits.
Customer service is vitally important to any organization, association or corporation. You must establish your customer service culture, engage your customers and empower your employees to help your business really stand out.
James Brown Jr. is a customer service keynote speaker who works with organizations that want to leverage the power of relationships between internal and or external customers.
