Regardless of how important you think customer service is, it’s a key part of your business. Even if you choose to not make any effort to offer customer service, that still drives your customer service strategy. With that in mind, isn’t it about time you developed (or updated) your customer service strategy?
What sort of customer service do you want to deliver?
Do you want to be known for your friendly personal service, your quick turnaround time, getting everything done perfectly first time, etc. You can’t successfully be able to be all things to all people, so pick a few things that you can do well within your price point and market.
What are your customers service expectations? What do they want? What do they need?
Find out whether your customers expect service to be quick, friendly, professional, personalised or whatever. There’s no point providing the friendliest service in the country if all people want is to be able to place an order in the least possible amount of time and get super quick delivery. So make sure that you’re primarily providing what your customers want. There’s nothing wrong with being quick and friendly, but prioritising friendly over quick will just lead to lost opportunities and unhappy customers. Whereas super quick service with no personal contact can delight people who just want something now.
Write it down
Write down your customer service “vision” whether it’s “the fastest service in the town/country/state/industry” or “the friendliest service” or anything else. Having it written down and sharing with all employees will help keep it front of mind when talking to customers. The best way to do this is to write a long form policy as well as a mission statement that backs up the policy. The more staff have to refer to, and to keep it front of mind, the more likely it is that it will become the standard “way we do business”. Otherwise, there’s a strong chance that staff will try really hard for a day or two after they’re told about it, but slip back into the old way of doing things without thinking.
Integrate it into your business
Make sure the strategy and vision are a part of the company mission and included in everything you do as a business. It should colour everything from your marketing strategy (don’t market to the cheap & cheerful crowd if you’re offering a premium product), to your staff training and instruction manuals. The more integral it is to how you and your staff act, the more your customers will believe it. Ralph Waldo Emerson describes the disconnect between action and words perfectly: “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say”
Measure your success and make adjustments where necessary
You’ll need to be able to measure the success of your strategy. The easiest way to do that is to develop a few KPI’s to measure against. There’s no need to make them complicated and in most cases you’ll be able to use existing benchmarks. For example if dispatching correct orders is the goal, then number of returns or reships will give you an idea of how you’re going. If customer satisfaction is the goal, the number of complaints can be used as a KPI.
Once you’ve got your Customer Service Strategy written, refined and being applied by all staff don’t forget to use it. It can be applied as a tool to help with your marketing strategies, business events and in both publications and correspondence. The stronger it’s influence on the company, the more connected all areas of the business will become and the more consistent the message you’re giving your customers.
