“You will not BELIEVE this car I just bought. It’s kinda non-descript-looking, the handling is alright, and the fuel economy is mediocre!”

Not amazed?

Neither are your customers if you’re delivering “so-so” service. In a hyper-connected, hyper-competitive business world, customer service provides critical opportunities for differentiation and competitive advantage.

But only if you consistently go above-and-beyond for customers.

So how can you take your service from “meh.” to “WOW!”? Learn from these five lessons:

Understand what “great service” really means.

In other words, know what matters most to your customers. Is it speed? Personalization? Options for self-service? If you’re unsure, just ask! Conduct an anonymous survey to encourage candid feedback.

But regardless of your industry or company size, customers typically look for the following service fundamentals:

• Clear, honest, respectful communication in all forms (even when work becomes challenging).
• On-time delivery. People in your organization should honor their commitments, doing what they say they will do, when they say they’ll do it.
• A commitment to excellence. Everyone in your organization should take great pride and care in serving all customers’ needs (both internal and external).

Surprise your customers.

Ever receive an unexpected gift? How did it make you feel? The truth is, even small tokens of appreciation go a long way with customers – especially when they’re not expecting anything.

Find little ways to surprise your customers, and make those unexpected surprises part of your regular service process. And remember: it’s not the monetary value of the gesture that’s important, it’s the fact that you thought of your customer, and then went out of your way to do something nice, that makes the experience memorable.

Use technology to improve the service experience.

Often, a real human is the best choice for addressing a customer’s service issue. After all, people do business with people. But as tools improve and our population’s adoption of technology increases, self-service is dramatically on the rise. Consider ways that mobile apps, social media, chatbots, user communities or other technology could allow you to deliver a quicker, more seamless service experience.

But don’t let that technology fragment the customer experience.

The same technology that’s designed to simplify service can actually erode it. Unfortunately, if your approach to managing service interactions across multiple communication channels (like the ones mentioned above) isn’t fully integrated, you have no way of ensuring excellence. To prevent problems:

• Assemble a cross-functional team to monitor sites and communication channels vigilantly.
• Create sound, consistent processes for ensuring all incoming service issues (regardless of the communication channel used) are addressed in a timely fashion, and then re-routed or escalated when necessary.

Respond authentically.

Customers today are more savvy and demanding than ever – and most see through traditional sales pitches. So train your entire team to be genuine in the way you communicate with customers. Skip the canned responses and corporate-speak, opting for honesty and transparency instead (especially when you’ve made a service mistake!). More authentic communication lends itself to stronger emotional connections and better service experiences across channels.

Need a staffing partner as committed to service excellence as you are?

Contact Exact Staff, providing national staffing solutions, today.  With a full complement of staffing and HR management solutions – and award-winning customer satisfaction – we’re the ideal partner for your human capital management needs.