Service Untitled

I have an interview ready to get posted – just waiting for a few clarifications from the company before I post it. I’m doing a few more interviews over the next week, so there will be a few interviews posted here in the upcoming few weeks.

Today’s post is about the Five W’s of having a successful company by utilizing customer service. Basically, it’s a way to achieve success like Headsets.com and Printing For Less (ordinary product/service made extraordinary company through customer service).

Who: The management and employees. A commitment to customer service has to start at the top and go all the way down. If the management team isn’t fully committed to customer service, the company won’t be able to succeed using customer service. Furthermore, the management team has to recruit employees who are as committed to customer service and customer satisfaction as they are.

What: Customer service (in case you didn’t know) is technically defined as providing product or service support to potential or existing customers. In non-technical terms, it’s making customers happy, encouraging customers to refer you to their friends, family, and colleagues because they have had a pleasant experience with your company, making customers happy (customer satisfaction), and more.

Why: You’ll see increased customer referrals, increased customer satisfaction, fewer complaints, have higher employee productivity (not proven, but companies with good customer service generally have happier employees. Happy employees general are more productive than unhappy employees), you can charge a little bit more for the extra service you are providing, etc.

Where: You need to provide excellent customer service through any medium that you use to interact with customers. This includes, but certainly isn’t limited to: in person, telephone, email, live chat, company forums, company blog, and anywhere else you happen to interact, talk with, etc. customers.

When: A commitment to customer service should be a permanent one. It isn’t a phase, a monthly project, or anything like that – it is a full fledged and permanent commitment. Whenever you interact with customers, you need to be ready to provide great customer service.

How: Through however you can provide great customer service. Read articles, read blogs, read books, hire consultants, hire people with experience in customer service, practice, ask around, etc. That’s the best way. It’ll come naturally if you think “How can I make this part of the customer experience better?” and pay attention to companies that provide great customer service.

The key to seeing success through customer service is to be committed to it all the time. Every person in the company has to be committed to it and always work to make the customer experience better (including the customer service experience better). There are literally thousands (and likely many many more) ways to do this and it all depends on what works best for your company.

Whatever you do, don’t treat customer service as a company theme of the month, the quarter, or even the year. Make it an ongoing commitment and something you are always working on doing.

You will see positive results in your customer and employee satisfaction scores, customer and employee retention, business results, and so many other ares.