The customer is always right, right? Are they?
It seems to be a question that a lot of companies struggle to answer. The trick of customer service is to give the clients such good service that they don’t have to ask that question.
Customer service goes deeper and broader than only being friendly to the clients. Every single department in a company should be involved in providing quality service.
Everyone has to do their part from operations to call centers to finances to make sure that the customers were satisfied.
Unfortunately, this is where many businesses fail their customers as they still believe that only the customer service part of the company should keep them happy.
The question companies need to ask themselves is how to create a customer-focused culture throughout.
Here’s how:
1. Connect Compensation To Customer Satisfaction
Employees should dedicate their time and efforts to completing their daily tasks while always keeping the customer at the front of their minds. They should constantly check in with themselves to see if their actions will win their clients’ approval.
For consumer service companies, one of the best ways to get their employees to comply with putting the customer first is by linking their performance bonus to the customer’s satisfaction levels. It can ensure the whole team knows they will reap the rewards when they do good.
2. Offer Training To Team Members
Because excellent customer service doesn’t come naturally to all people, companies can create a team of customer service superheroes by improving their skills. It doesn’t have to be extensive training, but it has to be regular for all team members.
When employees receive constant reminders about how vital customer service is to the company and see that the business is willing to invest in these skills, they’ll adopt a culture of providing excellent service to all.
3. Hire Employees With The Necessary Skill Set
Anyone can answer a phone, send an email, print an invoice, or deliver a package, but the real skill comes with how they complete these jobs.
Some employees will naturally have good people skills and all the other skills a customer service job would entail, and they could become the company’s greatest assets.
Not only will these team members ensure that the customers receive the service they deserve, but they’ll also inspire others in their team to do the same.
Hiring employees with a customer-focused specific skill set will improve the company’s overall productivity, mindset, and culture.
4. Ask For And Use Customer Feedback
On some days, it may feel that customers have a mouthful of things to say about the service they receive, and most of the comments could damage the company’s image. There’s an opportunity in this that companies shouldn’t overlook.
Instead of becoming upset or feeling like failures about it, the employees should take the criticism as constructive and see it as a chance to grow.
Companies that discuss this with their teams will find that the team members will improve their performance; soon enough, the negatives could turn into positives.
5. Teach Teams To Think Ahead
Customers may need help to find out what they want or need, and someone should offer it to them instead. For this reason, team members should think ahead and anticipate the needs of each customer they come in contact with daily. Keeping the customer in mind will open up new opportunities for staff and the client.
Expecting that there may be products or services the client wasn’t aware of and then offering them to the client will make them feel essential and simultaneously improve the company’s bottom line.
6. Involve Team Members In The Process
Whenever the company receives good or bad feedback from clients, they will surely set out to design new processes and procedures to ensure that they have a high standard of customer satisfaction. Involving all the team members in this process will draw them in and reinforce the customer-focused culture.
Some team members may have ideas for improving the customer’s journey that management might miss out on if they don’t involve their staff in the discussions.
Another perk of their involvement is that they feel seen and heard by the company, meaning they could be even more loyal and dedicated to their jobs.
7. Make It Easy For Customers To Connect
Although it doesn’t seem like giving customers various ways to contact the company would strengthen the customer-focused culture among the staff, it contributes a lot.
When a customer can help themselves through a chatbot, online prompts, or other means before they get to a customer service consultant, the clients won’t be as frustrated when they have already accomplished half of the reason they made contact in the first place.
It also takes some pressure off all the team members answering the call or providing feedback. Teams are more satisfied with their jobs and have better energy and motivation to assist their clients when they know they will genuinely help them with something that matters.
8. Prioritize Customer Service Every Day
Consistency is key to a thriving customer-focused culture in any business. Companies and teams prioritizing their clients will ensure they return for more. When clients feel cared for, they are willing to pay whatever the price is, as long as they receive the same excellent service each time.
The mentality of prioritizing customers will set the company apart from its competitors and establish an outstanding reputation in the industry. Clients will undoubtedly spread the word, bringing even more business with them when they can see the customer-focused culture at a company.
The Takeaway
Even though teams in the consumer industry will agree that customers may not always be right, receiving excellent service may make them think they are. Instilling this thought into the minds of each team member of the company will ensure that they will do their best to put the customer first in all their daily tasks.
Teams that work well together, supporting each other, allow them to extend this to the clients they are serving. The only way to achieve this coherence is by creating a fantastic customer-focused culture in the company throughout all the departments, not only the client-facing staff.
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