Customer Service: Enabling Your Employees

There are certain standards that must be met to deliver good customer service, such as having a good automated voice response system, an accommodating web site, and enough staff to handle inquiries and complaints in a timely manner. Hiring good people with good communication skills is also critical, along with ensuring that they have the tools to do the job. But let's assume that these are expected for your industry. How do you take things to the next level?

First off, have the trust in your customer service people that they will make the right decisions. If you hire the right people for the right job in the first place, your trust should be justified. There are too many issues that your people will face to try to automate all interactions and responses, so it is better to provide them with good solid guidelines rather than attempt to develop a step-by-step script.

Second, eliminate useless processes, procedures and reporting. You can identify these by talking to your customer service representatives, as well as through customer feedback. Forcing the customer and the representative to jump through hoops without a purpose only adds unnecessary complexity to a volatile situation. And if you're not using captured data for reporting purposes, stop having your customer service representatives capture it. The time they save means more time spent with the customers.

Third, provide your customer service representatives with the freedom to make the customer happy. A simple example is a server at a restaurant being empowered to offer a complimentary meal or dessert if there was a problem. Providing the right tools to make things right is also critical, be it a stack of complimentary meal coupons or mobile computing systems with wireless access to a centralized customer database. The right tools can give your team the ability to deliver the necessary level of service.

While managers may be concerned about costs and oversight issues, keep in mind that bad customer service can cost you a lifetime of customer value. But good customer service can create a customer for life.