Customer Service Excellence (CSE) is an organisation dedicated to improving the quality of customer service. Initially launched 5 years ago to focus on public sector organisations, it’s now changed its remit to help the private sector as well, by taking their experience and expertise to help improve customer service within the UK business scene.
Yesterday, we published their top ten tips for customer service and promised more. With the help of assessor, Chris Tyrrell, we can now offer the next instalment of advice to deliver that customer service excellent.
1 – It’s good practice to empower frontline staff to deal with customer service issues when they arise, if they can – but, if they do, it’s important to capture those expressions of dissatisfaction, or ‘informal complaints’ in order spot any emerging issues that could lead to formal complaints
2 – It’s not good practice for an organisation to set a cap on the maximum number of complaints that should be received – it sends the wrong message to staff, who may feel they’re encouraged to ignore or not designate dissatisfaction as a complaint
3 – Another good practice is to encourage customers to submit complaints though all the access channels available, while offering the support of frontline staff to assist them
4 – A very good practice is to scan incoming emails for key words expressing some form of dissatisfaction, and then fast-tracking those emails
5 – Do not say – “this is the first time anyone has mentioned this” – wrong message! It can be seen as casting doubt on the validity of the feedback
6 – Ensure, if you are providing a service with a commercial partner, that they have a compatible approach to complaints handling – and that you are notified of all complaints and their outcome
7 – Invite real customers in to check out the relevance and accessibility of the on-line offering. As they say, there’s no such thing as a free lunch!
8 – Assuming you’ve done your customer segmentation, then make sure what the preferred access channel of each segment is – and if it includes customers who can’t, or prefer not to, use online services, then make sure there’s a viable alternative for them
9 – Use your website to demonstrate your transparency as an organisation by publishing your:
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a. Core business standards and your performance against them
b. Your standards for the timeliness and quality of response to customer contact, and your performance against them
c. An explanation of any dips in performance, together with any remedial or preventive action you are taking
d. Action you are taking in response to customer satisfaction surveys, comment cards, and complaints
10 – A good practice is to pro-actively search incoming emails for words expressing urgency
Customer Service Excellence is a quality standard set up and trade marked by the Cabinet Office and is now operated under license by G4S Assessment Services, Centre for Assessment, emqc, and SGS UK. In order for your business to be recognised as achieving Customer Service Excellence, you must be successfully assessed against the Five Criteria of the Standard by one of the licensed certification bodies. For more information please visit http://www.customerserviceexcellence.uk.com