How to Improve Customer Service Performance
A company is only as good as its reputation for providing strong customer service. Train your employees and customer service department to respond properly to customer service complaints and pass on customers' feedback to management.
To improve customer service performance at your company, provide employees with the tools necessary to meet customers' needs. Stronger customer service performance could strengthen the relationship your company shares with its employees and customers.
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Instructions
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Set performance goals for employees, management teams and customer service departments. For example, set a goal to reduce the number of customer complaints. One way to do this would be to provide more detailed training resource materials.
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Make a plan of action. Write out actionable steps that management and members of the customer service team can take to meet customers' needs. Align the steps with company policy regarding warranties, guarantees and product or service guidelines.
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Show employees what good and poor customer service performance looks like. Using real-world examples or case studies, show employees exactly what it means to perform in accordance with customer service policies. Then demonstrate what it means to defy or ignore them.
Reinforce the importance of each policy with a larger lesson. For example, end a case study about packaging a product improperly by discussing the importance of health and safety.
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Give members of the customer service team more authority to resolve customer complaints, so team members can resolve problems and potentially reduce the number of complaints.
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Set a standard of professionalism that requires all employees to treat customers with respect, to offer support to customers instead of waiting to be asked, and to actively listen and engage customers in conversation during sales or service transactions. This could be as simple as asking a customer about his day.
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Check improvements in customer service performance using monthly or twice-a-year reviews. Consider each team member’s compliance with company customer service guidelines and attendance at training sessions.
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Offer gifts and discounts to customers who provide feedback about recent customer service experiences. Provide phone or paper surveys so they can complete the task easily.
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Tips & Warnings
Encourage employees to respond with empathy when dealing with customer complaints.
Avoid setting unrealistic customer service performance goals such as "Reduce customer complaints to zero."
References
Resources
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