Goals & Expectations for a Customer Service Manager
Customer service managers typically set departmental goals to meet expectations for excellent customer service. With customer service staff as the first-line employees to help customers, managers need to set attainable goals for their department, staff and themselves to measure her departments' success. Delivering outstanding customer service leads to high customer satisfaction, few complaints and return business. Keeping quality staff in the department and reducing turnover is a common goal of many customer service managers.
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High Customer Satisfaction
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The primary goal of any customer service manager is to deliver excellent customer service. This includes listening to the customer, assessing the customer's needs, helping the customer and leaving him with a pleasant experience. The expectation of the manager is that her staff will help the customer and he will leave feeling satisfied. Customer service is often the first or only contact your customers will have with the company. Investing in training staff on how to handle customers is valuable for your staff and your customers.
Meeting Measured Goals
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Many customer service managers establish measured departmental performance goals. These goals provide the manager with hard numbers showing how his staff is performing. Call centers measure the average speed of answer of phone calls and the number of calls abandoned before getting to a customer service representative. Additionally, companies may use customer satisfaction surveys and track the number of customer complaints. Setting goals such as all calls are answered within 10 seconds and customer satisfaction survey results score should be 90 percent or above, provides expectations for the department to meet.
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Few Customer Complaints
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Reducing the number of formal or serious customer complaints goes hand-in-hand with keeping customers happy. As a goal, the customer service manager aims to eliminate major customer complaints. The manager should track and trend complaints to identify where the biggest problems lie. Then, managers can train staff and release team members who customers complain about the most. The expectation is that complaints are not caused by the customer service staff, rather the staff helps to sooth the situation and ultimately turn the situation around so the customer is satisfied.
Low Staff Turnover
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One of the biggest problems within customer service departments is staff turnover. Keeping quality staff within the department is a challenge for many customer service managers. Reducing turnover is a primary goal. Creating a career path and a stable, positive environment in which staff will not want to leave is essential. The manager expects support from senior leadership to recognize the importance of front-line staff. Customer service positions are often lower paying, however, the manager can set goals for staff to achieve promotions and recognition within the department.
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References
- Photo Credit customer service image by Kurhan from Fotolia.com
