9 Principles for Driving a Service Culture

Customer service is not complicated. It is the execution of fundamentals that make a huge difference. It must start at the top and involve every employee. Remember that 99 percent of customer contact with your employees is with your front-line employees.

Delivering awesome customer service involves nine principles:

1) Relentless Strategy. Focus on strategy. You must be relentless, and it has to be a way of life. Very few executives understand how fast you can grow your business when you master the service strategy.

2) Reduce Friction. Remove stupid rules, policies, and procedures. Make it easy to buy from you. Does a live person answer the call 24/7 in one or two rings?  Do you have hours convenient to the customer or to the owner?

3) Empowerment. This is the backbone of great service. Everyone must be empowered. It typically requires two miracles at the same time to get an employee to spend $5 to $25 to take care of a customer. Empowerment must happen on the front line. It dramatically increases your costs every time you move it up the chain of command.

4) Speed. People today expect and want speed. You must drastically reduce the time for everything you do. Reduce the time by 90 percent if you want to separate yourself from your competition.

5) Training. All employees must be trained on customer service with something new and fresh every few months. Ninety-nine percent of customer interaction is with your front-line employees. They are the least trained, least valued, least paid, and the face of your organization.

6) Remember Their Name. The most precious thing to a customer is their name. Remember it and use it. It costs you nothing and takes no additional time. Fewer than 1 percent of companies use this skill.

7) Service Recovery. In order to keep the customer when you screw up, you and all employees must practice the four skills of service recovery: 1) act quickly, 2) take responsibility, 3) be empowered, and 4) compensate.

8) Reduce Costs. Price is critical with all customers. Service leaders are frugal and always looking for ways to reduce costs. All my research shows service leaders are aggressive at eliminating waste and costs.

9) Measure Results. You must measure the results of creating a service culture to keep top management passionate about this process, the financial investment, and the time required. What is your NPS score?

John Tschohl is the founder and president of the Service Quality Institute with operations in more than 40 countries. He is considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on all aspects of customer service and has developed 17 customer service training programs that are used by companies throughout the world. His monthly strategic newsletter is available online at no charge at customer-service.com. He can also be reached on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.