Your Service

Strategy

A surprising number of organisations do not have a customer service strategy or a customer section in their overall strategy.  Creating a customer service strategy will help you help you “see the wood from the trees” and understand what you need to do to effectively engage your customers.

Research

Wouldn’t it be helpful to know what your customers really wanted from you in order that you can deliver it?  It doesn’t have to be complicated. By asking them the right questions on a regular basis you can ensure you are always delivering the products and services they want to buy.

People

Fantastic processes and systems will only get you so far. Your people are your main differentiator and hold the key to getting it right. It’s not just about training either. Excellent customer service is also built around great recruitment, selection, reward, induction and leadership.

Feedback & Complaints

Getting regular feedback from your customers is vital if you want to stay in touch with how they feel about your products, processes and service. This feedback should ideally be from a variety of sources, including complaints. Complaints give you an opportunity to learn from mistakes by fixing them and making sure it doesn’t happen again.

Communication

Excellent communication is at the heart of any thriving organisation .  It’s therefore vital that you get your customer and employee communication just right. Every contact with a customer is a marketing opportunity that can sometimes be wasted. Excellent communication with your workforce will result in a highly motivated and enthusiastic team.

Benchmarking

You’re not the only organisation doing what you do. So you need to be better than your competitors to increase market share and keep your existing customers loyal to you. Benchmarking your customer service performance against your peers, including your rivals, will allow you to stay in touch with current developments and ahead of the pack.

Internal Service

“Your external service can never be better than your internal service”. If this quote is true, your internal customer service is incredibly important to you. Get it right and it will flow into the service you give to your customers. You cannot afford to get it wrong.

Processes & Technology

More and more, technology is becoming vital to providing fast, accurate information for customers.  Problems can be sorted quickly if you have fast access to the right information.  Having the right technology and processes makes you easy to do business with and easy for your staff to deliver exceptional service.

Culture & Change

How would you describe your customer service culture?  Can customers feel it immediately they walk in the door, speak on the phone or receive an e-mail from you?  What does your culture say about you? Customers will pick up on your culture in seconds. Is yours giving the right messages? And how easily can your organisation change if its not?