Aligning Customer Service with Company Culture

Customer service can have a huge impact on your bottom line, make or break your reputation, and is critical to competing effectively. And, it is no secret that I am obsessed with customer service, because I am in charge of the client experience at Allant.

GOOD TO GREAT CX

I am constantly evaluating how we can improve our customer experience. One way I do that is through my own interactions. In recent travels, I experienced customer service from the “customer’s” perspective.  However, the “customer service” I received varied from good to great. This got me thinking, where does my team fall in the “good to great” customer service spectrum. I had always received glowing feedback from our customers on the service they received. However, was I only hearing what I wanted to hear?

EXPECTATIONS ARE RISING

I was happy to find out Allant’s customers continued to tell us they are still highly satisfied with the customer service levels they experience. Knowing our customer service is top-notch was only the start; we also recognize customer expectations for services in our industry are becoming more demanding.  Customers today expect speed and agility, more service for less money, and a consultative approach.

INSPECT WHAT YOU EXPECT

Customers expect their vendors/partners to continuously have their best interest in mind, proactively inform them when something isn’t working and have a plan to fix it, keep them aware of emerging industry trends, help them keep their solution current, and demonstrate how new products and services can positively affect their solution.  From my point of view, all companies are expecting more with less from their own employees, which forces them to rely more on their service partners to fill the gaps.

MAKE GREAT SERVICE PART OF YOUR CULTURE

Allant is pursuing efforts in two key areas to align with these increasing customer expectations. First, we continuously promote to all employees the need to adopt Efficiency, Forward Thinking, Collaboration, and Team Work within our corporate culture.  Second, our customer support teams work incredibly hard and go the extra mile to follow their customers on social media, track Industry news relating to their customers, understand their customers’ goals and pain points, and create metrics to track and report changes observed in their customers’ solution.

THE TOP 10 CUSTOMER SERVICE STANDARDS

1. Be accessible and available when your customer needs help
2. Respond to your customer in a timely manner
3. Listen to what the customer is telling you
4. Never argue with your customer, the customer is always right
5. Honor commitments
6. Be proactive on building the customer relationship
7. Anticipate your customer’s needs
8. Admit when you make a mistake
9. Understand your product or service
10. Treat others like you want to be treated

When we map the customer service standards to Allant’s cultural norms, the combination of our efforts in these key areas uniquely place
Allant in the position of helping our customers achieve a higher level of success. It is all a process so stick to your standards and align them to your culture.

Tim Sullivan leads Allant’s Client Operations group which supports the execution of client data processing projects within all industries for our clients. Throughout his career, Tim has developed and instituted creative solutions to support challenges presented by leading companies in the retail, financial services, insurance, and catalog industries. He has a broad range of experiences with a concentration in Consumer / Business match and consolidation, address hygiene, postal discount, personalization, and process improvement.