Customer Service Standards

By Ampy Llorca

INTRODUCTION

Customer service is an organisational and personal commitment to maintaining the highest standard of excellent customer satisfaction and experience. That is to consistently deliver a clear standard of best practice which is expected when dealing with organisations or individuals, to ensure a positive customer experience. 

This brief paper aims to explain what customer service standards are and how they are implemented into the organisational model to benefit the business. 

To set the scene, first we need to know… 

WHO ARE OUR CUSTOMERS 

It has been well defined and documented that there are two types of customers, internal and external.  It not the scope of this paper to further elaborate or provide examples between these two types, but for completeness, I quote Samantha Walker, “the main difference is that Internal Customers are the customers that belong to the company or a part of a company, whereas External Customers do not have any relation with the company.” 

From a management point of view, customers may suggest a variety of people and relationships. We can define customers (i.e. internal and external collectively) as any person who has direct association or a commercial relationship with whom we interact and provide service regularly. This relationship may be through contact on multiple communication channels, including website, telephone, video links, face to face meetings, or in writing (email). 

Any business can never place too much emphasis on its customer and to the services it provides. The customer is the foundation of any business and their satisfaction is key to success. Considering the importance of internal and external customers at all stages of the business processes, from marketing to product delivery, customer service satisfaction is central to its success and long-term goal of increased repeat business.  Customer service extends beyond those people who consumes the products and employ the services.  The company, therefore, must establish a sustainable policy of customer service standards. 

WHAT ARE CUSTOMER SERVICE STANDARDS 

Every organisation or business aspires for quality, efficiency, effectivity, consistency, and best practice operations. It is through a set of service standards that can help ensure organisation is getting the best value results and demonstrate how to keep improving. 

A sound service standard is sensitive to the wants and needs of the customer. However, also conscious that standards must be attainable and sustainable within the existing resource and regulatory limitations. 

Any business can never place too much emphasis on its customers. The business relies on their patronage and repeat business.  This is probably the most publicised and quoted business statistic that “it cost up to ten times more to acquire new customers than it does to retain existing customers.” Therefore, it is a sound practice to keep existing customers for repeat business by having a “charter of standards” that defines, maintain, and improve on a high-quality product and satisfying customer experience. 

Thus, what are these customer service standards? Customer service standards are a set of company’s policies, guidelines and expectations that describe and influence the customer’s relationship with the company every step throughout the customer experience. In a sense, they are the rules for conduct in any customer transaction and extends beyond those people who purchase your products and services. 

The customer service standards are usually a living policy that progresses as the business, products, services, and customers evolves with financial, political and environmental changes in time. It is through the company’s “continuous improvement” policy or “Learning Organisation” philosophy that monitor, analyse and progress the customer services standards regularly or as required. 

High performing companies believe in these standards to empower customer service employees to resolve problems, complaints, and answer questions as promptly and satisfactorily as possible. The quick resolutions is beneficial for both the customer and the company where great customer service standards help retain more loyal customers and increase profits significantly. 

Across the industry, there are numerous products and services offered and no one template for customer service standards covers all of them. However, there are commonalities and among them are: 

In General: 

•  Be courteous to all customers and respect their privacy
  
• Provide prompt, polite and efficient customer service
• Provide accurate, current and consistent information
• Provide realistic and transparent terms of what can be provided and by when
• Hold ourselves and each other accountable for our service commitment.
• Be conscious of communication style (i.e.; audible voice, eye contact, tone of   voice) and communicate in a professional manner.
• Our goal is to exceed the expectations of all of our customer groups
• Actively seek out feedback to ensure the service is meeting the needs. 

External Customers 

• Always greet customers in a courteous and professional manner
• Listen actively to customers’ requests and promptly take the necessary actions to assist them.
• Keep customers informed of normal work progress, when to expect completion, and if there are unexpected delays in service.
• Always close contacts with customers in a courteous and professional manner.
• If applicable - always respond to website questions/requests within 24 hours during normal business hours. 

Internal Customers

• Always interact in a courteous and professional manner.
• Inform internal customers of normal process time, expected completion and any delays that may arise in the process.
• Touch base with internal customers regularly for update as to process progress.
• Work to resolve issues with co-workers and other departments by discussing problems directly and working toward agreed-upon solutions.
• Be considerate, cooperative, and helpful to every staff member to assure quality services.
• Hold ourselves and each other accountable for addressing inappropriate comments and behaviour. 

Moreover, a customer service policy must state that customer satisfaction is essential to the company. It must also be emphasised at every customer interaction ask how to improve the service. This will make customer service staff more focused on making the customer happy and in turn build and sustainable business for the long term. 

CUSTOMER STANDARDS IDENTIFIED, ESTABLISHED AND APPLIED 

Customer service standards are determined and established by organisations to provide procedures and guidelines for employees when dealing with internal and external customers. There are two types of service standards, one is the customer-focused standard which attends to the services important to the customer. These are basic, clear guidelines like how to greet a customer or answer the phone among others. The second standard is service driven that is generally publicised as the company’s commitment to service excellence and customer satisfaction.  

An exemplary customer service standard is intended to be sensitive to the wants and needs of the customer that is attainable, sustainable, regulatory compliant, and ethical. A good example is the established whole-of-government customer service charter for the Australian business community (www.business.gov.au) which list the following key service values: Responsiveness, Quality Service, Confidentiality, Transparency and Professionalism.  Moreover, these key values are applied or governed by key service principles that includes: Impartiality, commitment to service, accountability, respectfulness and ethical behaviour. Not all businesses or organisations will have the same customer service values and principles in their charter since it is catered to the variety of products and services offered. Thus, how are customer service standard set? 

SETTING CUSTOMER STANDARDS 

The best and most practical way of identifying and establishing a high customer standard is by asking the customers directly. But, before embarking on a survey campaign, the organisation must first decide and set their understanding on what they want and need for such standards. To decide what a good service standard is, it must consider its relevance to the customer – what are their priorities, it must be realistic, measurable, consistent, transparent, communicated and continuously updated. Last but not the least, endorsed by management. 

The set of customer standards must be applicable to the whole-of-organisation which covers both internal and external customers. The final customer service standard or charter should be the pillar of the organisation’s culture towards achieving or surpassing thee customer expectations and keeping them satisfied.  

Having defined the criteria, it is now time to develop the customer standard. Lenio Business Services Ltd (www.leniohospitality.com) recommended five (5) stages of development which are: 

1.                Establish Priorities for Service Standards - which is the services the organisation provides that has a high impact on service areas.

2.                Plan and Develop – draft the standard and seek feedback from front-line staff and senior management.

3.                Implement the Standard – communicate the standard to all key stakeholders, review the process and introduce any changes if required.

4.                Measure Performance Against Standards – measure performance against the standard set and evaluate performance. Share results with the team and management.

5.                Act on the results – assess performance and determine where improvements are needed then decide a future course of action for continuous improvement. Implement necessary changes or enhancements. 

Once an agreed upon customer service standard is achieved and documented, they must be communicated and publicised to all stakeholders on viable company media. It may also be necessary to allot time and resources for information dissemination and training to all employees. 

COMMUNICATION MONITORING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AND SATISFACTION 

Customers are core to any business. If you develop strong interpersonal skills, you can maintain good communication with your customers and build lasting relationships. Happy customers will become advocates for your business. They promote and recommend your business. But, they are also more forgiving when things don’t go to plan. 

Monitoring can be achieved partly through ongoing feedback from customers, but should also involve the input of service delivery staff. They should have the opportunity to make observations and suggestions based on their experience of implementing the standards. Feedback can be formal or informal, verbal or written. It is useful to provide a feedback form. There should be a regular review of feedback, with appropriate actions taken on suggestions.

            It is a good policy to solicit and document customer feedback (written form or verbal) on all opportunities within the service chain. This will in time build a structured database for capturing what the company is doing right and any issues of dissatisfaction. This database can them be measured against the standards set and used for continuous improvement. 

THE THIRD CUSTOMER TYPE IS MOST IMPORTANT 

In my point of view, there are 3 customers, namely, internal, external and oneself. I believe to treat ourself as a customer to the services we provide others. This boils down the principle that if you are happy with your service to others, it will inherently make you happy, and this internal happiness will show and flow through your life. 

REFERENCES 

Australian Adult Learning Institute, (2018), BSBCUS403 – Implement Customer Service Standards, Lecture Notes. Version 4, July 2018.

Australian Government, (2020). Customer Service Charter, Australian Government. 24 June 2020. Source: https://www.business.gov.au/About-us/Customer-service-charter. Viewed: 27 September 2020. 

Duncan, T. & Duncan, D., (2019), The 10 Golden Rules of Customer Service, & the Story of the $6,000 Egg., Simple Truths, Illinois, USA, 136 pp. 

Harris, E.K., (2012), Customer Service – A Practical Approach., 6th Ed., Pearson Education, Inc., New Jersey, USA, 175 pp. 

Lenio Business Services Ltd. (2014). Setting Customer Services Standards. Prepared for Voluntary Action Islington. E-Guide, 17 June 2014. © Lenio Business Services Ltd (www.leniohospitality.com), 18 pp. 

Walker, S., (2020). Difference Between Internal Customers and External Customers, Difference.Wiki, Source: https://www.difference.wiki/internal-customers-vs-external-customers/. Viewed: 27 September 2020.