Customer service is a vital skill for any consulting team, as it can make or break your reputation, retention, and referrals. But what if your team is struggling to deliver the quality and consistency that your clients expect and deserve? Here are some steps you can take to improve your team's customer service performance and satisfaction.
The first step is to identify the root causes of your team's customer service issues. Is it a lack of training, motivation, feedback, or resources? Is it a mismatch between your client's expectations and your team's capabilities? Is it a communication breakdown or a cultural clash? You can use various tools and methods to gather data and insights, such as surveys, interviews, observations, audits, or metrics. The goal is to understand the gaps and the pain points, both from your team's and your client's perspectives.
If your team's service is sinking, it's time for a wake-up call! Remind them that customer satisfaction is non-negotiable. Set high standards and hold them accountable. No more excuses—demand excellence or find someone who can deliver. Customers deserve top-notch service, not second-rate efforts. It's a wake-up call for your team: shape up or ship out! Solution? Offer additional training, streamline processes, and provide resources to enhance their performance.
Such situations are quite catchy and difficult. However, it can still be overcome if the leader undertakes the following steps - 1. Assess the situation 2. Improvise on team or on processes 3. Execute with a new approach 4. Deliver outcomes by keeping clients as the focus. 5. Ask for comparative feedback with the old and new approach from the clients.
Consulting = Customer Service + Customer Satisfaction "Building trust with clients is essential for success. A key way to achieve this is by consistently exceeding customer expectations." The McKinsey Way If your team is struggling to deliver top-notch customer service, begin by scrutinizing your current service delivery processes to identify both bottlenecks and opportunities. It's essential to engage your team through training that focuses on key skills such as empathy, problem-solving, and effective communication.
Es fundamental escuchar al equipo y al cliente. Me ha pasado que cuando activo la escucha activa, curiosa, sincera desde una silla de observadora puedo entender situaciones rápidamente y con mucho detalle para que la solución salga de los equipos haciéndoles de espejo. Parece mágico como la escucha, la repregunta acercan y siempre son parte de la solución. !
Identify the gaps through a mix of interviews and surveys. Zoom in on the big issues: Attitude? Expertise? Detailing? Follow through? Culture? Expectations? Once you have prioritised the issues, put in a process to sort it. Monitor and get feedback regularly.
The next step is to design and implement an action plan to address the identified issues and improve your team's customer service skills and outcomes. Depending on the situation, your action plan may include some or all of the following elements: setting clear and realistic goals and standards, providing regular and constructive feedback, offering training and coaching opportunities, rewarding and recognizing achievements, allocating and optimizing resources, enhancing communication and collaboration, resolving conflicts and complaints, and monitoring and evaluating progress. The action plan should be aligned with your team's and your client's needs, priorities, and preferences.
There is a need develop a clear plan with specific steps to address the identified issues. This might include additional training sessions, improving communication channels, or implementing new procedures.
Improving team customer service demands a strategic approach. Clear goals, feedback, training, and resource allocation are essential. Recognizing achievements, fostering communication, and resolving conflicts are vital for team cohesion. Alignment with team and client needs is crucial for meaningful improvements. By systematically addressing challenges and nurturing skills, teams can consistently surpass client expectations, establishing themselves as reliable partners in delivering exceptional service.
What is referenced above is necessary for a functional employee. In management, it’s important to know the employee’s desires, goals - their reason “why”; and to look for opportunities to support/encourage/mentor them. When investing in employee they appreciate being valued, will perform better, and overall contributes to an environment conducive to work - “attitude reflects leadership”. While simultaneously providing training as described/expected and is professionally routine to customer service, interpersonal skills and human behavior.
Customer Service is what we trade/exchange, where Customer Satisfaction is the returned customer. The customer is both inside/outside. Your clients external and your workers internal. Both need to be served with dignity. Identify the needs and deliver in fashionable manner. Smile when serving both customers. Appreciate both customers and deliver the best product and services at all times. External Customer! Internal Customer! Customer Service and Satisfaction.
The third step is to involve your team in the process of improving their customer service performance and satisfaction. Your team members are the ones who interact with your clients on a daily basis, so they have valuable insights and suggestions on how to improve their service delivery and quality. By involving your team, you can foster a sense of ownership, engagement, and empowerment among them, as well as build trust and rapport with them. You can involve your team by soliciting their feedback, listening to their concerns, inviting their input, acknowledging their contributions, and encouraging their participation.
It is ALWAYS necessary to involve the team, especially for resolving issues among team members and what they’ve encountered in deliverability of customer service.
The team should be motivated to ensure that they take ownership and commitment to the improvement efforts. This will help the team get more engaged in the operations process.
Involving the team in improving customer service performance is vital for sustainable success. They possess valuable insights from daily client interactions. This engagement fosters ownership, engagement, and trust. Soliciting feedback, listening to concerns, and acknowledging contributions empower team members. Encouraging participation ensures collective efforts toward superior customer satisfaction, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and mutual respect within the organization.
The fourth step is to communicate with your client throughout the process of improving your team's customer service performance and satisfaction. Your client is the ultimate judge of your team's customer service quality, so you need to keep them informed, updated, and satisfied with your team's efforts and results. By communicating with your client, you can demonstrate your commitment, transparency, and professionalism, as well as strengthen your relationship and loyalty with them. You can communicate with your client by setting and managing expectations, sharing your action plan and progress, asking for their feedback, addressing their issues, and delivering on your promises.
Consistent communication with clients throughout the process of improving team customer service is paramount for success. Clients are the ultimate evaluators of service quality, and keeping them informed and satisfied is crucial. Transparent and proactive communication demonstrates commitment, builds trust, and fosters long-term relationships. Setting expectations, sharing action plans and progress, soliciting feedback, and resolving issues promptly are essential components of effective client communication. By prioritizing open dialogue and delivering on promises, organizations can enhance client satisfaction and loyalty, ultimately driving business success.
Keep your clients informed about the steps being taken to enhance customer service. Transparency and open communication can help rebuild trust and confidence.
Never the client the problem, discover the root of the problem without diminishing the problem or projecting, and resolve it; asking for help/authorization when necessary.
The final step is to learn and improve from your experience of improving your team's customer service performance and satisfaction. Customer service is not a one-time event, but an ongoing process that requires constant adaptation and innovation. You need to keep learning from your successes and failures, and keep improving your team's customer service skills and outcomes. You can learn and improve by collecting and analyzing data, measuring and reporting results, celebrating and rewarding achievements, identifying and correcting mistakes, and seeking and applying best practices.
Ultimately, continuously monitoring the progress and gathering feedback from both the team and customers. This information can be used to adjust the approach and make further improvements as needed.
Continuous learning and improvement are vital for enhancing team customer service. It's a dynamic process requiring adaptation and innovation. Learning from successes and failures, analyzing data, measuring results, and correcting mistakes are key. Celebrating achievements and applying best practices foster a culture of excellence, ensuring ongoing success in meeting customer needs.
If this is a team that has delivered the goods in the past, then either they're on the wrong project or are lacking motivation to work repeatedly on the same kind of work. The former is bad, the latter is good. But in either case, it's time for a change. Look at getting people with different skill-sets or experience to work on the next project. And encourage your existing team members to move out of their comfort zone to work on other projects.
If you are in large consulting firm like Accenture, Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG there available many forms of support starting from online trainings, classes both virtual and physical, mentoring and coaching online and in person. You choose. However, to survive in large firm you must learn art of networking. Why? Each firm works on the same principle. There is One Accenture and One Deloitte. Other BIG4 are similar. One Firm is mantra in large consulting firms and thus your network will determine what opportunities you will have. If you are not best networker there is always someone who can make introductions for you. The most important is to learn to ask for help, advice, coaching, support instead being silent. It’s habit you will develop.