Think about your own experiences as a customer and you'll probably be able to reel off lots of examples of poor customer service - for example the dreaded 'call centre loop', where you get passed from pillar to post whilst listening to 'music on hold'. Then you have to repeat yourself time and time again because nobody has bothered to relay the details. And then they say they'll have to call you back; and of course they don't. Or when you go into a shop to find the staff chatting amongst themselves and they look at you with irritation when you dare to interrupt them. There are so many poor examples.
It's all very frustrating and stressful, and it really shouldn't be like that if organisations put good customer service at the centre of their business. In the age of efficiency and continuous improvement, many businesses fall into the trap of creating systems and internal processes that suit them, rather than the customer. Without customers, you have no business – and this simple fact is even more apparent in the current recession.
So how do you improve customer service in your company? Follow these tips and techniques to see great results:
• Recruit the right people, using effective selection techniques, and invest in their training. To the customer, whoever they're dealing with IS your company.
• Treat staff as you should treat your customers. Behaviour breeds behaviour and happy staff lead to happy customers. We've probably all experienced staff who look and sound completely fed up, and they're the worst ambassadors. Motivate and retain good staff, because turnover is expensive, both in recruitment and training costs, as well as in respect of lost experience. Employees want to feel valued, so think about ways to give them positive feedback, especially when they demonstrate great customer service. Build a sense of pride in your organisation.
• Set and communicate clear standards in terms of quality, accuracy, behaviour, appearance and good customer service. Staff need to know what you expect from them. Ensure that the service is consistently good, in every location, from everyone, every day.
• Build your processes around the customer, not the organisation. Look for ways of streamlining end to end processes and reducing 'handoffs' to reduce errors.
• Track and analyse errors and complaints. Get to the root cause to find out what's going wrong and why. Involve people in improving processes to prevent recurrences. Undertake remedial training and coaching.
• Send staff out as 'mystery shoppers' to your competitors. Let them see for themselves what others are doing. Get them to share their experience and see what best practice you can adopt and what ideas you can steal.
• Go 'back to the floor'. Shadow people in the organisation. See how your systems and processes affect the customer, and see what obstacles get in the way of good customer service.
• Seek and analyse customer feedback. Don't make assumptions; look for ways to find out what your customers think about the organisation. Be radical - invite them in to help you identify what you could be doing better.
• Capture and share examples of really great service in your organisation. This gives recognition to the individual who delivered it, and it also helps others to learn techniques and to build confidence.
• Consider setting up customer service awards, where individuals, colleagues and customers can nominate.
• Pay attention to those who don't serve customers directly. The chances are that if they're not serving a customer, they're serving someone who is, and these people are their 'internal' customers.
• Build a team culture. Emphasise that everyone is a link in the chain and that everything they do should be focused on delighting the customer.
• Set measurable objectives around improved customer service and cascade them across the organisation.
• Review individual performance regularly, not just during the annual appraisal. Give feedback about what's going well, as well as coaching for areas needing development.
• Have regular customer service sessions with cross sections of staff. They are at the sharp end, and they'll have lots of ideas on how things could be improved. Encourage them to think of what can be done to provide the 'wow factor' – use the creativity of the group to brainstorm and think outside the box for less obvious suggestions.
• Invest in customer service training. Choose a provider who will really get to know your business and who can support your business strategy and service standards. Ann Palmer adopts this approach and will teach you how to improve customer service at every level of your organisation.
Beat the recession. Let great customer service be the norm in your organisation.
