Two often forgotten skills for exceptional customer service execution are the ability to comprehend the needs of customer service situations and the capacity to perform excellent customer service actions.
It’s common knowledge that providing good customer service is an essential part of a successful, thriving business.
When you think about it, you depend on your customers and the only way to keep them coming back is to continually deliver the needs and wants of your customer.
You can train your customer service people to answer the phone, respond to customer emails and go through a slew of other day-to-day tasks associated with customer service work. But you’ll see little results when it comes to the impact of customer service in your customer relationships and the bottom line of your business unless your service delivery is centered around clearly comprehending your customers and masterfully executing purposeful actions to solve customer concerns.
The plague in the customer service industry
Most people can be trained to meet the basic metrics of customer service. That’s why it’s so often an entry level, low paying job. The problem is that this same mentality about customer service leads to the plague we have today of low customer satisfaction, poor customer experiences, fickle customer loyalty, and soaring call center turnover rates. The problems of customer service as an industry, stem from our casual approach to the meaning and purpose of customer service.
Winning customer service
The organizations that have been structured around customer service delivery understand that service has to be at the core of their business offering. No matter the product or set of feature they enable for their customers, it’s their service that will remain the legacy of the organization. That’s why it’s so critical that you instill the sense of purpose in your customer service team members.
Customer service comprehension and action
Winning customer service organizations train their people to clearly comprehend the needs of customers and empower them to act with purpose to take care of the customer. Only then can they truly master the delivery of their product or service to their customer. Without the customer service component, you leave yourself exposed to the next competitor just waiting to add an extra feature or undercut your price and steal your customer.
Are you clear in what your customers need from you? Are you acting with a purpose in delivering on those needs? Can you clearly define what your customers expect from you and how you will deliver that when it comes to:
- Planning and goal setting
- Ongoing communication
- Team leadership
- Market changes
- New employee training
- Skill coaching and development
- Effective feedback
- Performance motivation
- Customer problem-solving
- Conflict resolution
The attitude of customer service
The experience your customers remember will largely depend on your attitude of service. Your ability to consistently focus on effectively acting upon the needs of the customer will be one of the most valuable assets you can have in delivering exceptional service experiences.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.