Driving Growth and Profits with a Customer Service Vision

Growth is inevitable despite the current state of the economy; we just don’t know when. Not surprisingly, improving customer service is a top growth strategy for many top companies. Vistage’s January CEO survey revealed that customer retention and growth was the top strategy for gaining competitive advantage in 2009. PriceWaterhouse Coopers found a similar trend in their annual CEO survey released in December 2008.

Many clients and colleagues have told me their biggest challenge to improving customer service is developing a clear action plan that will work with limited resources. Is it training? Leadership development? Process improvement? My suggested first step is invariably to develop or re-affirm a customer service vision that describes what outstanding service looks like in your organization. (Toister Performance Solutions offers a complete resource guide to help you with the rest.)

Why a customer service vision is necessary
A customer service vision serves as a beacon that guides our actions and helps us create outstanding results for our customers. Without a vision, a call center rep might describe their job as “taking phone calls from upset customers”. With a vision, that same call center rep might describe their job as “ensuring our customers have a positive experience doing business with us.”

I have heard many people make the argument that customer service is common sense. In many cases, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. For example, think about the employees on the front lines of a four-star hotel (front desk, housekeeping, banquets, valet, bell staff, etc.). Many of these employees have never paid $200 out of their own pocket to stay in a nice hotel, so they can’t relate to their guests’ wants and needs. Someone has to help them understand the customer service vision before they understand how to deliver four-star service.

How to develop a customer service vision
You, your department, or your organization can create a customer service vision by asking three simple questions:

Question 1: Who are our customers? This question helps clarify the people you serve. Is it primarily one type of customer? Perhaps it is a combination of internal customers (co-workers) and external customers.

Question 2: What service do we provide? The answer may be a bit different for each group of customers you serve. Try to identify a common thread that connects the service you provide to all of your customers.

Question 3: How do our customers value our service? This question is the toughest to answer because it requires you to think about service from your customers’ standpoint. Try to think about the reasons why a customer would use your service. For example, a computer help desk fixes computer problems. From a customer’s perspective, the value the help desk provides is getting people back to work quickly.

The answers to these questions can form the basis for a simple, yet powerful customer service vision. Here is the Toister Performance Solutions vision:

Be a preferred business partner for clients who want to improve performance.

Implementing your vision
A customer service vision won’t do you any good if it’s tucked away in a closet, gathering dust. It needs to come to life as a daily reminder of the type of service you are striving to provide. Here are three easy ways to implement your vision.

Idea #1: Make it visual. A picture is worth a thousand words and “vision” does imply visual, so why not bring your words to life? A poster, logo, or even a short video can make a huge impact. See our example here:

Idea #2: Discuss. People often have a hard time connecting their day to day actions with lofty “vision language”. Discuss the vision with your co-workers and colleagues and try to identify examples of real actions that match the vision. You may be surprised at how many things you are actually doing to fulfill it!

Idea #3: Share. Create a bulletin board, intranet page, newsletter, or some other resource to share examples of your vision in action. I work with a few biotech clients and I’m always impressed by the pictures and biographies of real patients that line their walls. These visuals make it very clear to see the personal impact these companies make on peoples’ lives.