Importance of Customer Service

When was the last time you had a great experience as a customer? Maybe it was the way you were approached and regarded as a valued customer. Creating an element of great customer service is pertinent for gaining clients and maintaining a positive image of your company. The most memorable experiences are those that feel natural and not forced. Organizations that do this really well have a strong culture that allows consistent behaviors from employees that create positive customer interactions. Typically, there’s a well- strategized service model implemented to guarantee that employees are upholding the company’s image and delivering an excellent customer experience. Here are some helpful tips to ensure that your client is given the most natural and memorable experience.

Beliefs

Make sure to reiterate your values and beliefs. At times it can be tempting to take the easy route and focus on the tactics, as opposed to the foundation of anticipated behaviors. Without beliefs in place employee behaviors can become robotic because there’s no context to make them meaningful. To keep behaviors alive, beliefs should be constantly reinforced. Consistency is key. Your beliefs should become the mantra of your business. Instilling a solid foundation of your beliefs ultimately shapes the behaviors of your associates.

Less is More

Keep your behaviors limited. This contributes to long-term success. Focusing on a select amount of beliefs helps employees learn them quicker and emulate the desired behaviors in the company. Simplicity of your behaviors lessens the likelihood of errors to occur.  Making behaviors measurable and observable allows the company and its employees to know if they are successful. If the behaviors are to broad, it can be difficult to determine if the beliefs are being met. Having measurable behaviors is an easy way to assess your overall customer service and provides more openings for leaders and managers to coach their teams.

Appropriate

In any organization the front-line employees have the biggest influence when it comes to creating a consistent customer experience. However, the behaviors should be applicable to every team member of the company. When creating behaviors think about how they might be appropriate for the broad spectrum of employees. Try using behaviors to guide decisions and interactions between different teams.  For example, the context and training of behaviors might be a little different for non-customer facing employees, but the intent and beliefs remain the same.

Act Natural

Avoid making behaviors scripted. Nothing is worse than feeling like a conversation is being forced. Design them in a way that allows the employees to make them their own, while still upholding the image of the company. Adding a touch of personalization not only makes the experience more natural and special for the customer, but also creates a sense of uniqueness. By doing this, the behaviors will be invisible to the customer, but will definitely make them take notice of your company’s efforts. Customers will separate you from the rest, which in turn creates a more memorable experience that fulfills their expectations.