It may be strategic marketing and advertising that attracts customers to your business, but it's the skill level of customer service that keeps them coming back and referring their friends and family. Don't let the lack of quality customer service in your business affect your bottom line. In honour of National Customer Service Week, which runs from October 4-8, we're sharing our tips for raising awareness of the importance of customer service in your business.
Customer service is an underestimated but critical function to your organization's success. Not only does it help you develop customer relationships, but a good customer service strategy also gathers important customer reviews of your services and products, while building customer loyalty to your brand. It's a win-win situation!
However, not every business has the investment capital to invest in a call center or customer service department. So how can you get your company to focus more on customer service without a complete reorganization? Check out Adecco's 4 tips and watch your relationships with customers grow!
Hire service minded employees in all departments
Whether it's experience in a call center or even a previous retail job, hiring staff with prior customer service experience can be very valuable to your company's customer relationships. Not only will these employees bring a variety of customer service skills to their new position, but they will likely already have a customer focus that will not go unnoticed by your customers. These employees will serve as an example to their colleagues who do not have customer service experience or skills, and they can help boost the importance of customer service within your company.
Schedule mandatory customer service training for all staff
Customer service is more than just handling customer complaints. It requires product knowledge, clear communication skills, positive language, empathy and more! Given the multifaceted nature of good customer service, helping your employees develop these skills can significantly improve your organization's customer focus. Make it a priority within your organization by scheduling mandatory training sessions with all colleagues each year. During these sessions, focus on company guidelines for product or service warranties and role-play various potential situations to develop your employees' customer service skills. By preparing co-workers for these sensitive interactions, they will feel more comfortable and confident in handling customer issues that come their way.
Provide an office checklist
Customer service skills take time and practice to develop, and they may not come naturally to your employees, especially those who work in departments that don't normally interact with customers. Provide your staff with a checklist of the best words and phrases to use in difficult customer service situations. By providing your employees with this tool, you help them take control of the customer interaction, while striving for a positive outcome.
Incentives and rewards
Recognize colleagues who have maintained a strong customer service focus in their daily work. This will solidify your organization's commitment to a high level of customer service and encourage your colleagues to focus on their customer service skills. However you choose to recognize your top performers — think an extra day off, a gift card, or an employee of the month certificate — providing an incentive can push them to make customer service a priority in their daily work.
Hire your perfect team, or get more staffing advice from our experts with Adecco.