Businesses have responded rapidly to the challenges of the past few years when the pandemic came into existence, but now is a time to reassess some priorities especially customer service.
The landscape of customer service is in a constant state of transformation. As the world continuously evolves, it is a professional, moral, and ethical obligation for customer service professionals to revisit and rethink approaches to customer care and retention. We are living in a global society where the needs of customers are constantly changing. Since attending to customers is an ongoing process, customer retention and customer relations management practices must be refined and questioned over the course of time.
When we collaboratively develop a clear vision and focus on our purpose, the journey leads to flexible paths of promise that embrace innovative and creative approaches to the customer. According to Simon Sinek, “When we are given a clear destination, we use our own creativity and our own sense of innovation and our own problem-solving abilities to overcome obstacles to get to the destination.” After everything we’ve been through since the pandemic began, now might be a good time to look at what really matters in an effort to gain clarity.
.PRIORITIES TO RETHINK this YEAR
1. Connection before service. We know that connecting with our customers is a priority. Yet, as we reflect on the pandemic, many would agree that establishing relationships and trust with each customer has been a major challenge in the absence of maximum face-to-face interactions. These are extreme circumstances, and the constraints have been overwhelming. So how do we move forward? Below are some considerations and strategies:
- Could we cocreate shared expectations? This empowers our customers and arouses a sense of belonging in them. We can also revisit regularly to ensure that everyone’s needs are being met.
- How can we focus on individual connections and be intentional with either physical presence or instant feedback virtually to establish trust, respect and rapport? Impactful practices include sharing about yourself; having unconditional positive regard; and having frequent, high-quality communication and feedback.
2. Acceleration, not remediation. Less is more. And when we say “less,” we don’t mean less rigor. The reality is that this major disruption is our opportunity to rethink structures and redefine roles. We can prioritize standards, stay focused on each customer, and cultivate service quality like never before . Consider ways to rethink empowering customer service professionals to learn, unlearn, and relearn:
- What mindsets, frameworks, and practices remove barriers and allow us to meet the needs of all customers? For example cultivating empathy, trust and respect are all about optimizing customer value and retention. We can leverage both to create meaningful and unforgettable experiences for each customer.
3. Rethinking success criteria. We can no longer preserve all of the traditional assessment systems from the past. We have an opportunity to create equitable success criteria that values every customer who walks through the door. It’s time to rethink the one-size-fits-all approaches to curricula and assessment by viewing customers holistically. Luckily for us with the coming of the pandemic there has been a shift to incorporate technological means in our organisations. These can be customized to work as that assessment tool to measure our service quality. For example, many now have forms on their virtual platforms that interacts with customers and they get to receive feedback instantly which was rarely the case in times past. Here are some ideas to consider when rethinking success criteria:
- Assessment can be more inclusive when keeping customers interests at the heart of decision-making. With all the virtual means available to us now, all we have to prioritize is minimizing our turn around times. Every customers feels important when they see how they are attended to hastily without wasting time and each will be left thinking, “Wow, their service is simply the best.”
- How can we cultivate meaningful relationships to sustain service quality? We should explore our own personal biases and act as mirrors of kindness and empathy. Organisations that keep relationships at the core will create conditions that unleash the expertise that exists within every company and customer service professional.
- How can we involve customers in cocreating goals and use standards-aligned rubrics to co-construct clear success criteria? Customer service assessment is not stagnant; it’s an ongoing, visible process that customer service professionals and customers must collaboratively and continuously engage in. We can provide multiple pathways to understanding by reflecting and communicating what success can look like in every organization and to every customer.
Now is the time to work with all stakeholders to cocreate a new vision or enhance the one already there. Knowing our destination, we can move forward to revisit and rethink our priorities to craft our path.