8 steps to developing a customer service strategy (NEW) (2023)

A customer service strategy is a comprehensive plan for handling customer interactions. This allows you to provide a consistent customer experience throughout the customer journey.
An improved customer experience leads to a more loyal customer base. Loyal customers buy more often, spend more and refer their friends and family to you. they stay positivecustomer reviewsSo how can this be done?
In this guide, we break down eight steps for creating (or updating) your customer service strategy. After this, your customers will be happy to talk to you!

8 steps to developing an effective customer service strategy

Step 1: Make customer satisfaction the ultimate goal of the entire company

A successful customer service strategy is the result of a focus on customer satisfaction.

On the face of it, this makes sense for someone working on the front lines. But what about those who never meet the customer? Operations, engineers and product designers are just a few examples.

Why would they focus on a customer they never spoke to instead of just doing their job?

A holistic, customer-centric mindset empowers support teams to do their jobs better. Your customer service team doesn't have to make a solution look better if everyone works with the end customer in mind. They just deliver them.

Another advantage of a customer-centric approach is that you eliminate organizational silos. Information can flow quickly between customer support and other teams. This makes customer service more efficient and thorough.

example:

Suppose a customer complains about the way your product is packaged and delivered to your home. It is broken.
When your business operates in silos, you have more dissatisfied customers like this. For example, your fulfillment team packs products as they are because it's faster that way. As a result, some products were damaged during delivery.
But if you create a company-wide vision that puts customers first, your execution team will act accordingly.
related:25 productivity tips to get you started: from CEO to CEO

Step 2: Identify all customer touchpoints

Analyze your customer interactions. To do this, answer the following questions:

• How often do customers contact you after purchasing from you?
• How often do your customers contact you?
• What channels do they use for that?
• When your customers contact you, what do they ask or ask?
• Do customers who ultimately buy from you contact you more or less than customers who do not buy from you?
• How do you measure customer engagement?

You can map and visualize these answers in a way that shows you the entire customer journey. Based on these customer touchpoints, you could end up with something like this:

You benefit from these insights because they enable you to:

• Get a better understanding of the context of customer service questions
• Improve your product or service to prevent specific customer problems
• Anticipate customer demand so you can allocate staff accordingly
• Reduce customer churn and increase their lifetime value

In other words, you can meet and exceed your customers' expectations.

example:

Let's say your average customer journey looks like the image above.
Many of the problems you'll encounter in your first month are related to billing. They come by phone. You can access theCustomer Success Process.
You've also discovered that if your customers don't contact you at all before week 16, you're at risk of customer churn. You can resolve this by contacting the customer as soon as possible and resolving any issues. please remember91% of customersPeople who are not happy with the brand just leave. They don't complain. You will benefit from knowing their problems!
related:

Step Three: Set Customer Service Goals

These are SMART goals for your service team:

• Define specific goals rather than vague aspirations: Make sure each goal focuses on one area
• Set goals that are challenging enough that you can continue to grow, but achievable with work and focused effort
• Make sure your customer service goals are directly related to your business goals
• Know how you will measure your goals and in what time frame

Finally, the best customer service agents are focused on customer contact. They feel empowered and supported by their customers to do the right thing. Make this approach the backdrop to any customer service goals you set.

example:

Good customer service goals can be to promote the following:

• customer retention
• lifetime value
• customer satisfaction

But when you break down these general goals into specific areas, they generate action. Define them with numbers and expiration dates, for example:

• Reduceaverage processing time(AHT) to resolve customer issues from [X minutes] to [Y minutes] before [date]
• improveNet Promoter-score(NPS) 5% off [date]
• Surveyed Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) up 10% by [date]

related:12 Customer Service Trends You Can't Ignore

Step 4: Identify Customer Service KPIs to monitor

After setting goals, you need to define KPIs to track and improve. Without them, you cannot turn your goals into action plans.
KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, give you direct insight into how your customer service is performing.
Here is a list of customer service KPIs to choose from:

• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) for overall customer satisfaction
• Net Promoter Score (NPS), which reflects the strength of your recommendation
• First response time, which measures how long customers wait
• First contact for resolution, estimate how many customers need to speak to you multiple times to get a resolution
• average resolution time
• active question
• solved problems
• Issue counts to track the volume and nature of issues over time
• customer retention rate

example:

For example, you improve a KPI, such as NPS. But you notice that revenue metrics, such as customer lifetime value, are getting worse. You have to go back to the drawing board and make a connection between the two.
Another example is improving mean time to resolution. Let's say your team has managed to reduce the time it takes to solve a problem. It turns out, however, that they start tackling problems badly. This reduces customer satisfaction and many other important metrics.
In other words, don't look at your KPIs in a vacuum.

Step 5: Build the Drivercustomer service team

Then it's time to identify the right people to achieve those goals and KPIs.
Members of successful customer service teams are not only driven by these goals, they are champions of customer service.
In other words, they are committed to the highest standards of customer service. They talk about how important customer service is to other teams. They consistently share their lessons learned and best practices.
Here are the characteristics to look for when building a customer service team:

• Intrinsic Motivation: Are they driven to do great work beyond money and status?
• Self-awareness: are they aware of their own impulses, judgments and emotions? Their influence on others?
• Positive Attitude: Do they show friendliness, enthusiasm for challenging tasks and focus on teamwork?
• Adaptability: Are they willing to learn new processes and technologies?
• Empathy and social skills: do they really care about other people? Can they read social cues to identify needs and concerns as they arise?

Identify personalities that will enrich your team and match your corporate culture. List all the skills you want a person to have for each of your customer support roles. Mark all listed skills as required or required, and list both hard and soft skills.

example:

All customer service representatives must possess the above skills to be successful.
However, some people need a different set of soft skills than others.
For example, representatives who interact directly with your customers must be good listeners, negotiators and critical thinkers. They must adapt quickly and solve problems easily.
Customer support managers should be more adept at coaching, project management, conflict resolution and supervision. They also need to provide effective feedback and regularly motivate their teams.
In other words, building in-depth profiles for all levels and types of roles in the customer service team will pay off in the long run.
related:Write 10x better customer service emails with these free templates

Step 6: Build a robust customer service toolkit

Your reps must be able to think quickly, make instant decisions, and coordinate multiple channels and conversations simultaneously.
please remember72% of consumersConsider explaining their problem to multiple people as poor customer service. They want to feel heard, understood, and cared for every time they talk to you. There is little room for error.
A VoIP phone system can help you effectively manage this demanding omnichannel environment. Channels usually include phone support, live chat, and email. Watch the two minute video below to learn how VoIP can fit into your customer service strategy:

example:
If your customer data isn't centralized, you'll run into problems every time one of your reps goes on vacation or leaves. Onboarding new customer service team members can also be a challenge.
Customer data is only useful if it is available to those who need it. Data buried in notebooks and spreadsheets is of no value to anyone.
When you are focused on customer issuesCustomer relationship management software, you can easily reassign them. From the customer's perspective, there are no hiccups and no delays no matter what happens with individual support agents.
related:VoIP Example: Who Uses VoIP? (+4 ways you can too)

Step 7: Empower your customer service agents

If you stop at the previous step, you will get a good customer service strategy.
With this step and the next, you'll have a strategy that exceeds your customers' expectations and sets you apart from your competitors.
One way to get there? Authorize your customer service representative.
Empower your customer service agents to better respond to customer inquiries. It can also increase productivity. Why? Because it empowers them to make their own decisions. They don't have to jump through approval hoops to help customers.
In this step, define the ways and benefits that customer service representatives can use to resolve issues without approval, such as:

• Discount
• Exchange and return
• Bonus product or service

This prevents customers from taking their business elsewhere before the problem escalates. It will also drive positive word of mouth and save time for managers and other senior employees.

example:

The Ritz-Carlton has one of the best employee empowerment policies.
Under their famous policy, they allow employees to spend up to $2,000 to solve any customer problem. They don't have to find a manager or wait for the green light.
As a result, customers get instant resolution every time. There is nothing dissatisfied with such service.
Does $2,000 per event sound like a lot to you, especially if your income isn't that high? If so, remember that the Ritz-Carlton is based on them$ 250.000 customer lifetime value.
related:Call center strategy: how do you build a strategy that sticks?

Step 8: Create a consistent feedback loop

After you've launched or updated your customer service policy, there are two actions you can take.
Bad rule - no action at all. That said, never take another look at your strategy and call it a day.
What is the best action you can take? Create a solid customer feedback loop to continuously improve the way you serve customers.
Your feedback gathering strategy should focus on two equally important sources of information:

• Customer feedback to customer service representatives
• Feedback from your customer service representative

Listen to customers through surveys, polls, social media, focus groups, and conversations with salespeople. This way you can define your products, features, positioning, etc.business dialogue.
Hear from your representatives about their experiences serving customers. This way you can identify opportunities for training programs and recruitment.

example:

Through regular customer surveys you can discover that they feel they are sufficiently supported. However, after talking to your representative over the phone, they should do a more thorough written review of it.
You may also notice that they prefer to chat with you on Twitter or the website rather than by phone or email. You can use such insights to reorganize your workforce by channel.
On the other hand, by listening to your support team, you can identify themcustomer service skillsGaps or lack of resources in their daily work.
related:What is Business Communication? why do you need it

So how do I careBest customer service experience？

When it comes to excellent customer service, there is no one-size-fits-all solution.
but thereAndCreate a must for the customer service process so your customers feel like you have their back.
To do this, remember to:

• Focus on customer service across the company and across all teams
• Plan the entire customer journeyThis way you can upgrade every possible touchpoint
• Set meaningful goals and KPIs for your customer service team
• Hire the right people and give them the tools and power to serve your customers well
• Always collect feedback and make changes accordingly

Customer service is no longer a burden or an afterthought. Instead, it becomes the driving force behind the long-term success of your business!