We are often asked what are the 10 keys of excellent customer service.
In our view the key to good customer service is about building good relations with your customers. This involves the usual aspects of politeness and courtesy, but it is also about the mindset, culture and environment of the organisation.
The only person who can effectively judge excellent customer service is the customer so if you don’t have effective feedback mechanisms you may just be left with your impression of the service which may be very different to the perception the customer has of you.
So here are our 10 keys to excellent customer service:
1. Set the right culture.
The business of customer service is not simply a matter for customer service departments, but the whole organisation. If the organisation is focussed on the customer then this shows through. Culture is often described as: ‘The way we do things around here’. Is the way we do things focussed on the customer? In our view such a culture has to be set from the top. Those at the highest levels of the organisation need to live and breath the customer first concept. If Senior management see it as a job for someone else, the most likely person to deliver the customer service is likely to one of your competitors.
2. Get the processes customer focussed
So often the people are engaged but the organisation process makes it very hard to deliver customer service. We recently had experience of a major UK car insurer unable to deliver an up-sell because a hand-off was needed from the Sales Team to the Customer Service Team. The agent knew that they couldn’t transfer the caller because of the queues on the phone in the Customer Service Team and so an up-sell opportunity was lost. An important key to excellent customer service is the organisational processes: make it easy to do business with you.
3. Help customers understand your processes.
Ideally the processes will be so easy to use that the customer navigates through easily, but make sure your staff are there to help.
4. How you do it is important
Your staff need to be trained to deal quickly and efficiently with customers. This means the basics need to be in place: politeness and courtesy. Customers also need help and effective employee training in selling the product and service benefits is also essential. Objections are a natural part of any sales process and so your people need to be able to deal with these too.
It is essential that your staff are expert in building good relationships with your customers. Promoting a positive, helpful and friendly environment will keep the customer coming back. Even staff who have been delivering great service for years can often benefit from some training.
5. Follow up on feedback
It is vital that you find out how well you are doing in terms of meeting customer expectations. This means following up on positive and negative feedback. It is often just as important to improve the areas you are already doing well as it is to improve those areas where customers are critical of you.
6. Be prepared for mistakes and complaints
When a business depends on people to deliver results, from time to time mistakes will be made. Most customers whilst wanting a great service will understand that sometimes something may not go as well as it should provided the situation is handled well. Make sure your mistakes and complaints are picked up and acted upon. Lessons learned from complaints handling should be transferred into action.
7. Keep your promises
As Benjamin Franklin said: “Well done is better than well said.” A promise made to a customer must be kept. Break that promise and you break your customer service reputation. Your customer will no longer trust you and may not give you another chance.
8. Think about employee motivation
It is very hard for employees to provide great customer service if they are de-motivated. In our view great customer service comes from a motivated team who are passionate about customer service and the products and services they are delivering. Before an employee can make a customer valued it is our view that the employee needs to feel valued. A positive work climate is essential.
9. Make customers feel important
Customers like to be treated as individuals. The communication with them needs to build trust, empathy and a relationship. Customers realise the value of their business and your aim should be to make them feel so comfortable that they want to come back time and time again. This means that they need to be recognised when they deal with the organisation and not a nameless number. Your systems ideally will keep track of customer interactions so that a loyal customer is never treated as if they were a stranger.
10. Create customer wow moments
Take a leaf out of Disney’s book and have your staff find opportunities to ‘Wow’ the customer. These can be simple things such as remembering a customer’s name, thanking them for their business, recognising the customer is a person. Your teams should be trained and empowered to deliver customer ‘wow’ moments. Is you wonder how this can be done in your organisation there are two people to ask: 1) The Customer and 2) those who interact with the customers.
Do you agree with our 10 keys of excellent customer service? How does your organisation measure up against these 10 keys of customer service?
If you need any help with developing your customer service, perhaps enhancing the skills of your people, we’re here when you need us.
Alison Miles-Jenkins
Training To Achieve Enterprises
PS If your business is looking to strengthen your customer service capabilities of your people here’s several ways:
1. You Come To Us!
You’ll get a warm welcome from us at our London St Paul’s Head Office or at our regional Training Centre in Colchester
2. We Come To You!
We’’ll travel to you, wherever you are in the world
3. Coaching Calls
We’ll provide an executive or personal performance coach, for one to one development, over the phone, face to face or Skype.
Contact us for help on 0845 165 6269