What Is your Formula for Improved Customer Service?

Customer service matters

Is customer service a problem in your company? Today I spoke with a customer service rep at Go Daddy, and he was brilliant. He had a great service attitude, was knowledgeable, and took the time to answer my questions. But how often do you walk into a store or call a customer service number and feel like customer service is either lousy or does not exist?

A lot of companies–including Macy’s–are  working hard at improving their customer service rankings. In the WSJ article “At Macy, a Makeover on Service,” Rachel Dodes describes the new Macy’s training program “Magic Selling.” Magic is an acronym representing the following:

• Meet and make a connection
• Ask questions and listen
• Give options and give advice
• Inspire to buy
• Celebrate the purchase

By training new sales associates in the Magic formula through a three-and-a-half-hour session, the associates will hopefully be better prepared than watching a 90-minute interactive video in a booth–the training that sales associates received in the past. The initial training with refresher courses and coaching are expected to make a difference.

Integrate customer service into the company’s culture

Companies like Nordstrom are known for their legendary customer service. As they say, “At Nordstrom, our goal is to provide outstanding service every day, one customer at a time.” Every morning before each store opens, employees gather to share their best service stories from the previous day. In The Nordstrom Way, the authors describe Nordstrom as a culture of customer service. Customer service is embedded in all aspects of the company–from the way the company is structured, to the attributes looked for in an applicant, to how employees do their work and to how performance is managed. As they describe one of the keys to success:

Nordstrom would rather hire nice people and teach them to sell, than hire salespeople and teach them to be nice.

Zappos is another company that wants to be known for providing the very best customer service experience. As CEO Tony Hsieh says,

Our philosophy has been to take most of the money we would have spent on paid advertising and invest it into customer service and the customer experience instead, letting our customers do the marketing for us through word of mouth.

In Delivering Happiness, Tony describes numerous ways they work to deliver Wow service. For example, where some companies hide any customer service contact information, Zappos puts their phone number at the top of every single page of their website. They want to talk to customers and build that important relationship.

So what is your formula for improved customer service? Yes, training will need to be an integral part of it, but to create a great customer service experience, the value of customer service must be integrated throughout the culture so it is the true character of the company.