A Continual Commitment to Superb Customer Service

Is great customer service a target you suddenly arrive at after years of experience, practice and research? Or is great customer service a commitment your business maintains consistently to reap the experience it wants? Is it the end or the means to reaching an end?

Excellent customer service is continuous. Constant. Persistent. Ongoing. Just like any commitment, you don’t maintain it for a temporary period of time – you dedicate yourself and your efforts to it, endlessly.

A lot of companies promise their customers a lot of things…the vow, the promise, the wedding so to say…companies entice their customers with all sorts of sweet nothings to lure them in the doors – but then what? Any company that’s good with words and charm can convince customers to give them a shot, but only companies that truly deliver will really win the hearts of those they aim to please. True loyalty breeds true loyalty. If you’re a leader, remember this: what you want your customers to give you, you must first offer them. You want them to be ceaselessly committed to your organization? Well, ensure your organization is ceaselessly devoted to them. It’s straightforward. Simple. And shouldn’t really be all that much of a secret. So, how do you do that?

You continually improve. The ultimate goal of great customer service is to avoid complacency. Your customers don’t stop changing, so why should you? And the economy, industry and external environment doesn’t stop changing, so why should you?

Now, although there are various ways to perpetually build progress – here are my top 3 tips:

Schedule it.
Don’t assume that with time, it’ll happen – instead, be intentional. Schedule a weekly or bi-weekly meeting with essential teams, so that your constant commitment to delivering great customer experiences is continually communicated, reiterated and expressed.

Measure it.
Don’t assume you’ll know when it’s different – rather, take steps to measure the steps your organization has taken. Without tangible tracking in place, it’ll be hard for you to know when your employees are doing things differently, when your customers are experiencing things differently, and what it is that’s influencing your bottom-line. Regardless of what happens, you want to be able to understand why it happened.

Revisit it.
Intentionally making time and diligently recording progress are the first two ways to demonstrate your continual commitment to delivering great customer service – but the third (and critical) way will put real weight behind your words. You must regularly revisit your original commitments – not only to reiterate their importance, but to update them appropriately, adjust strategies prudently, and celebrate progress excitedly!

Schedule, measure and revisit – it’s a cycle that never stops…because great service never stops becoming better than what it is and reworking what isn’t working.