Developing great habits to improve customer service and achieve goals is much more effective because they focus on creating long-term change. Once a more positive behavior takes hold, it occurs almost automatically – making it much tougher to break than a New Year’s resolution.
Rally your team to create better service habits, here are a few great habits of high-performing customer service professionals:
Improve People Skills
Show that you are an approachable and pleasant person to interact with by offering a genuine smile that shows openness, that is attractive to others and can help calm an otherwise intense interaction. Actively listen, show interest in the message your peers and customers are communicating by offering gestures of affirmation when appropriate. Also, practice being empathetic. This means trying to see the issue from the side of the person you are relating to. Communicating that you understand the physical, mental and emotional impact a situation might have on someone you are interacting with will go a long way towards developing positive and trusting relationships.
Making Service a Priority
The biggest reason employees tell us they sometimes fail to deliver great service is they feel they don’t have the time. They feel they are faced with competing priorities and they lean towards those perceived to be most important to management. If you want your people to make service a priority, you have to show them you consider it a priority. You need to back up your words with actions and do it consistently. Ask your employees if your actions support your words when you tell them the customer is priority. Then listen to what they tell you.
Talk to Your Customers
The way you talk to your customers has a big impact on your brand, and nothing delivers customer satisfaction like consistently delightful communication. When you’re thoughtful about the way you convey information to customers, that yields better results.
Get Everyone Involved
The most successful companies use every resource they have to find solutions and address opportunities. Your employees and customers are your best resources. And they know best what customers want and what you can do for them. So get them involved in every aspect of planning and operating your company. The more engaged they are the more loyal they will be. Do this on an ongoing basis, not just once in awhile.
Make it Easy & Convenient for Customers and Employees to Offer Feedback
The best management information comes from the point of experience, where your customers and employees do their thing. This is where your company lives yet it’s something too many managers never see or hear or feel. Capture this priceless information by creating easy and quick ways for your staff and customers to give you feedback. Then acknowledge the feedback you receive, appreciate it and do something with it or they’ll stop sending it your way. Feedback is priceless!
