Set a New Bar in Customer Service

On a personal level, we all know how easy it is to fall into a routine.  We follow routines each day: from waking up in the morning to turning on the coffee pot and so on.  Businesses also have routines, which can lead to shortcuts and oversights without close monitoring.  Your company may be slipping into bad routines already, and it takes a proactive approach to find the shortcuts and oversights and correct them before they become full blown issues.  These issues can be internal matters, as well as how employees respond to customer service issues.  Both can be disastrous.  Here are some of the common pitfalls:

On the employee side of the spectrum, some habits at work are normal, such as filing reports on the same day each week or weekly meetings.  Others can be very destructive over time, and your employees may not even realize it.  One of the most common bad habits is tardiness.  Five minutes here and there can turn into habitual tardiness.  As co-workers notice someone is slipping in late with no consequences, you may quickly have an epidemic on your hands.  Also, cutting corners with procedures can be especially dangerous.  Your employees are likely strapped for time, and may skip checking their work for accuracy so that they can move to the next task.  When these checks are overlooked, mistakes can pop up at alarming rates.  Every employee wants to finish a hard day’s work and head home, but as a business, you must ensure that “a hard day’s work” includes all aspects of a normal day at your company.

For your customers, you must be extra vigilant to keep them first in your mind.  Your employees can develop habits that slowly push them away.  Many of us have been on the receiving end of seemingly endless telephone transfers when attempting to obtain customer service.  Discourage telephone transfers or “passing the buck” so that customers don’t get discouraged when they need an issue resolved.  Other bad habits can include glossing over minor problems, as well as cutting corners with established customer service procedures.  These problems must be identified and remedied before your customers jump ship.  One employee may think that their minor oversight won’t cause a problem.  But when every employee is setting the customer’s needs aside, then you have an epidemic that is no small issue.

At NBRI, we recommend using customer service and employee engagement surveys to discover any poor habits or break from established procedures within your company.  Then, use the survey data to put programs into place to improve your business moving forward.  Finally, re-survey periodically to evaluate the effectiveness of your improvement initiatives. Contact us today to get started.