Providing good customer service is one of the primary goals of any startup business. After all, people are more likely to return if they experience quality service. But you might stop and wonder how you are going to pull it off.
This is where having a defined customer service philosophy comes into play., Let’s take a look at how you can develop your philosophy and turn it into reality with the help of outsourcing.
What Is A Customer Service Philosophy Anyway?
In its simplest definition, a customer service philosophy is a set of guiding principles that your company uses to solve customer issues. These principles help your service team adhere to company values and build customer relationships.
Image from Hubspot.
Additionally, the service philosophy helps you foster customer actions in the right direction. That is vital for earning customer loyalty and retention. On the other hand, it serves as a strong motivator for your team to perform better.
The Components Of A Customer Service Philosophy
There are two parts your customer service philosophy needs. Note that these two components are extensions of their corresponding items in your greater business philosophy.
Customer Service Vision
The first component defines the type of service that you would want to deliver to customers. Here, just saying “good customer service” won’t do. You need to be more specific in the type of service to be delivered.
For that, your vision needs to meet the following three criteria.
- Simple to understand and easy to act on
- A concrete description of the type of service you want to employ
- What you want to aspire for your business
Bringing these three criteria together, you can develop a customer service vision that everyone in the team understands. Note that this won’t automatically get them inspired with it. But it will serve as a simple guide for how they approach customer interactions.
Customer Service Values
The next part of your customer service philosophy is the values that your startup business espouses. These statements serve as a further exposition of your service vision. They also give additional context to your service strategy.
Keep in mind that there is no right way to write your service values. However, these are a few quick tips on articulating these better.
- Make them memorable: Write your values in simple statements that your team can easily recall during situations.
- Use action verbs: These are effective motivational words because your team will know what actions they should take.
- Embrace your personality: Your service values should reflect your company’s larger culture. That helps create a form of brand recall for customers.
Once you have written these values, present them to your service team. They would be the best ones to gauge if those values are indeed easy to follow.
Fleshing Out Your Startup Business Customer Service Philosophy
The two elements above will give your customer service philosophy a solid foundation. From there, you can further build it up. There are a few ways to do that. These will help you give your philosophy a clearer direction.
Keep Your Customers In Focus
Okay, so this one is already part of any customer service strategy you might have. But you would want to double down on it when fleshing out your service philosophy. This way, you can create something that best reflects customer needs.
Image from Weidert Group.
Dig into what makes your customers tick. Get into their shoes and think about how you would respond if you were in their situation. By doing this, you can develop a philosophy that matches customer needs and suits your own.
Decide Whether To Go Issue-Centric Or Customer-Centric
These are the two different approaches to providing service. When you are issue-centric, you focus more on resolving specific issues on a case-to-case basis. Meanwhile, a customer-centric approach requires you to consider the whole customer experience.
Image from SaaSworthy.
Note that neither approach is overall better than the other. Instead, you want to choose one that best fits your business model. For instance, a customer-centric approach might be more suited for startup businesses with a subscription model. That is because the customer will often engage with you across several interactions. Hence, you will need to approach them from a more holistic standpoint.
Provide Actionable Steps For Your Startup Business
While your customer values already provide some idea on how your team should respond to a service situation, you can provide further details here. Start by fleshing out what everyday actions they should take. That helps them create a routine centered around your service philosophy.
Image from Retently.
Additionally, you can talk about specific situations where a clear action is needed. Note that you won’t need to cover every situation. But by focusing on the more common ones, your team can grasp how the philosophy works.
Get Everyone Onboard For The Writing Process
Your customer support team will arguably be the ones who will be relying on your service philosophy the most. Hence, they need to be part of the writing process. With their experience, they can provide insights into how customer engagements actually happen. That helps you create a philosophy that better matches your team’s strengths.
Beyond the support team, you also need to get the input of other stakeholders. They too can give you useful insights about service strategies. Additionally, you would want to train everyone on this philosophy. That ensures that they are all on the same page about customer engagement strategies.
Getting Help For Your Startup Business Customer Service Philosophy
Depending on what kind of vision and values you outlined, you might face some challenges in upholding the customer service philosophy. Sometimes, it can be due to your startup business not having enough capabilities to see that implementation through.
This is where outsourcing with Virtua Solutions will be a lot of help. Our team can provide you with the needed resources to make your service philosophy a reality. We can assign adaptable agents who can quickly grasp what your philosophy is all about. They can then translate it into actual service.
Beyond that, they can also give you insights of their own. These agents have years of experience in the customer service scene. Throughout those years, they have accumulated a lot of knowledge. You can use this to flesh out your philosophy and make it more workable.
So what are you waiting for? We are ready to help your startup business to deliver more to your customers. Contact us today and we will develop a service philosophy that speaks volumes for you.