Customer service is vital for establishing and maintaining a loyal customer base. An excellent customer service culture is an essential part of a successful business or organisation. Quality products and competitive prices will take the back seat if your employees do not meet the expectations of your customers. Retaining customers will become a headache with rude and inexperienced customer service staff, ultimately leading to a drop in sales. Existing customers will take their business elsewhere, why patronise an organisation that has no regards for its customers?

So, how do you build an excellent customer service culture in your organization? We will bring you through the four pillars of excellent customer service – Trust, Communication, Empowerment and Training.

TRUST

Trust is an indispensable aspect in building business relationships. Consumer trust is influenced by many factors – customer satisfaction based on their previous experiences of service delivery, the handling or resolution of complaints, the experiences of others amongst many others. All that said, what is the benefit of building trust with your customers?

You can charge higher prices than your competitors but your customers will still buy from you because they trust in your company and services you offer. That little attentiveness or the extra mile that you go for them frees you from the need to have competitive pricing. That’s how powerful customer trust is.

But always keep in mind “Trust is hard won, but easily lost”. Consumer trust is a continuous process which is built over an accumulation of experiences be it first-hand or otherwise. One bad customer experience is all that it takes to waste the years of building trust.

COMMUNICATION

It is imperative that there is effective communication between a business and its customers. Employees should be equipped with strong communication skills and be able to answer and address customer requests or complaints confidently. Customers will form certain perceptions of your company based on the way your front line staff communicate with them.

Here’s a common scenario, you walk into a store and find a dress or shirt you like but you can’t seem to find your size, so you ask the store employee standing nearby if they have any stock for your size.

“Oh, we don’t have stock for the size you are looking for.”

“Stocks for your particular size will come in next week. I will place the order for you right away and once it reaches our warehouse we will give you a call, you can come down and pick the item from any outlet of your choice.”

There is nothing wrong with the first response, it is a polite reply that answers the customer’s question but is it excellent customer service – most certainly not. So what is the difference between the first and second response? The former is impersonal and just informs the customer that the product that they were willing to purchase is not available and nothing can be done about it. However, the latter states the same thing but rephrases it in such a way that there only positive language used and a resolution is also provided for the customer.

Whether your customer leaves your store with a smile or frown depends on the communication skills of your employee.

EMPOWERMENT

In order to build a culture of excellent customer service within your organisation, it is just as important to give an equal amount of attention and emphasis on empowering your employees to meet the set standards.

Employees should have a certain level of autonomy and the right repertoire of skills to determine the best possible customer service to be provided to a customer. Set and define the service standards expected from your employees and then equip them with the power and skills that will allow them to meet customer needs in the best manner possible.

Ensure that your employees are well aware of the company mission, vision, goals and policies of the company. This will allow them to understand what the company stands for and how their actions and interactions with customers will affect the company as a whole, giving them the confidence to give the best they can to help the company achieve its goals and targets.

Employee empowerment is a two-way street – your customers will reap the benefits of excellent customer service while your employees will achieve job satisfaction.

TRAINING

“I am sorry but that is company policy and I can’t help you”

This one statement is enough to raise pressure levels of even the most patient of men and provides one of the easiest ways to lose even a long standing customer.

When front line staff provide such replies they fail to realise that they have just created a new opportunity for their competitors. The customer will take his dissatisfaction and start using the services or products of your competitor who will care more about him than the company policy. After all, it takes months to find a customer and just seconds to lose one. Admittedly, after his complaint or problem has been resolved he might not go around praising your customer service support but at least, you have managed to retain a customer and upkeep the company image.

So, why do customer support officers respond with such scripted replies? Why not accommodate the request of the customer? Lack of training is the common answer. They are caught off guard and have no idea what so ever on how to proceed when customers turn up with special requests or isolated incidents. Employee training will improve the capabilities of your employee by equipping them with essential skills and knowledge like empathy, active listening and effective communication all of which are necessary to handle unique situations or requests. The training arena provides them with a safe space to hone their customer service skills with real-life situations while still leaving allowance for making mistakes and learning from those very mistakes.

A well-trained employee will be able to feel comfortable and confident in providing assistance to a customer and on top of that deliver a positive service experience. Training your front line staff is no longer a luxury but a vital link to gain that competitive advantage and maintain your loyal customer base.

Trust, Communication, Empowerment and Training– these four pillars of excellent customer service will take the service levels of your organisation to a whole new level.