Is your business’ customer service strategy up-to-date and compliant?
Your customers are your customers. Even if your customer service plan is or will be outsourced, there are still universal standards that need to be upheld in order to achieve an acceptable satisfaction rate from today’s customers.
Looking for clear, reasonable ways to improve call center workflow? We’ve created the ultimate customer service audit checklist to help you do just that. Each of these 25 suggestions will help you stay compliant and reach new standards of customer service.
1) Write a Clear Mission Statement
A mission statement will drive everything you do in your business. Be thoughtful in your approach and take time to think about your company’s goals.
2) Preach Your Mission Statement Internally
Even the best mission statement won’t do you any good if employees don’t know about it. Display your mission statement in the office and talk about it frequently.
3) Preach Your Mission Statement to Customers
Customers should know what you stand for when it comes to customer service. If they know you strive for great service, they’ll be more likely to trust you when they need help.
4) Advertise Your Guarantee of Quality Service
Bring in new customers and hold yourselves accountable by including your mission for great quality service in your marketing efforts.
5) Make Sure Every Employee Knows Their Role in the Mission Statement
Your employees may know what your mission statement says, but do they know how it applies to them? Teach them how they specifically carry out this mission in their role within the company.
6) Create Actionable Daily Tasks to Achieve Quality Customer Service
Everyone could use a little guidance when it comes to carrying out a goal. Make it easy on employees by giving them actionable daily tasks, like a list of helpful questions to ask the customer, or best practices in how to help an angry customer.
7) Make Sure Every Employee Understands Their Daily Tasks
Employees should know what their responsibilities are and how to best fulfill those responsibilities. Give employees a questionnaire or ask them directly to find out if they truly understand their role.
8) Host Regular Customer Service Trainings
Customer service trainings shouldn’t just happen when you hire a new employee. Continue the learning process by hosting customer service trainings at least every quarter.
9) Survey Customers To Improve Customer Service
No one can give you better feedback about how to improve customer service than your own customers. Send out surveys to find out how you can do better, then implement changes quickly.
10) Follow Up With Customers
If a customer comes to you with a problem, be sure to resolve it as fast as possible. But then go the extra mile by following up in a few weeks to see how they’re doing. Your customers will appreciate the effort.
11) Ask How You Can Better Support Your Team
Companies with low turnover usually earn better customer service scores. Make sure your team is satisfied by asking what you can do to improve your support systems.
12) Discuss Issues as a Team
Employees will feel empowered and valued if you include them in discussing customer service issues. Make sure all perspectives are included when you talk about any overarching problems you’re trying to solve.
13) Set a Good Personal Example
Great customer service can be learned by example. Treat your customers and employees the way you would like to be treated. It’s the “golden rule” for a reason!
14) Spend Time on the Front Lines
You can talk to employees and customers all you want, but there’s no replacement for spending time on the front lines yourself. Regularly schedule time to answer phone calls and help customers firsthand.
15) Set Standards For Response Times
If you want employees to achieve high customer service ratings, you must set a standard to measure their results.
16) Make Sure Employees Know the Standards
Employees should know how quickly they’re expected to respond to customer service complaints, or else the standards will be useless.
17) Ensure Employees Meet or Exceed Standards
Motivate employees to meet or exceed the standards by offering incentives, holding regular employee performance interviews, and appropriately disciplining those who do not uphold the standards.
18) Track the Success of Your Efforts
Measure the success of your customer service strategy by tracking KPIs. Review reports and let the data point to areas that need improvement.
19) Share Progress With Employees
Employees will be more motivated to improve if you share progress with the team as a whole. Consider creating a large poster with goals, charts tracking progress, and awards for top performers.
20) Share Customer Satisfaction Scores With Employees
Customer satisfaction scores are very telling of how you’re doing as a company. Share this information with employees during training sessions and let them take responsibility for improving the scores over time.
21) Spend Time With Customers
As we mentioned earlier, it’s important to get on the frontlines with your customers and learn how your company is actually running in the day-to-day operations. You can also spend time with customers by conducting market research interviews or interacting with them at trade shows.
22) Look for Employees Who Go Above and Beyond
Every company has certain employees who do everything they can to succeed. Set them as an example to other employees by rewarding them and talking about what they’re doing right in team meetings.
23) Encourage Employees to Innovate
Employees can come up with incredible ideas on how to improve your customer service strategy if you allow them to step in. Encourage employees to innovate by asking for their input and rewarding them for ideas you implement.
24) Hold Formal Performance Evaluations
Performance evaluations are an important way of helping employees know how they’re doing, and where they can improve. Set a standard evaluation sheet and hold quarterly reviews to track the progress of each employee.
25) Keep Employees in the Loop When Changes Happen
The best companies are always improving their approach to customer service. But employees can be flustered or irritated if the changes are constant or if they aren’t in the loop. Make sure to inform employees of changes well in advance, and explain why you’re making the change.
Conclusion
These 25 tips will ensure you stay compliant, no matter what type of business you run. Take our realistic and actionable checklist items with you and see how quickly they improve customer service standards for your company. If you are outsourcing, be sure to address these points to your partnering call center to ensure your customers receive the highest level of satisfaction possible.
