Customer Service Strategy Example

Strong service cultures are the result of a specific customer service strategy. Customer service should be incorporated into business and employee goals in order to affect corporate objectives. This is accomplished by having a defined customer service strategy.

A customer service strategy consists of:

Vision for Customer Service

Communicating the customer service vision is an important first step in service strategy. Employees need to understand their role in meeting the needs of customers and how what they do contributes to the vision. It is easy to recognize businesses that are strong in service and those that aren’t. Service training is the key to a great customer service experience.

Assessing Customer Needs
It is important to find out what the customer needs and expectations are. There are several ways to solicit customer feedback. It can be done by using customer comment cards, satisfaction surveys or focus groups. Each method can be used to get feedback to use in developing a plan for exceeding customer requirements. Customer expectations change at a very rapid pace and some organizations fail when they THINK they know what the customer wants without asking them. Unfortunately, some businesses waste a lot of time and money developing products and services that don’t meet customer needs. Successful organizations have learned to find out what the customer wants and to develop products and services to meet their expectations. It is important to also remember that what a customer wants today could be very different tomorrow. It is a moving target.

Hiring for Service
Successful organizations have figured out how to hire service oriented employees. It is important to screen potential candidates for a disposition toward service. Technical skills can be taught but personality and attitude cannot. It is important to remember that not every employee should be interacting with customers.

Organizational Goals for Customer Service
Customer satisfaction should be measured against identified customer needs. There should be customer satisfaction goals as part of organizational annual goals or as a critical success factor. Employees should be aware of the organizational goal for service so they can help the organization achieve the objective.

Service Training
Every business should develop service training for employees which represents the organization’s approach to service. This should be practical teaching for how the employee is expected to respond in all service interactions. This would include things like how to answer the telephone,respond to complaints, fulfill a customer need or basic service recovery. Much of this can be spelled out with customer service standards that dictate basic employee behavior.

Employee Accountability
Employees should be held accountable for the organization achieving customer satisfaction goals. This should be incorporated into a performance management process and be a cultural norm. It is imperative that all employees understand the part they play in achieving the organization’s overall customer goals.

Rewarding Good Service
Having a solid reward and recognition process in place is important for reinforcing strong service behaviors in employees. It is important for employees to receive positive reinforcement when they exhibit desired customer service behaviors.

Any successful organization understands the importance of a strong service culture. This is accomplished by created systems and processes to identify who the customers are, what it is the customers want and developing strategies to achieve those expectations.