How to deliver effective customer service.
The “how” to deliver effective customer service evolves and changes with the demands of the consumers, changes in the market and technology. There are some fundamental behaviours, however, that remain constant pillars of outstanding customer excellence.
Employee satisfaction drives customer satisfaction. When the customer appreciates your company service by any employee, this encourages them to commit more strongly to your products and service.
It is vital that you equip your teams with both the right mental attitude, and also the necessary skills to ensure that every employee becomes an advocate of excellent performance. Your team needs to share the same values as you and have the same vision. They also have to want to make a difference and feel empowered to do so. If team members understand the value their performance brings to the effectiveness of your customer service as a company, this will give extra satisfaction to their performance.
Here are five tips to improve your team’s performance:
Be a positive role model in your behaviour. Work with a smile and with a positive mindset. Behave courteously and convey a positive attitude and exhibit positive behaviour which can be copied by your team. Create a warm environment where your team members want to be.
Use positive words that help to create powerful mental pictures. By doing this, it both enthuses and helps develop self confidence in individuals, empowering them to pursue goals and achieve more effectively as a team. By discussing “best practice” and “winning ways”, individuals will find new and different ways to mirror improved performance.
Communicate clear goals to your team of exactly what you expect. For targets to be understood and to ensure full buy in, reasons need to be understood too. With full involvement, the team will want to work with shared aims.
Delegation is good for you because it expands your managerial span of control. It’s good for employees because it is a growth opportunity for them. Delegation demonstrates your trust in them to do the job correctly and increases their ownership of the task.
Create shared feedback amongst the team to allow for successful techniques and behaviours to be discussed. Remember to give feedback in a timely and constructive manner. Your team members are more likely to repeat great performance when positive feedback is provided, and produce more effective behaviour and results when encouraged constructively.
When you lead your team to deliver excellence, they will feel empowered to perform in an excellence driven culture, gaining personal satisfaction and the “feel good” factor from their performance. This will drive customer satisfaction through outstanding service and products, strengthening customer commitment to your company.
