Customer Service: Why It Matters and How to Improve It
Every good customer service team team must learn to “roll with the punches” as it were, how they deal with the highs and lows of their day to day operations will define them as an entity and also go a long way to assessing how successful they will be an a unit. It is important to grasp the concept that it’s not only efficient and proven procedures that must be in place but also that any team must be motivated and happy in order for these procedures to have any chance of being successful. The old adage that happy employees leads to happy customers to a valid one and management of both resources and performance is an essential part of effective team planning. This is importance of customer service essay in which this topic will be considered, what connection it has with employees happiness.
There are many different approaches to maintaining the happiness and overall performance levels of a team, indeed every organisation may have very different procedures in place depending on their culture and business needs or corporate vision. Rewards and recognition is one aspect of this process and thought should be given to endure that any rewards framework fits into the overall culture and is appropriate to the individual business environment.
Generally it is best to avoid a monetary reward scheme because this can instill a overly competitive culture within a team and can therefore become counter-productive due to the potentially destructive elements this could lead to, it’s important to remember that the team operates as an entity and should not be driven by individuals in competition with their colleagues. If you do decide to implement a monetary reward scheme then it should have clearly defined goals and boundaries and be focused solely on performance targets drawn from the organisational goals and vision and be measurable against their peers in order to have the desired positive effect on team performance and morale.
Performance level goals may be set at a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly level and must be easily understandable to employees so that they can assess their own performance as time progresses and therefore the whole process will be “open, honest and transparent” to everyone. Communication is key and an effective scheme will almost certainly lead to enhanced employee satisfaction levels. It to good practice to highlight & recognise exceptional levels of performance by staff as this shows staff that they are valued and will give their colleagues something to aspire to - an acknowledgement that a member of staff has gone above and beyond can go a long way and staff should be encouraged to nominate their colleagues when they think that they have gone the extra mile. By these means a natural and effective reward and recognition policy may become embedded in your organisation. One final thought to mull over - all your employees are individuals and what motivates one person may not motivate the person sitting next to them, you should therefore know your staff and get to know what drives them.
In an ideal world our customer service levels would always be at a sufficient level to maintain all our customer service expectations, unfortunately we do not live in an ideal world so we must have contingencies in place to deal with issues such as staff illness, holidays and other events both foreseeable and unforeseeable. It is important to explain to the team what these procedures are and how they fit into them in order to keep them engaged, this is an excellent opportunity to showcase the reward and recognition policy as it will be a prime example of employees going above and beyond the call of duty in order to keep the team functioning effectively and efficiently. All non-essential activities should be postponed or prioritised in order to focus on the delivery of the expected & agreed customer service levels and you should ensure that you adequately manage the expectations of your staff and what their roles will involve - will there be a requirement to work additional hours or fulfill additional duties? This is a prime example of when critical path analysis should be employed to determine which processes are key to the continued functionality of the team and which processes aren’t and can therefore be delayed until the situation improves. One important thing to reiterate to your staff is that this is a contingency plan and it is not the norm, things will settle down and return to normal once the situation passes.
One aspect of contingency planning is to cross-train staff to fulfill a variety of different tasks & roles, this not only provides your staff with fresh and new challenges but also enables you to draw on other members of staff when things are really stretched. A skills matrix detailing all the roles and tasks that each member of staff is able to fulfill is a useful tool and will give management an overview of the employee knowledge base they have at their disposal. This may highlight training requirements - back in our ideal world each member of staff will have all the required skills to fill any role. In the real world this isn’t possible, however we can ensure that we possess the skills to meet our objectives in most circumstances limited only in our imagination to foresee them.
The underlying ethos of contingency management is to remain calm and focused whilst providing the service that is expected, it’s essential to have the correct key people in the correct roles in order to achieve this. You need to empower your staff with the flexibility and responsibility to respond to events as and when they happen whilst maintaining the overall focus on the objectives and also monitoring their actions and communicating with them. This empowerment can lead to increased job satisfaction within the workforce and can also highlight members of staff that are suitable for progression within the team.
