How A Customer Service Philosophy Impacts Your Business

Rumor has it that a whopping 65 percent of customers have switched to a different brand after an unsatisfactory experience. It gets worse – only 1 in 5 customers will forgive the company whose customer service they marked as “very poor”. 

To ensure that your customers keep coming back, you have to offer more than just picking up the phone to answer their questions once in a while. We’re talking about establishing a bulletproof customer service philosophy based on both goals and values that your team shares and practices on a daily basis.

A working customer service philosophy represents a master plan featuring guidelines and steps to follow that are aligned with the company’s big-picture targets and inherent core values. It’s also composed of a vision statement that clearly defines the approach for interacting with customers and handling their queries. Amazon is known for its mission and vision statement that goes like this: “We strive to offer our customers the lowest possible prices, the best available selection, and the utmost convenience.”

Here’s how you can create your own.

Identify the values for your customer support team

Tying your customer service philosophy to the values shared by the company is the first step to buyers who are satisfied with the provided customer service. It has to be ambitious yet realistic; finding the sweet spot between the two will help you present yourself as a company that puts its money where its mouth is.

Lego sets the bar high with its customer philosophy that appeals to every customer under the sun. “As children shape their own worlds with Lego bricks, we play our part in having a positive impact on the world they live in today and will inherit in the future” is clear, customer-oriented, and value-driven. It’s specific to the brand and there’s no doubt that it will resonate with families with kids.

Understand what your customers’ needs and wants are

It’s not enough to just come up with a catchy line and hope that the customer will fall for it. You have to think like your customer when crafting your own customer service philosophy. Explore your buyers’ persona by asking yourself the following questions:

• Do your customers expect you to provide 24/7/365 support? If not, would incorporating a live chat or a chatbot help manage customer queries more efficiently? 
• What tone of conversation are your customers accustomed to? Are they expecting you to sound less formal than you do?
• Are your customers active on multiple digital platforms and would prefer to be contacted via social media for one type of an issue and via email for another? Would it improve your customer service if you offered self-service channels too?

Apple has cracked the code of great customer service when they introduced a knowledge base covering everything a customer might need help with. On top of having an extensive collection of helpful resources including educational videos and tips on how to use their products, they also offer multi-channel support.

Draft an all-inclusive statement and post it on your website

Now that you know what to include in your customer service philosophy, you can make a statement that would encapsulate everything your customer support team stands for. Strive to keep it concise yet descriptive so that every point you’re trying to make is clear and backed by real evidence. 

It also pays to survey the customer support team on what they think about the statement you’re about to post on your website. They might offer some valuable feedback for you to make use of when editing and revisiting the statement later down the line. 

Speaking about reviewing your customer service philosophy, it’s a practice you should commit to at least once every year. Customer demands and expectations change all the time, and you’ll be better off tweaking your statement from time to time as the technology appears and leadership changes.    

Get your customer support team onboard 

There’s no point in drafting a customer service philosophy that exists in isolation from the customer support team. It has to appeal to those who are planning on upholding it. This concerns not only the customer support team but also HR, marketing professionals, and engineers among other specialists working at the company. 

The more it excites every department of the business, the higher are the chances of it actually making a difference. You can scale your company and increase revenues by four to eight percent when your customer service experience is top-notch. If you regularly embody this philosophy by actively listening to customers yourself, others will be quick to follow your lead.   

The results won’t leave you waiting

Don’t count on the customer service philosophy you formulated once to work for decades on end. As you grow and change the range of products, you’ll feel the need to update your customer service statement too. The more your company lives it out, the more changes you’ll want to make to it. And when you do get it right, the number of happy customers will increase exponentially.