How do you integrate customer service with other business functions?

Clear communication cannot be overestimated in importance. I have seen two sides of the same department have a fundamentally different understanding of where their focus should be, e.g. a planning team who aim to minimise phone abandonment by customers by maximising availability on the line while the management team of that department work to balance these telephony KPI's against required metrics in non-telephony areas. If internal comms are liable to suffer from lack of clarity, external comms to customers can cause detriment to the company as well as to them. Sending membership deals, discounted products, even new benefits, is pointless if no-one in customer services knows how to action them for your customers due to lack of information.

Run Regular Surveys: Gather customer feedback for insights into their needs and satisfaction. Monitor Customer Pulse: Stay updated with real-time feedback from social media and support interactions. Enhance Interdepartmental Communication: Establish clear channels for collaboration among teams. Set Precise Goals: Make objectives specific, measurable, and time-bound for clarity. Engage Updates: Keep teams informed with engaging updates highlighting successes and impact. Aligning goals and metrics creates a shared vision and drives sustainable growth.

In my opinion, Customers service should align with company’s goal and vision. If companies goal is to provide affordable and comfortable service to its customers, it’s need to clear this goal among its all employees so they can know what they supposed to do and what kind of resources they needed.

What I have found, is to set the expectations for customer and looking at the situation together. Partnering up with the customer is a great way to build trust.

Customer service is pivotal organ of every organisation in terms of business continuity. As an organisation you would have to ensure your customer support team are well equipped and align with the organisational goals in order to increase revenue. Implement CRM system: This helps the business to manage all their relations ,contacts and interactions with customer. The CRM system can provide information to other department aside customer service. Email automations: Emails are tools when integrated with customer service system will save time and also improve customer satisfaction with the brand. This tool help generate tickets from incoming emails , send emails when system downtimes are experienced or change of service or product is done.

From my perspective, it is essential for all business units to adopt and embrace a customer service and experience mindset. The initial step in fostering a strong customer service culture within an organization is treating colleagues with the same level of attentiveness as one would with customers. When individuals mentally approach their interactions with coworkers as they would with customers, it facilitates smoother communication between the customer-facing units and other business divisions. This, in turn, leads to clearer communication, greater alignment of objectives, and widespread understanding of the necessary steps to satisfy the customer base.

Exactly. That is the key. A tool that integrates customer services' daily actions, marketing data, client's qualification (business persona, customer's journey..etc), SEO metrics... For sure it is impossible to handle a big number of clients. But you get a clearer idea of the situation of this client. It is an improved customer service.

I believe that exceptional service is not just about solving problems. It’s about creating meaningful relationships. Every interaction is an opportunity to make a positive impact, to listen, to empathize, and to exceed expectations. It's about going above and beyond, not because it's a job requirement, but because it’s the due diligence that our customers deserve. As we grow and innovate, let's never lose sight of what truly matters – the people we serve. They are the heartbeat of our success. Thank you to those amazing, faithful people and their unwavering commitment to excellence. Together, we're building something extraordinary. #CustomerService #lastingImpression #UMB

In our journey at Task Mastery Solutions, we've witnessed firsthand the power of collaboration and team buy-in when it comes to customer service integration. Our secret weapon? Asana. This tool has been instrumental in connecting our customer service, marketing, sales, and operations teams. With Asana, we've created a unified hub for customer interactions, allowing us to streamline workflows, share insights, and ensure everyone's in sync. It's not just a tool; it's a culture of collaboration. When all hands on deck are committed to delivering exceptional service, you not only meet customer needs but also elevate your entire business. #CustomerService #Collaboration #Teamwork

This is called Quality circles in TQM parlance. However, while the tools and activities highlighted are necesary, they may sometimes fail in some organizations that practise them because much of what will still get done or undone depends on the power play. If canceling a process may make an ED or SVP of marketing look bad or loose perceived market share, he/she may not cooperate and that is why customer experience will require the support of the CEO in getting things done since the dept don't own the process. It still acts through other functions like Ops, Marketing, etc. Having a high EQ, authority (CX leader) and Executive Management commitment will go a long way in ensuring success of collaborating/ communicating in CX transformatiom

Exactly. When employees are empowered, service quality thrives. Management must trust the employees to do the right thing and not punish or fire when things go down south as long as the employee is doing it in the genuine interest of the customer. Amazon is superb in using empowerment to support customer service.

Excellence is the key! A good customer service should have the best employees. The motivation of the employees will increase if there is enough support. The managers should hand over responsibilities to employees. The employees need good tools to work with that they are familiar with.

This is essential. As much as your agents know how to use the tools, procedures, legal requirements, technical requisites...etc, you are giving them A REASONING BEHIND EVERY action taken in the company. When you know why you do something, it is 100X easier to assimilate it and apply in the right situation. There is nothing better than a good training for your employees.

This part is linked to the teamleaders of a customer service center. But as much as agents understand how these metrics are taken, how they can improve it and what it supposes for their daily work and the mission of the company, better is the trust between company and workers.

Recently, some employees have been known to game the system, advising customers to rate them 10 on a scale of 0 to10 on NPS surveys, or even fill the survey forms on behalf of customers. This might be due to the objective of setting up the surveys in the first instance. Surveys should not be used for employee performance management and it's giving some organizations a bad image. Feedback should be focused mainly on insight and improvement purposes

Resolving matters or issues on the field will demostrate our willingness to act on the double not as a proof of we did something wrong then resolve it but it means we care about feedback and we take action rapidly. Then, making sure the situation will not happen again by creating and or modifying the internal SOPs and then proceed with an updated training on a particular case. In the hotel industry, I always say one of the best spots to hear and or knowing our customer’s feedback is a towel hut, a place where many customers visit to enjoy the facilities in the hotel, then a visit to this place facilitates the interaction time with the hotel guests! This is a gold mine place to hear feedback and spend some great time with the guests!

I see many companies that see all functions as separate entities. Whilst in part this is correct, it’s somewhat shortsighted. I believe that they are all cogs in the wider customer lifecycle and all need (to some extent) to be collaborative. Product teams need sales to sell and marketing to create demand, sales teams need onboarding teams (KYC/AML - where required) and customer success to get the client up and running, service or support to assist clients and feedback to product, finance to invoice, recover cash and make it available for future works and ongoing liquidity. Give these functions, more means of communication and engagement to deliver an optimal client experience and collective future successes that are all fully aligned.

Purposeful leadership is also key. Employees will emulate their leaders or do what is desirable by the leader. If the CEO bends down to pick pieces of paper in the premises, the employees will collectively do so and deliver possibly the cleanest premises in the locality. Does the organization also reward exemplary customer service or do they share customer service stories during induction of new staff or at regular meetings etc. These are needed to build a customer- centric organization

I agree but customer service is a package deal, not just hello there Most important is the fact that you need to know about your employers products. Learn that and your nearly there.