The importance of service
Posted Wednesday, June 12, 2019
You may feel that you’re doing all you can to find, and keep your customers, but do you really understand how important customer service is to your business, and how doing it a little differently can be a game changer?
Believe it or not, your customer service team should be just as important as, if not more important, than any other team in your company. After all, they are the most direct connection to your customers and your business. But even though you may have a dedicated customer service team. However, your really great team – is your entire company. We like to call this ‘whole company service’, because when you think about it, good service is not just externally facing, it should happen within the company too.
So what do we mean by ‘’whole company service’?
It involves everyone in your company, no matter what they do, their ‘well-being’ is as important as the next person, and if everyone treated each other as if they were a shiny new customer wouldn’t that have a positive reaction? The benefits are huge, as colleagues being respectful and nice to each other tends to rub off – the more who adopt this attitude, the more will follow. Pretty soon you have a company ethos of mutual respect. Which, in turn, means that being nice to customers and clients comes naturally, and is genuine. Happy people create happy customers, and the rewards and recognition that results from this business generation is immense. it’s a fact! You’re far more likely to retain staff this way.
It goes further than that though. We spend on average 40 hours a week in the workplace, which means a diverse group of people have to get along. Studies have proven that happy people make healthier employees. So it makes sense to encourage ‘whole company service’, where everyone is treated with the same good manners our customers and clients have come to expect.
Why is this so important though?
We have to remember that customer behaviour is changing, no longer is good service an option, they expect a good service – in fact they expect nothing more than exceptional service. Years ago customers were a little more patient, today, customers demand excellence. So if this expectation is a given, how can we better this? In 2019 the marketing data experts Hubspot surveyed over 100 customer service leaders from the UK, USA and Australia, to try to better define what they thought customers wanted and expected, and the results showed that ‘excellent customer service is a key differentiator’ and the report went on to explain that the happier the customer the more loyal and tolerant they are should things not go quite to plan. Worth also remembering that it costs less to retain a good customer than it does to find a new one.
50% of customers stay loyal to a brand if they receive consistently great customer service.
According to 2019 research studies this is true. But what’s more important is that every touchpoint, every aspect and every communication has to be outstanding. One wrong move and you’ve gone down a few rungs of the trust ladder and have to climb back up – by which time another company has caught their attention. No company can afford to ignore this.
Avoid losing customers – adopt ‘whole company service’ and become known for achieving ‘outstanding’. Here’s our 4 simple steps that you can take today to kick-start the process:
- Introduce change: Make ‘being nice’ a company ethos – miss no-one out, it has to involve everyone.
- Demonstrate how: Publish examples of how employees can do this – make time, listen, be polite and show respect.
- Explain the benefits: let your employees know how this will make an impact on those who have contact with customers and clients, and long-term it will have a positive effect on the future of the company and job stability.
- Find the strength within: You may already have a staff member who is able to implement such a culture change – seek out the right person to implement a whole company positive attitude and you’re on your way to achieving ‘whole company service’.
