If you are a B-to-C business, it’s essential to create a customer service culture in your organization. Here’s how I handled customer service when I took over leading a technical support desk known as the “helpless desk”.

➢ First, I established a culture where the customer is always right.

• I did this through my actions and language; regardless of my personal or professional opinion about the validity of the complaint. The customer was always right.

• And secondly, I created a safe place by letting my managers know that receiving a complaint does not mean we did something wrong.

➢ Secondly, I created a simple process and messaging for all managers to follow regarding customer complaints. It looked something like this:

• Acknowledge and validate the customer.

• Ensure the issue they called for was resolved. If it wasn’t, getting it resolved ASAP was the priority.

• Let the customer know that you will investigate the situation and follow up with them.

• Behind the scenes, log the complaint and investigate the situation.

• Investigating the situation for us was listening to the recorded call.

• In a weekly management meeting (that was self-led by the managers), customer complaints, results of the manager’s investigation, and any recommended actions were reviewed.

• The final step was to email the customer informing them that the situation had been investigated and any necessary corrective action had been taken.

This is a simple process you could use to get a handle on what’s happening in your organization.

I want to revisit something I mentioned earlier — just because you get a customer complaint, it doesn’t mean your employees did anything wrong. Customer complaints reflect the customer’s perception of their experience and serve as a learning opportunity for your organization.

Here’s an example:
• An HR manager complained because the analyst would not reset another employee’s password without speaking to the employee and completing the verification steps.

• The correct procedure was followed for the company, but the individual in HR was upset and complained.

So, what should you look for to gauge how your organization is doing?

1. Consider how you, as the leader, speak about customers and customer issues.

   • Your employees will mirror your behaviors.

2. Evaluate how empowered your employees are in making things right for customers.

   • Do your employees have pre-approved methods they can use to resolve common problems immediately?

3. Are you measuring, tracking, and bringing visibility to customer issues and trends?

   • You can’t improve what you don’t measure.

I help leadership teams bring clarity to chaos. Visit RKCMANAGEMENTCONSULTING.COM for ideas and methods to guide your organization toward steady, reliable progress.