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How to Create an Inspiring Customer Service Philosophy

Create a customer service philosophy for your support team if you want to enhance the customer experience. A strong work ethic and enduring relationships with customers can be influenced by an inspirational customer support philosophy.  A strong customer support philosophy is the result of several different things. You need to be efficient, organized, and able to manage challenging situations. But most importantly, you need to establish clear boundaries for your team and get everyone on the same page. Additionally, building an outstanding brand image requires putting a satisfying customer experience at the center of your company strategy.

No matter where or how customers contact your company, having a shared customer support philosophy unites your team behind a single goal and allows them to concentrate on providing exceptional service.

Read on; we’ll give you six super useful steps for creating one for your team and four tips to develop the customer service philosophy. 

This article includes:

  • What is a customer service philosophy?
  • How to create a customer service philosophy for your team
  • 4 Tips for Developing a Customer Service Philosophy
  • Conclusion

Let's first learn about a customer service philosophy.

What is a customer service philosophy?

A company's customer service philosophy guides the creation of its customer service programs and procedures. Getting feedback from customers, attempting to meet their needs, or maintaining a positive attitude might be your top priorities.

This customer service vision serves as a roadmap for how you want your employees to deal with customers and address customer complaints. When done properly, this may increase the loyalty of customers and eventually help in customer retention.

How to create a customer service philosophy for your team

Your company will have a distinct customer service philosophy. It needs to be in line with your basic principles and appeal to your employees. You must think about your customers' experiences as well as the services you can dependably maintain and offer while developing this concept. These six steps for creating a solid customer service philosophy could be beneficial.

1. Define your customer service values

Teams flourish when they operate with shared team values, just as companies do when everyone is in alignment with the company's clear values.

Be ambitious when you consider the team's values. Act as though you can influence the lives of customers and increase income for your business because you can!

Create a comprehensive list of values that describe how your team strives to make a positive difference in the lives of its customers every day. Then, reduce the list of values to five or fewer. You should make sure they are simple to recollect.

Customer service teams may hold the following values: transparency, accountability, authenticity, optimism, trust, respect, and honesty.

The spirit of all customer service interactions and procedures is shaped by choosing certain customer service values. It transforms your vision into more concrete words that will assist maintain your personnel operating at their best and your customers grinning widely.

2. Summarize your values in a vision statement

Create a vision statement that is consistent with your customer service values. Try to summarize the meaning of your team's values into a vision statement once you've reduced them to five or fewer. Observe them and make it clear what you hope to achieve.

To determine which terms are used the most frequently, use the answers to make a word cloud. You might use those phrases as the core of your value statement.

3. Put your customer needs first

Ensure that the customer always comes first in your customer service philosophy. This is paying close attention to their needs and requirements, responding quickly to any issues they may have, and going above and beyond to satisfy their demands. High-quality customer service is what customers most commonly desire, and that is the least you can provide for them. According to Zippia research, 93% of customers are likely to repeat purchasing from a company after experiencing excellent customer service. Therefore, invest resources in educating your agents. A well-educated employee with exceptional skills may make the difference between losing and keeping customers.

4. Develop employee empowerment

Give your employees the authority to take charge of customer situations and make choices. The goal is to create environments where employees are informed and empowered to offer solutions and serve people. This may be accomplished by ensuring that employees are sufficiently knowledgeable about the products to comprehend any queries or problems customers could raise. Consider professional development programs for your employees as your business grows.

It is also possible to do away with the necessity for strict guidelines, regulations, or micromanagement by developing trust with employees and giving them the freedom to handle customer service decisions and concerns. In turn, they are able to provide your customers with solutions as opposed to content that was taken straight from a script.

Provide them with the tools and instruction they require in order to address issues and create pleasant customer experiences.

5. Choose an issue-centric or customer-centric model

Create a culture that values customer service and motivates employees to prioritize the needs of the customer. It's important to distinguish between issue-centric and customer-centric customer service philosophies.

Issue-centric philosophies concentrate on addressing the problems customers face on an individual level. This implies that every problem is treated separately from other events. Customers and issues are handled together with a customer-centric philosophy. This often requires keeping a record with information on previous customer support interactions, as well as internal notes on any problems the customer may have had. Live is a platform that offers a customer-centric model. Live is a modular and flexible communication platform that collects, manages & analyzes communication, data, and context so the solution can walk you through the customer success path.

However, customer-centric company practices might greatly boost your customer loyalty, yet they sometimes need more resources to adopt and may not be practical or relevant for many companies.

6. Review and update your customer service philosophy frequently

As your business grows, consistently use your customer service philosophy as a guide for decisions. To satisfy your customer or your company's needs, make modifications as necessary. The most crucial factor is having a customer service attitude that benefits your company and helps in achieving any of your goals.

Take a new look at your philosophy and your method of service when something unexpected happens to see if any changes need to be made.

You can make sure you're giving your customers the finest service possible and remain one step ahead of the competition by regularly reviewing and updating your customer service philosophy.

4 tips for developing a customer support philosophy

Once you’ve created your customer service philosophy, it’s time for developing them. You can always provide your customers with continuous, high-quality help by following these four steps.

1. Be honest about your ability to deliver

Every customer service philosophy strategy should take into consideration honesty and transparency. In order to minimize disappointment and to help your customers realize what you can and cannot do to assist them, it is crucial to keep their expectations reasonable. As a result, trust builds up, and trust is the extra-special secret ingredient that converts customers into loyal supporters.

Analyze what is possible and achievable in relation to your offering and what isn't. Make use of this information to inform how you communicate your customer service philosophy. You won't unintentionally make commitments you can't keep if you do it that way.

Avoid making unrealistic promises and concentrate on the good things.

2. Think like a customer

Putting yourself in the shoes of the customer is the first step in any interaction. Empathy is a valuable quality to have. Consider your customer's requirements and expectations. When contacting your company, what are customers seeking? What type of customer service would satisfy them and encourage repeat business?

The ability to put yourself in the customer's shoes, anticipate their problems as much as possible and eventually offer proactive help. 

In addition, make sure that your customers have a pleasant, efficient, and easy service experience.

3. Consider self-service a part of your strategy

A simple and quick approach to locating answers is crucial for many customers in the digital and connected world we live in. When you stop to think about it, your customer service has already failed if the customer needs to contact a customer service agent for more assistance.

Your company's goal is to prevent issues before they arise. The customer will probably come to you for assistance if they are unable to resolve these issues promptly on their own.

Self-service should be a part of your customer service philosophy for this exact reason. ‍According to the Harvard Business Review Statistics, 81% of all customers attempt to take care of issues themselves before reaching out to a live representative - across industries. Additionally, if you give customers a simple way to assist themselves, they will be happier and more likely to make another purchase.

However, an onboarding knowledge base, FAQs, instructional videos, and private online account management are some examples of self-service options.

4. Determine whether you are issue-centric or customer-centric

The issue-centric approach and the customer-centric approach are the two ways of dealing with customer issues management. However, how you prioritize methods will differ. A different setup might be needed for each technique.

Issue-centric approaches prioritize resolving the immediate issue, independent of the customer. Support files, CRMs, and internal notes are all implemented by customer-centric concepts. This identifies the customer and their issue together. Customer-centric methods could need more resources. Setting up the right methods for effective customer service will be helped by deciding which philosophy you wish to follow.

No one technique is the "right" way, both offer advantages. However, not everyone has the resources to maintain a customer-centric approach. Whatever path you choose, make sure you have the necessary systems in place to follow it consistently.

Conclusion

One of the most crucial business goals is clearly customer pleasure. It is challenging to keep customers pleased and satisfied with the services or products you offer. To give your customers a consistent and satisfying experience, you must develop a customer support philosophy. 

Furthermore, you can offer great service that encourages loyalty and promotes company success by developing a customer service philosophy that puts the needs of your customers first.

When developing a customer service philosophy, there is no one approach that works for everyone. Focus on understanding both your customers and your business in order to build something that is actually unique.

These tips ought to help you get started developing your own customer service philosophy, which will ensure that each time the customer interacts with your business, they have a positive experience.

Building a successful customer service team starts with having an inspirational customer service philosophy.

Don't hesitate to get in touch with us today if you want to learn more about how the Live product family can help you to boost your global customer experience strategy. 

Learn more about how the Live product family can help you support and improve your customer experience strategy.

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