Developing a Customer Service Vision
When you don’t know where you are going, it is really hard to get there. Delivering exceptional customer service starts with defining a clear and motivating vision of what you want to become. This is referred to as a customer service vision, without it, your employees can’t have a clear direction as to what to do for sure to ensure service standards are met.
How can you reach your destination if you don’t know where you are going?
The Customer Service Vision is what every employee, regardless of their department, or level must deliver to all Customers every time.
Note that a Customer Service vision is different from a company’s mission or purpose statements (read the differences here)
A strong customer service vision should have these traits:
- It is easy to remember & understand – When employees read this vision they should know what it means & figure out what to do,
- It is measurable, observable and trainable
- It is aligned with core values of your brand
- It is motivating & engaging – Employees should read this vision and say – Yes! That is who we’re going to be.
How can you develop a Customer Service Vision?
Customer service & employee training expert Jeff Toister lists the following steps in developing a customer service vision –
#1. Get feedback from your employees
The first step in developing a CSV (Customer Service Vision) is to answer the following questions:
- Who are my customers & what do they want from me & my organization?
- What do we do to serve these Customers?
- How do we want our Customers to feel about our service?
Have employees answer these questions, they help in identifying what your current customer service ideals are, and what they should be (vision).
#2. Assemble A Team To Write The Vision
Assemble a small team of employees that can brainstorm on great vision statements for your company, from the feedback from your employees, you should have a pretty good idea of what your Customer service vision should look like. Brainstorm with the team and pick out the best statement that meets up with the traits of a strong customer service vision mentioned earlier.
#3. Share The New Vision With Employees
Share the CSV with all employees and ensure they all understand it. Now incorporate it into everything from daily work to customer service training, let leadership live the vision and promote it in their words and actions. Let it become
This is the one statement I want every employee in the organization to be able to recite and know backwards and forwards
Additional tools…
Customer service & employee training expert Jeff Toister has created this worksheet that will assist you in developing a solid customer service vision for your organization.
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The core of customer service revolves around two simple questions: What is our business and Who are our customers? Once you know those two answers, which are relatively simple answers and need no vision statements, you can understand service. There are two types of customer service: the first in the normal exchange of goods or services, the second is exception handling. The first requires that the business or group of employees ask themselves one question. If I were the customer how would I want to be treated? You don’t need vision statements of customer service to understand that answer. The second, exception handling requires the employee to ask: If someone screwed up my order how would I want it resolved? Most businesses rely on repeated interactions, that is, a customer base that buys its products. You can’t have a customer service vision if you don’t know who your customers are and what they expect. PT Barnum supposedly said that there’s a sucker born every minute but he knew his customers well. Whether I’m selling fried chicken or automotive oil changes, I need to know who my customer is and why they want my product. After that comes service that matches the customer’s expectation of a pleasent experience.