8 Steps for Creating a Successful Customer Service Plan

For any business to survive in the long run, your focus needs to be on the people you are doing business with and providing them with reasons to continue doing so. Changing the culture of your organization into a customer-centric one, will keep your customers happier and keep the business coming. It is beneficial for every company to chalk out an action plan for delivering great customer service and here are a few important steps to get you started:

1. Understand the Principles of Customer Service

   The golden rule for good service: Be polite, be friendly and smile! Think about how you would want to be treated and just mirror that same attitude with your customers. Your service should be quick and efficient and ensure beforehand that you’re equipped with all your requisite resources.

2. The Welcoming

   When the customer first walks in, you should never miss out on an opportunity of making a favorable impression. Those first 10-20 seconds are really important in communicating your brand image and you need to capitalize on those precious moments. Make sure your premises are always clean and tidy and someone is always present to greet the customer who could walk in at any time of the day.

3. Build Around Your Customer’s Needs

   When you listen carefully to your customers you begin to learn many important things. They will tell you exactly what they want and allow you to streamline your operations around their needs. You could set up an interactive chat forum to connect with them and initiate candid feedback. This will create a sense of value in the mind of the customer as well as generate useful data for the company.

4. Trained to Succeed

   Train your staff in a manner that instills them with an enthusiasm for and commitment to customer service. Reinforce the focus on service by rewarding high-performing employees and enforcing and reinforcing service standards. It doesn’t have to necessarily be a monetary reward, a rotating badge for Best Performer of the Week or an extra day off for exemplary performance.

5. Stay True to Your Word

   Deliver what you proclaim. Your company can set up offers that will get you the attention and also set you apart from the competition. Set up a delivery time-frame or a zero-defects policy. For example, you can guarantee your pest control services will keep away bugs for at least 4 months otherwise you provide free servicing.

6. Take a Look Around

   Evaluate your business and then look around at those who have managed to make it big. What strategies did they adopt, how did they get ahead in the race? Now look at where you stand and which policies can work for you too. A cut-copy-paste job won’t do it – you need to be smart about it. Apply what fits for you.

7. Evaluate Your Efforts

   Keep an internal review of your customer communications and check if it is courteous, helpful and timely. Management executives could send in queries to see if communication is being dealt with according to the company standards. It is also prudent to have an external evaluation by conducting customer surveys and see if they have felt an improvement in your services.

8. Thank You and Goodbye

   Make sure that your customers walk out feeling even happier than when they first walked in. From the first ‘hello’ to the final ‘goodbye’ the customer should be fully engaged and it will definitely work to your advantage to end things on a happy note. Thank them for their business and invite them to come again soon.