Customer Service is Everyone’s Responsibility

Customer service is an essential element of the culture at every company, but many companies still struggle to align their departments and focus on delighting the customer.

Unfortunately for them, the days when a single department the customer experience have come to an end. A customer issue negatively impacts both customers as well as the organization's bottom line. More importantly, customers are now more demanding than ever, and it takes more than a customer service department to empower them and handle their requests.

Here's how more organizations can become customer-centric by aligning their departments and ensuring everyone takes responsibility for customer delight.

Creating a Customer-Centric Culture—From the Front Lines to the C-Suite

The first step in aligning the business toward customer delight is to ensure it has a customer-centric culture. That means every employee, no matter their title, must take responsibility for the success of the customer.

At the associate level, one way to do this is to ensure customer service agents are empowered, can handle requests quickly, and have the tools they need to delight customers.

But customer-centricity must go beyond the customer service department as well. It's time for organizations to think beyond their front lines and create a sales process that focuses on customer experience. This means allowing customers easy access to information through self-service tools, providing a personalized experience, and making it easy for them to buy how they want.

C-level executives can also help to create a customer-centric culture by looking at the big picture. They need to understand how every department in the company impacts the customer experience and then work to align them, so they all support and contribute to customer success.

This includes making sure that marketing is creating campaigns that resonate with customers, product development is focused on customer feedback, and the executive team is creating policies that put the customer first.

It's not always easy to create a customer-centric culture, but it's worth it. When every employee in an organization is working toward the same goal, customers are more likely to be delighted.

Helping Departments Collaborate Using Digital Solutions

Technology can help departments collaborate on the customer experience in several ways.

One way is by providing employees with access to the right information at the right time. This includes making sure agents have real-time access to customer data and that they can easily escalate cases when necessary. It also means giving customers self-service options so they can find the information they need on their own.

Another way technology can help departments collaborate is by providing a centralized view of the customer. This removes disconnects on the customer experience between departments, as it allows them to access the same customer intelligence information in real-time. It also allows executives to see how different parts of the company are impacting the customer experience and then make changes if necessary.

Finally, technology can also help with task alignment, such as with ticketing or customer inquiry processes, so employees know what's expected of them and which requests need to be escalated.

Empowering Customers with More Tools and Better Access to Service

Finally, leaders can help drive customer-centricity across the organization by providing customers with the tools to empower themselves.

One example is self-service tools, like chatbots. Chatbots can help customers find the information they need without having to interact with an agent or spend time on hold. This enhances the customer experience by reducing friction and allowing them to take care of their requests more quickly.

In field service, many organizations are adopting advanced self-service solutions that use augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR). These solutions empower customers to fix small problems themselves using on-screen schematics and how-to guides. This way, they don't have to wait for a technician to resolve a problem.

Another way to empower customers is by providing access to assistance through multiple channels, such as email, phone, and chat. This allows customers to choose the channel that works best for them instead of forcing them into one method of communication.

Finally, technology can also empower customers by providing access to information from multiple sources all in one place. For example, a customer may need help with their billing statement but have been unable to find the information they need on the company's website. By providing a central repository for all customer service information, companies can help reduce this type of frustration and make it easier for customers to get the help they need.

Make Customer Service Everyone's Responsibility

When every department in an organization is focused on customer success, customers are more likely to be delighted. Developing a customer-centric culture takes hard work and must be reinforced at every level and across every department of an organization, but the results are worth the effort.

To learn more about customer-centricity in field service, don't miss Field Service Palm Springs 2022, happening from April 26th to April 28th at the JW Marriott in Palm Springs, California.

Download the agenda today.