We all have come across a situation where different customers with a similar issue have been through different types of remediation processes. One might have had a long and tedious ticket remediation process while the other might have just had to spend 5 mins on getting their customer service ticket resolved.
All brands and businesses aim to provide the best customer service experience to their customers. But aiming to do so is not enough. Achieving this goal is way harder than it looks. From training customer service agents regularly to making sure customer service support is accessible to customers at all times, providing the best customer service can involve a list of tasks that have to be executed in the most efficient and productive manner.
What is customer service policy?
While solving a helpdesk ticket, different customer service agents tend to offer solutions according to their own interpretations of the issue at hand. While one agent might believe that providing a discount as a solution is acceptable, the other agent might take a different approach and offer an apology or a replacement of a product to resolve the customer’s issue. Such variations to solutions occur because of a lack of customer service policy.
In simple words,
A customer service policy is a standard guideline that helps customer service agents approach customer service operations in a defined and clear manner.
Though customer service policy is an internal code of conduct, a lot of enterprise businesses tend to publish their customer service policy publicly in order for customers to know what they should expect from the business. Having a well-defined customer service policy helps agents maintain a sort of consistency especially when it comes to dealing with ticket remediation. It helps all employees to adhere to a consistent set of rules which not only helps them perform better but also helps customers set clear expectations.
Importance of customer service policies
Customer-centric businesses are the need of the hour. And customer-centric business can only be created by adapting effective customer service policies. Having a standardized customer service policy plan helps businesses in the following ways-
- Makes it Possible for Businesses to have Clarity on their Targets and Goals
Standard guidelines enable businesses to define a proper effective and achievable target for their customer service operations. This can involve a number of targets from improving the first call resolutions to improving the remediation process. Having a customer service policy enables agents to achieve these targets with a set of defined rules and regulations.
- Helps Businesses Keep all Agents on the Same Page
A customer service policy or guidelines enables businesses to bring down numerous interpretations of a problem. That being said, it then makes it easier for customer service agents to stick to a similar or standard kind of solution every time a similar kind of ticket is being registered. This not only removes inconsistency in the way tickets are being resolved but also improves productivity now that the agents know exactly what to do.
How to develop a customer service policy?
One thing to keep in mind while creating a customer service policy is that it is necessary to keep a holistic perspective and take decisions that will create a positive impact in the long run. Understanding what a customer needs and what they expect from the business is a good start. It is necessary to answer questions like what does the business aim to achieve through their customer service team? Or How do you define good customer support? What is your customer support mission?
Here are two important things to consider while creating a customer service policy:
- What do your customers need?
A good customer service policy should be customer-centric from angles, which means it should be able to address the real customer needs and should also be able to keep up with what a typical customer expects out of a brand. Collect feedback from customers and customer service employees to better understand customer expectations, needs and even consumer trends. Keep a track of customer journey and identify points that need a little push or improvement.
- Take into count what you can offer
Making promises you can’t keep up with should be avoided by all means. While creating a customer service policy it is important that you first understand how capable you are and what exactly you can offer your customers. Do you have the right budget? Do you have the right customer management tools? Do you have enough customer service agents to stick to a certain First call resolution rate? Asking such questions will not only help you assess your organization’s abilities but will also help you build a realistic customer service policy that is plausible to achieve or follow.
What should be included in a customer service policy?
A well-defined response time. Having a defined or promised response and resolution time can ensure productivity levels and agent efficiency at the same time. It will also allow customers to be aware of what exactly should be expected out of a customer support interaction.
Ways through which you will collect customer feedback. Any good customer service policy should include a well-defined method through which a business aims to collect feedback from its customers.
Include organizational values. Including business values or organizational values can help develop an effective customer service mission statement and can provide customer service agents with defined targets.
Rules and regulations for professional conduct. From how an employee should behave to what they are expected to wear to their place of work, having guidelines is necessary.
What kind of escalation matrix would be perfect? Defining service level agreements and what is considered a violation of these SLA.
Conclusion
Having an effective customer service policy makes it possible for businesses to hold themselves to a high standard. It helps businesses and their employees effectively and productively achieve organizational goals in a smooth fashion. The key to creating a good customer service policy is to make it simple, understandable, can’t make it specific. In addition to providing an excellent customer service experience, these policies also cut down on workflow clutter and chaos.
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About the Author | |
 | Namitha RV |
| Namitha R V is a freelance content writer and copywriter whose primary focus leans on B2B and B2C content writing. She has worked on several SEO projects and has a demonstrated history of writing for diverse content requirements like – Long form blog posts, Optimized Website content, Infographics, Ad copies, Social Media content, etc. | |
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