Every organization should have a philosophy to shape how they do customer service, aligned with its organizational goals and values. So what is your customer service philosophy? You should have one, even if it’s not written down. A good philosophy can’t be implemented overnight, as it drives a change in mindset that has to be embedded into the organization and all of its staff. By implementing a philosophy for how you provide service that puts the customer first, you’ll empower your staff to do their greatest work whilst keeping your customers and their experience forefront in their minds at all times.
No matter what your philosophy is, it should underpin everything that you do. That includes the design of your products, how you market them, and all aspects of customer support and service. Today’s customers expect to have access to multiple channels for communicating with you. Most organizations today provide some self-service channels, but customers also expect to have access to personalized attention when they need it. This means you need a customer service philosophy that encourages seamless interaction between self-service support and two-way personalized communication, both acting in a unified way.
Customer Service Philosophy: The Guiding Principles
These guiding principles can be very useful when creating your customer service philosophy:
Put your customer first:
Your customers are what keep you in business. Providing them with effective multi-channel support options is key to keeping your customers happy so that they will stay with you and recommend you to others. Always put customer experience first when designing all of the interactions that you expect to have with your customers. These customers will have many different personas based on their age, culture, and attitudes. You need to understand what those personas are and reflect them in your customer service philosophy.
For example, if you were a customer, how would you feel if you didn’t get a prompt response to an issue that you have raised? Most likely, you will feel ignored and wonder if the organization is listening. Of course, not all issues can be solved instantly, but a quick message back to the customer to let them know you are looking into it will improve their customer service experience.
Focus on consistent experience:
Your philosophy should include a rule that every interaction that the customer has with you and your products should feel consistent. This is particularly true for how you deliver support to your customers for both queries and issues. Every one of your interactions with a customer should feel the same to them in terms of your brand and culture, irrespective of what channel they are using. This consistency will only come from a well thought out philosophy.
To deliver this, your philosophy should ensure the use of consistent language and tone is used for all communications with customers. Your branding and design must also be consistent. This can be a challenge if you have deployed several different customer service tools for customers to use, but having a different look and feel for different channels can soon lead to dissatisfied customers.
Implement your customer service philosophy from the top down:
The customer service philosophy is a mindset that must be at the core of the company, and in every department. Design and engineering should think about how to make the user experience as friendly as possible. Marketing needs to focus their design on how a potential customer can get access to any questions on the company’s website. The organization’s leaders should ensure that your attitude to customers and what you want their experience to be is reflected in the company mission and values.
In summary, it is fundamental that staff in every organization can answer the question, ‘What is your customer service philosophy?’. That should help to guarantee consistency in all aspects of customer service, leading to satisfied customers that will stay with you.
Summary:
What is your customer service philosophy?
Every organization should have a philosophy to shape how they do customer service, aligned with its organizational goals and values. A good philosophy can’t be implemented overnight, as it drives a change in mindset that has to be embedded into the organization and all of its staff. By implementing a philosophy for how you provide service that puts the customer first, you’ll empower your staff to do their greatest work whilst keeping your customers and their experience forefront in their minds at all times. These guiding principles can be very useful when creating your customer service philosophy: Put your customer first. Focus on consistent experience. Implement your customer service philosophy from the top down.
