Developing Strategies to Improve Customer Service

Today, customers are more perceptive about the value of service. Generally, they are willing to take their business elsewhere if a store's service is not up to their expectations.

For this reason, it is essential to continually revise and improve the service you offer. Staying locked into offering the existing services because 'We've always done it that way' can damage a business in the long term.

This type of thinking ignores opportunities to improve the business in line with changing customer expectations and limits the possibility of increasing its customer base.

Service Strategies

The service strategies used in your store should be based on the:

Expectations of your customers
Store's marketing strategy and store image
Financial considerations, cost to implement vs proposed benefits
Team skills and understanding

How effective your strategy is will depend on the:

Appropriateness of the plan to meeting customer expectations
Flexibility of your store's policy framework
Effectiveness of it's implementation and support within the store.

Service strategies that are based on customer expectations and appropriate to the store's image are generally the most successful.

Issues to Consider

When developing your service strategy you should consider the following issues:

Clearly identify your customer needs
Consider your customers and their impact on the store
'Listen well and listen often' to your customers, encourage their feedback
Base your strategy on what 'they want' not what 'you think' they want
Develop a customer-focused attitude in your team
Clearly communicate the strategy and its purpose to your team
Provide the resources that your team needs to implement it
Keep it realistic, friends are one thing, satisfied customers are another
When identifying the areas of your service policy that need improvement, you may need to follow a cycle similar to the one shown below.

Improving the Service Strategy Flowchart

Your strategy should be based on sound information gathering methods. See Obtaining Customer Feedback for more information on collecting information.