Top 10 Customer Service Tips

Giving Great Customer Service

When shopping online, would you rather buy from a vendor that has a 100% customer service rating, or one with 99.9%? A single poor review may not even be the vendor’s fault, but it can have a strong effect on the mind of a customer.

This is why customer service is one of the most important activities your organisation undertakes, particularly in the new era of highly visible online reviews.

Here are our top ten tips for making sure you always give fantastic customer service that surpasses expectations and builds better customer relationships.

Top Ten Customer Service Tips

• 1. Hire Service-Oriented People
• 2. Make it All About the Customer
• 3. Keep your People up to Speed
• 4. Think With the Customer in Mind
• 5. Conduct Customer-focused Meetings
• 6. Empower your Employees
• 7. Do the Unexpected
• 8. Create an Atmosphere of Excellence
• 9. Continually Improve and Add Value
• 10. Support Those Still in Training

1. Hire People with a Service-orientated Attitude

Some people genuinely enjoy serving others, and this personality trait is worth its weight in gold if you can populate your customer service team with it. People with this trait also tend to make the best salespeople.

A service-orientated attitude is a collection of traits that lend themselves perfectly to pleasing customers. Most notably, try to recruit people who have:

• A genuine love of interacting with others and helping people
• An ability to actively listen so they can pick up on the words that express the customer’s needs and feelings
• A flair for understanding the nuances of products or services so they can match them to customer requirements
• A desire to make every customer feel cared for as an individual.

Bear in mind that anyone can have these qualities. It isn’t related to wealth or background, or whether a person is outgoing or bubbly. Look for people who always tend to give a bit extra when undertaking tasks, or who appear to enjoy the work they contribute. Naturally, a careful approach to interviewing will help you spot a strong service-oriented attitude.

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2. Make it All About the Customer

When interacting with customers, ask yourself, “How can I make their experience even better?” The aim is to always exceed their expectations to create an exceptional customer service experience that compels them to return for more.

Naturally, salespeople require this mindset to achieve customer needs in the most beneficial yet cost-effective way. However, far more important is how your customer service team handles mistakes and complaints.  

If something went wrong, such as a faulty product or inadequate service, then a refund is the minimum the customer expects. This is your opportunity to do something that makes them feel genuinely cared for. For example, why not add a little extra to their refund to compensate them for the trouble they experienced?

If a product or service simply didn’t live up to expectation, then this is still a customer service opportunity. Learn as much as you can about what the customer didn’t like or why it failed to meet their expectations. While you may not be able to compensate them, you can still make them feel listened to. You can also make them feel that their feedback will help your business to improve.

Here’s a great customer service tip: contact your competitors and see how they treat customers. Whatever their customer service is like, consider how you can do better. That isn’t cheating, it’s comparative shopping.

Incidentally, making it all about the customer is a standard requirement in most business situations including networking and pitching.

3. Keep your Customer Service People up to Speed

Customer-facing employees need to know what is happening within an organisation so they can manage customer expectations and keep the promises they make.

For example:

• What new products or services will you be offering, and when will they be available?
• Do you have any upcoming changes that might affect customers for better or worse?
• What marketing campaigns and special offers are you running?
• Have you won any awards or accolades recently?
• Is there any other exciting news such as joint ventures?

Informed customer service teams are in a better position to satisfy customer needs more accurately. It also helps to keep them informed about the environmental and social responsibility aspects of your business. More and more customers are interested in making ethical choices, and this can often be one of the key deciding factors between two products or services that are largely the same.

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4. Think With the Customer in Mind

Rather than making subjective decisions from your own or the organisation’s perspective, put your customer at the heart of all decision-making. Consider this at a strategic and customer-specific level.

Strategically, if you are thinking of making changes to your business, then ask yourself whether customers will like what you are about to do. Customer-focused decisions minimise the risk of doing something that turns people off to your products, services or brand.

When handling specific customer cases, particularly when negotiating to resolve conflict, consider the situation from their perspective. Use what you know about them, and ask questions to gain a better understanding of the situation. Naturally, customer service teams must work towards the objectives of the organisation, but the best team members will find ways to achieve even the most difficult customers’ objectives as well.

5. Conduct Customer-focused Meetings

Customer-focused meetings are an extension of thinking with the customer in mind. When gathered as a team, it can be all too easy to think subjectively as a group, which could cause you to make decisions that benefit the organisation at the customer’s expense.

At the start of meetings, remind attendees to think with the customer in mind. That means considering how customers will react to the proposals you are discussing and decisions you are making. You can even conduct exercises such as nominating certain team members to act as customer representatives in discussions.

It can also help to dedicate sessions to a specific question, which enables you to gather further ideas about how to improve your customer service. For example, ask questions such as, “What will delight our customers even more?” and “How can our customer service be even more innovative?”

6. Empower your Employees

Customer service is limited by the constraints on employees, so why not give them more power to create amazing experiences?

For example, can you give them more scope to reward loyal customers? People often work best when they have guidelines, so consider setting a limit on the number of customers each individual team member can reward per month, and define the format of the rewards. But don’t be too restrictive as you want to encourage people to make their own meaningful impact on your customer base.

Equally, bear in mind there may be a few mistakes as team members get used to their new powers. Try not to hold it against them as fear can be just as constraining, if not more so.

7. Do the Unexpected

Try to gain a reputation for doing unexpected things that add value to the customer’s purchase, such as giving ad hoc discounts or free products. This has the power to truly delight customers because they tend to only be expecting the basic transaction of exchanging money for a product or service. Doing the unexpected on top of that adds the powerful emotions of surprise and joy.

Furthermore, it adds a game of chance that compels customers to return in case you do it again. However, that doesn’t mean these unexpected customer service actions can’t actually be specified and rehearsed beforehand.

Giving your employees new powers allows them to use their best judgement about how to exceed a customer’s expectations.

8. Create an Atmosphere of Excellence

Build a team culture that encourages employees to give their best, and sets a precedent that anything less is unacceptable.

Make it clear that every interaction is a golden opportunity to deliver an exceptional customer experience that builds loyalty. The best experiences create customer advocates who proactively recommend your organisation to others.

Customer success stories can be emotionally powerful, so why not use them as a source of motivation? Get team members to submit their best experiences with customers, and how they helped to achieve the customer’s aims. You could even share the best story every month, but anonymise it first so no customer personal data is revealed.

Furthermore, don’t be shy in sharing these customer success stories with the wider business. Employees from other parts of the organisation may feel distanced from customers, so it helps to remind them that they are contributing to something valuable that has a huge positive impact on people.

9. Continually Improve and Add Value

Your customers are likely to be familiar with the offerings of competitors, potentially because they are already being marketed to. Also, bear in mind that your competitors are on their own paths of continual improvement.

Make a point of regularly asking yourself how you can enhance customer service interactions. For example, can you improve any of the existing steps of your customer service process? Can you streamline it so it isn’t so onerous? Does the process need expanding slightly, with steps that add greater value?

Customers tend to notice improvements, which communicates that your organisation is evolving for the benefit of those it serves.

10. Support Team Members who are Still in Training

Customer service roles are vital for your organisation as these are the people your customers interact with.

Ideally, never let an untrained employee have customer contact without supervision. Train them well, give them a mentor for initial customer service calls, and then let them fly as they forge their own unique style.

This article was originally contributed by Margo Chevers.

Top 10 Customer Service Tips