How is customer service defined?

“We provide excellent customer service.”

Have you ever heard that phrase? Maybe you said so yourself, and yet how often do we really provide great service to our customers?

What is customer service, anyway?

The Encyclopedia Britannica says that “customer service involves a variety of activities to keep existing customers satisfied.”

wow. That’s vague. And who defines what will satisfy a customer?

JI Rodale’s Synonym Finder offers these alternative words for service: assistance, help, help, complicity, good deed, favor, a helping hand, an advantage, benefit, contribution; impulse, promotion, promotion, promotion, promotion, recommendation, support and endorsement.

We can sink our teeth into those words, but we’re still sitting in a room alone or with our team members defining what great customer service looks like without the benefit of customer feedback. How can we provide great customer service or “keep existing customers happy” without input from our customers?

So the first step to providing great customer service is to define what it looks and feels like. A good place to start is by asking your best customers:

What makes you come back?
What experiences do we offer that mean the most to you?
What is the most important component of excellent customer service to you?

The customer may or may not be able to define exactly what their customer service components are, but the conversation will have two important outcomes:

1. The customer will feel valued because you asked for your opinion, listened to what you had to say, and planned to use some, if not all, of your suggestions.

2. By listening between the lines, you can begin to understand what’s really important to your customer.

When my teenage son was young, he and I spent a week camping each summer. Sometimes we camped in tents and sometimes we visited a camp with cabins. His attention span was short, so he planned big activities for our week; visiting a local children’s museum, a day at the amusement park, hayrides, hikes in the woods, and canoeing down the river. Each day was carefully planned with play time and adventure time. The activities were fun but also expensive and a cheap holiday in a tent often cost as much as staying in a hotel.

Driving home from our fun-filled week one summer, I asked my five-year-old what his favorite moment had been. We had visited Santa’s Village and I was hoping he would pick the amusement park as his favorite experience.

“Do you remember the day we sat at the picnic table and colored in the Spiderman book?” she asked.

“Yes, I have said.

“That.”

“What?”

“That was my favorite.”

Who knows? We can guess what our customer thinks is the most important element of the service, but unless we ask them, we’re really just guessing. If we base our customer service metrics on guesswork, how can we be sure that we’ve truly satisfied our customers?

So how do we go about defining the customer experience for our business?

Much depends on the type of business. If you run an online business, your service will be based on how easy your website is to navigate, walking the fine line between clutter and content and ensuring that your words speak the customer’s language.

A service business may be more defined by accessibility. How easy is it really to contact you? Do you answer your phone or return calls quickly? Do you have email and respond within a few hours? Are you willing to meet the client at your office? Do you follow up in a timely manner? Do you keep your promises?

A call center will be highly dependent on the attitude and tone of voice of the call center employee. Can you hear the smile in his voice? Do you overuse the “wait” button? Are they problem-solving skills, or will customers have to repeat their story many times up the managerial ladder?

A brick and mortar business has additional opportunities to provide service starting with the parking lot; Is it clean and does it offer plenty of parking spaces? Is the customer greeted warmly and promptly? Are your staff knowledgeable, helpful, and available without stalking? Is there a suitable selection? Is the store marketed in a nice way? Have you dusted, vacuumed, and emptied visible trash cans? If cleanliness is important to your customer, seeing an employee’s half-eaten lunch at the register could be a defining moment for your customer.

Employees are another great resource in defining customer service.

Who better to help define service than the people who interact with customers every day? Ask your employees what they hear from customers. If customers comment on the excellent selection of magazines in your waiting room, keep them up to date. If customers comment on the fact that you provide iced coffee or water, then maybe that’s something to go on.

By including your employees in the definition process, you are ensuring that you continue to move forward.

A key element to providing and becoming known for providing excellent customer service is consistency. Ritz Carlton is known worldwide for its customer service. How did they develop a world-class reputation? At the Ritz Carlton, excellent customer service is provided every day with every customer and every employee in every corner of the world.

What service can you provide to your customers each time? Is it something the customer cares about? Create your definition of superior customer service by asking employees and customers what is most important. Once you’ve defined what a great service looks like, then it’s time to make it happen!