Every day across the UK front-line employees will enhance or destroy brand reputations through the service they deliver to consumers. We have all experienced this first hand with various degrees of severity.

 
What people do not often appreciate, however, is that the customer-facing employee has a choice in this process. The best customer-facing employees choose to go that extra step further. Disenfranchised employees make the opposite choice – they opt not to bother.

In the middle is a large pool of individuals who find a middle ground – a balance between the service they have been taught they need to deliver and whatever personal pressures they are under at the time.

Customer-facing employees are the living embodiment of a brand. They are walking, talking advertisements for the company and, as our research demonstrates, their behaviour impacts directly on future business results.

Yet they are not machines. You can introduce them to the latest management targets, share with them the vision of your marketing communications agency and introduce a new brand experience ethos throughout the company, but it will not guarantee perfect customer service. This is because you cannot mandate for customer orientation. Companies need customer-facing employees who can do more than read lines off a script.

To develop these ‘brand champions’ – people who have a passion for the brand and understand what is needed to bring the brand to life – companies need to engage their employees emotionally behind the promises being made externally. It is a challenging process that is about ensuring that people have not only the skill, but also the will and commitment to go the extra mile. It impacts across the organisation, and can require significant changes in the way that both HR and marketing strategies are designed.

If an employee is going to engage emotionally with the values and priorities of the business, they need to be allowed to question these and to understand how they fit their personal goals. They need to choose to take part.

A successful organisation is one in which each customer-facing employee chooses to live the brand experience and to bring consumers along with them too. The benefits will be seen across the Business.
 
 

The following are our top 10 practical tips how companies can engender a great service culture in their organisations:

 
1. Hire people who have a service attitude
Some people simply enjoy serving others - the spirit of service dominates their personality. This attitude has nothing to do with money or background, and they won’t necessarily be the most bubbly people. But they are the ones who will move your business forward.


2. Make the customer's time with you their best experience
Front-line employees have but a few short moments with customers, so try to find small ways to help them ensure the customer’s experience exceeds their expectations every time.  Mystery shop your competition, see what they are doing and then top them. Is that cheating? No, that’s comparative shopping.


3. Regularly inform all your employees about what's going on in your company
Employees need to know what’s happening. What new products are you offering and when? What advertising is breaking next month? What else is going on that customers might have heard about? The more they know, the better they can serve customers.


4. Make every decision with the customer in mind
Make sure everyone in your organisation views everything from the customer’s perspective, even those seemingly not on the front line.  Make ‘Customers’ an agenda item at every employee meeting.  Present their point of view and ask these questions: What would the customer think of this? Would this move be fair to them? How can we serve our customers better or differently?


5. Empower your employees to do the right thing
Don’t hold it against employees if things don’t turn out perfectly. Give them the power to do whatever has to be done to make a customer’s experience exceptional. They will make mistakes, but each time they will learn and do it better next time.


6. Create an atmosphere of excellence
Let it be known that everything your employees do has to be the best, and you won’t accept less. Winning organisations are always raising the bar. If you aren’t pushing to do better than yesterday, you will be left in the dust of your competition.


7. Continually do the unexpected
Create a reputation for doing the unexpected, and customers will always expect something fresh and exciting from your company.  Don’t just give out the same freebies as everyone else – create your own distinct service initiatives and get customers really talking.


8. Never let an untrained employee have customer contact
Your employees represent you, your company, and your brand. Working with customers is the most important thing they will do. One bad service experience can not only lose a customer for life – it can damage thousands more through the power of word-of-mouth and the internet.


9. Be a curious customer
Live the life of your customer and experience what they do. Stand in line, call your call-centre, soak up feedback. Encourage everyone in your team to overhear, be nosy, ask questions and feedback information from your customers.


10. Listen hard to complaints
Complaints are a wonderful gift - it is feedback of the highest order. Enjoy them and learn fast.
 
 

Take the 'Service Culture' challenge

If you’re thinking it’s time to review and re-fresh your organisation’s approach to Customer Service then we challenge you to test our thinking against the others in the market place and tell us if you can taste the difference!

We offer a free ‘Service Culture’ consultation where we’ll help point you in the right direction and even throw in a simple guide that you can use to implement some of the basics yourself.

Why not take up the challenge now? Give us a call on 0207 208 7258 or email info@nkdlearning.co.uk