Top 10 Customer Service Tips

Top Ten Tips for 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.

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.

Bear in mind that anyone can have a customer service-orientated attitude. 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.

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.

Here’s a great 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!

3. Keep your Customer Service People up to Speed

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

For example:

What new products or services will you be offering?
When will they be available?
Do you have any upcoming changes that might affect customers for the better or worse?

Informed customer service teams give better customer service.

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.

If you are making changes, 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.

5. Conduct Customer-focused Meetings

At the start of meetings, remind attendees to think with the customer in mind. You can even conduct exercises such as nominating certain team members as customer representatives in discussions.

You can also dedicate sessions to a specific question to gather new ideas about customer service. For example, ask questions such as, “What will delight our customers even more?” and “How can our customer service be more innovative?”

6. Empower your Employees

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

There may be a few mistakes at the outset as team members get used to their new powers but try not to hold it against them. 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 adds a game of chance to the customer’s experience that compels them to return in case you do it again.

These ‘unexpected’ customer service actions can actually be specified and rehearsed. However, giving your employees new powers also 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 always give their best, which helps to set 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.

9. Continually Improve and Add Value

Your customers are likely to be familiar with the offerings of competitors, potentially because they are already being aggressively marketed to. Furthermore, 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 and add value to their purchase. This will help you continually improve your customer experience to stay ahead of the competition.

10. Support Team Members who are Still in Training

Customer service roles are some of the most important in 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.

This article was originally contributed by Margo Chevers.

Check out the Harvard Business Review's take on Customer Service
Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers