Set Your Standards for Customer Service

Two of your customers’ most prominent needs are for efficiency and communication. In other words, they want you to get things done quickly and they want you to tell them how quickly. "How soon can you deliver my parts? How soon till I’m back online? How soon does this bus leave? How soon can you fix my camera?"

Communicating the answers to your customers can be easy if you have set service standards that you abide by. Service standards help minimize uncertainty. They tell customers what you will do to ensure their satisfaction. "Your parts will be shipped via express delivery by end-of-business tomorrow. You will be back online within four hours. This bus leaves at 10:00am or when all the seats are occupied, whichever comes first. Our technicians will contact you immediately after examining your camera and provide you with an estimated date of repair."

When customers complain, it’s often because of the absence of service standards that let them know what they can reasonably expect from you.

All well and good, but what happens in situations beyond your control and your normal service standards can’t be met? Communication is your answer. The important thing is to keep your customers informed.

Here’s an example for you. I brought my printer to the repair shop for what I though was a simple alignment. Turns out my printer head was shot, and since it was an older model, the shop would have to order a new one. I explained that I needed my printer in three days and asked them to call me. On the third day, they did call and here’s what they told me. “Mr John, we don’t know when your new printer head will arrive, but we’ll call you every day at 4:30 to update you even if we have no new information.” And that’s exactly what they did. Every day at 4:30, I received a call from the technician with an update and two weeks later, I got my printer back repaired. Was I happy? No. But, I was satisfied that they were doing their best to provide me with top-quality customer service.

Your business is no different, I’m sure. Most businesses do their best to provide efficient customer service. But for those few times when efficiency breaks down, it’s communication that can come to your rescue.