Building World-Class Customer Service

In 2014 you and your company certainly put many relevant topics on the agenda.

There is one topic, however, which should be at the very top of your list:

Improving and Exceeding at Customer Service. Really exceeding at it!

Why?

It separates good companies from the best ones. And in times of turbo-speed, full transparency, and highly demanding customers it′s more important than ever!

If you provide great customer service, you′ll receive great rewards in the form of loyal customers who will even bring their friends with them.

Or as expressed by Doug Warner from the opposite perspective: "In the world of Internet Customer Service, it′s important to remember your competitor is only one mouse click away.“

How to create and maintain an exceptional customer service culture in your company:

Offer A Good And Reliable Product/Service: That′s the basis. If not, no need to worry about a good customer service. What your product can′t deliver your customer service will not be able making up for. The best way to reduce customer complaints and to improve customer satisfaction is to provide high-quality products and services. Be willing to change/adjust your offered product(s) and service(s), if needed. Possibly even your business model.

Put Customer-Focused Thinking At The Center Of Everything: Customer service is not a department, it′s an attitude and everybody′s job! It needs to be at the very core of the company′s DNA. Practice it everyday. Do not just talk about it. Instead show and proof it every day, every hour, and every minute by assisting your customers. Celebrate customer service-related achievements and successes. Make them visible throughout the whole organization.

Worship Your Customer: He′s the boss. He′s paying the salaries. Ask, listen, and learn from them. Treat people like you want to be treated. However, only respecting them is not enough any longer. Instead improve your product/service based on their feedback. Even a complaining customer represents an excellent opportunity for more business. Treat all your customers with the same high level of sincere respect and make your customers feel important and appreciated. Treat them as individuals. This will create good feelings and trust.

Top Management Commitment and Engagement: Serving the customer starts at the top. It′s the CEO′s most important job. A good leader needs to be a good servant. He should lead by example and demonstrate how customers should be treated. He should know by heart the companies products and services. If your company wants to be world-class in customer service, your CEO needs to act as Chief Service Officer (CSO).

Train, Excite, And Empower Your Staff: All of them and not only the customer service reps. Develop a holistic customer service approach, specific procedures, a rewards and compensation scheme with your staff. Based on detailed product and customer know-how. Get them involved. Let them develop, agree, and commit. Respect their opinions. Give every team member enough information and power to make small customer-pleasing decisions. Employees are your internal customers and need a regular dose of appreciation. Treat your employees well, and they will treat your customers well!

Act As Quickly And As Reliable As Possible: This is a very visible, and as such a very important, part to your customers. There need to be e.g. ambitious and tightly-managed KPIs in place for answering the phone, responding to mails, calling back customers, etc. Rule: Be super fast, polite, honest, transparent, and concise.

Use Leading Technology: If needed tailored to your unique business and customer needs. Customers define the systems and IT structure required to provide outstanding customer service. Not the other way round. IT is not a cost. It′s a critical success factor. It certainly costs much less than delivering bad customer service.

Radiate A Yes-Attitude And Be A Communication Master: Smile whenever you interact with the customer. Immediately deal with highest priority with complaints, be results-focused, know how to sincerely apologize (and not trying to put the blame on the customer) and how to treat every customer as an individual. Keep customers pro-actively up-to-speed.

Constantly Inform And Educate Your Customers: Let your customers know about how your products and services work and how you operate. Also inform them about how easily they can exchange with you and whenever needed. Make it simple for customers to complain and value their complaints. Always deliver what no promised. No exceptions.

Under-promise And Over-Deliver: Although this gap should be small (in order of not risking to loose credibility), as a general rule you should provide more than what customers expect to get. Also be helpful even if there is no immediate benefit or profit for you.

Never Stop Learning And Improving: Think ahead. Anticipate future needs and wants (and possible problems) of your customers. Many might be emotional and not only rational. Always go a step further. Get constant feedback. You are much better prepared, if you know your customers and if every day you try to make the customer experience a little bit better. It is a beautiful and never-ending activity. It′s all about the long-term!

Leverage Excellent Customer Service: Don′t be too shy talking about the good you do in an indirect way, e.g. by using the power of communities or brand advocates. Two rules you should follow: 1) Do not boast. 2) Only do it, if you are very good from your customers′perspective, i.e. only if you really built a great customer experience.

At the end, the customer doesn′t know, doesn′t care, and shouldn′t need to care about what the reasons of his product concerns and dissatisfaction might be. He has the right to receive a high quality and well working product or service. That′s what he paid for.

And the whole company′s responsibility is to deliver exactly that. Customer service is the basis for customer loyalty. Every great business is built on strong customer relationships. As such successful and visionary companies always put their customer first, not sales and market shares. They′ve understood that the latter ones are only a natural consequence of satisfied customers.

In summary: It′s not really about customer service, it′s about customer obsession!

Are you obsessed about your existing and potential new customers? How do you see and possibly practice the art of customer service?

Best regards,

Andreas von der Heydt

Read in my next blog article how the world′s best companies practice Customer Service.

*****
Andreas von der Heydt is the Country Manager of Amazon BuyVIP in Germany. Before that he hold senior management positions at L'Oréal. He′s a leadership expert, executive coach and NLP master. He also founded Consumer Goods Club. Andreas worked and lived in Europe, the U.S. and Asia.

Please click 'Follow' if you would like to hear more from Andreas in the future. Feel free to also connect via his LinkedIn Groups Coaching or Consumer Goods, or via Twitter and Facebook.

Other recent posts by Andreas von der Heydt:

Just Released (Part 2 Of This Article): How Apple, Disney & Co. Delight Cusomers
What The Best Brands Will Do In 2014
How Puma Can Compete With Adidas And Nike
A Serious Threat To Apple
What The Fitch Is Going On At Abercrombie
The 17 Qualities and Views of Great Leaders
The Art of Breeding Intrapreneurs
12 Minutes To Create A Mind Changing Presentation
The Most Underestimated Skill of A Great Leader

Photo: istockphoto.com