They say people don’t remember what you say, but they do remember how you make them feel. It’s true, especially in the world of customer experience when you have customer service staff who have the opportunity to make customers feel valued by going above and beyond.
Think about your experiences of customer service. We’ve all had conversations where we’ve spoken with a customer service representative who made us feel heard, recognised and valued as an individual. Those instances where you were delighted with the service, even if your starting point might have been a complaint.
For businesses where the experience of customers is critical, the people who play a part in providing that experience have a pivotal role.
With AI, automation and digital tools helping customers self-serve and allowing businesses to create cost efficiencies, the human component matters more than ever.
That’s why it’s key to create a set of service standards as part of your customer experience strategy, that will help you get your customer service behaviours just right.
Here are some things to consider when crafting behavioural guidelines for your business that are focused on helping you deliver great customer service:
Are your frontline teams clear on the branded service behaviours and actions to deliver great customer service?
Think about the Apple store experience. The experience would be incomplete without their people. Apple store employees have a very specific style in which they deliver the service, and this reflects the brand. It has a personality. And therefore, frontline staff behave in a specific way. They focus on being positive, empathetic, understanding and proactive.
Defining the behaviours is the first step in developing a customer service approach. Questions to answer through this development are:
- What are the behaviours that we want our people to display?
- How are they related to the brand?
- What are the actions people are doing to embody these behaviours?
- When is this happening on the customer journey?
When putting all of this together, it’s possible to create a clear behavioural framework for your business to use as a guide for training and delivery.
Are your frontline teams aware on the quality of service they need to deliver?
If we continue with the Apple example, Apple use the brand’s name as its five steps of service:
- Approach customers with a personalized, warm welcome.
- Probe politely to understand all the customer’s needs.
- Present a solution for the customer to take home today.
- Listen for and resolve any issues or concerns.
- End with a fond farewell and an invitation to return.
The quality of that delivery will also be defined in the training that employees receive. In other words, they’ll have a set of service standards that defines what good looks like. And since Apple’s philosophy is on value creation and not sales, every member of staff prioritises making customers happy.
Apple employees are trained to contextualise their conversations based on customers' needs and current sentiments.
That means, the key to success is for frontline staff to understand what customers need and what customers expect at different steps of their journey and in different situations.
Do your teams receive training that’s fit for purpose and enables them to deliver the service to the quality desired by the business?
It’s all very well creating standards, but you need to embed these within the business and train staff comprehensively in how to deliver them.
This could be a mix of classroom training and digital learning. However, traditional training formats are no longer fit for purpose, and it’s a good idea to have a learning management system (LMS) that makes training facilitation effortless.
Additionally, the rise of AI is enabling the personalisation of the learning journey and incorporating gamification as an engagement mechanism, which can transform the learning behaviours of staff. The training objectives should also align with the organisational objectives.
Customer needs and attitudes change over time, so refresher training is key to help maintain their knowledge. Employees also often want to continue training and learning to expand their skills and enhance their personal development, so their role remains interesting and challenging.
According to a report by Deloitte, retention rates rise 30-50% for companies with strong learning cultures.
Do frontline teams have the tools to support them in doing their job?
It’s vital for frontline teams to have the right customer and operations data available to them, as well as the necessary tools at their disposal, to help them deliver exceptional service.
The data needs to be accessible on tools with intuitive interfaces to access the data and log actions. If your frontline team is mobile, these devices need to be portable and with them at all times.
Businesses also need the tools to enable staff planning, deployment, communication and management.
Do teams have a clear assessment, reward and recognition framework and process that supports them and helps the business meet their KPIs?
In order to deliver an exceptional customer experience, you need to ensure that your employee experience is hitting the mark at all levels of the business too.
Having observable behaviours and measurable actions are key to be able to reward and recognise people who consistently deliver these standards and go above and beyond in their role. Reward and recognition schemes are a great way to help motivate staff, as is having clarity on career progression or role development, so employees have a goal to work towards.
It’s also important to be able to access feedback from customers and have a process in place to act on this feedback in order to continually improve customer experience throughout your organisation.
Does your business have the right people in the right roles to help you be successful?
When you’re recruiting for new people to join your team, it’s important to profile candidates based on the role they need to play and have clear criteria for selection. That’s why it’s a good idea to create specific job descriptions that include customer experience KPIs as success factors. The same is true when taking on contracts for new providers.
The foundation of a great customer experience starts with the right people. So, when hiring, it’s a good idea to prioritise attitude over skills.
Look for candidates who exhibit empathy, patience, and a genuine desire to help others. Skills can be taught, but a positive attitude is innate. Employees who are naturally inclined to provide excellent service will create authentic, positive interactions with your customers.
If you need help in designing a customer service standard that will help you create differentiation and loyalty to your brand, get in touch.
