Customer service excellence is not the result of employee training programs. While workshop and training tools can help employees with customer service techniques, they can’t create a culture that permeates the business and puts the customer front and center.
Creating a customer service culture requires you to interweave customer service value into everything you do and at every intersection point between an employee and a customer. Backroom employees understand and value their contributions to the customer experience even though they never see customers in person. Employees on the front lines of customer service have the mindset and skillful behaviors that put customers first.
The secret to creating a customer service culture is to first create a culture that values employees.
That’s right. Employees come first. They are the foundation for customer service excellence.
· Hire people who have a customer service attitude.
When interviewing candidates, ask questions that reveal their attitude toward customer service and how they approach customer interactions. It’s not about making sales quotas.
While this is important, it’s more important to choose employees who focus on creating a customer experience that brings the customer back and encourages the customer to recommend your business to others.
· Infuse customer service value into everything.
Incorporate the concept and value of customer service into everything—add it to employee orientation, make it a required part of performance plans, create rewards and recognition for exemplary customer service, encourage employees to find ways of improving and enhancing the customer experience.
· Put decision making in the hands of employees.
Give employees latitude in making decisions that benefit customers without having to elevate the issue to someone senior. The closer the person is to the customer, the greater authority they need to serve the customer. Make it safe for employees to assume this responsibility by training them to make good decisions that avoid harming the company and enhance the customer relationship. Free employees to serve the customer at the point of contact.
· Ask for and respond to feedback from your customers.
In a customer service culture, the organization has an open-door policy that actively seeks customer feedback. Do frequent customer satisfaction surveys, consider holding focus groups, and have employees query customers about their experience using your products or services.
· Be proactive about negative feedback.
Nowadays, a poor customer service experience quickly hits social media and is seen by thousands while a good customer experience rarely is shared. If you receive negative criticism on social media, be proactive and respond immediately. If you can identify the customer, contact him or her one-on-one to remedy the situation.
Customers know when a company values its employees; they feel it in the atmosphere when they step into your building or interact with an employee. To be successful, your customer service culture must infiltrate every aspect of your company, starting with the very first customer interaction and continuing throughout the entire relationship with that customer.
“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.”—Jeff Bezos, founder & CEO, Amazon.com
