Article: This is the guiding principle that informs how your company seeks to interact with its customers. It is both a daily reminder and a goal to be aspired to. It should be simple and dirc’s vision for McDonald’s: “Quality, Service, Cleanliness, Value.” To come up with your vision statement:  Looking 3 to 5 years into the future, imagine your company’s success and list five reasons for it. Now list the reasons for your success from the customer’s viewpoint. From the vantage point of this future success, list the steps you have taken to upgrade customer service. Based on these lists, summarize the key elements of your vision. List the verbs from you summary and use them to build a concise vision statement. These goals should provide quantifiable targets to address the customer service areas you identified as most important. For example:  A time limit by which all calls to the service center be answered A target for the percentage of products returned A target for the percentage of customers who report that they are satisfied with how their complaint was handled A target for the percentage of customers who complain who go on to purchase your service or products again Review your customer feedback to see which policies have proven most troublesome. If possible, get rid of them. Be sure to consult your employees to get their feedback on any proposed policies. They will often have a better feel for how the customer interacts with the customer service policy. You can find examples of straightforward, succinct customer service plans at thethrivingsmallbusiness.com and aa.com (American Airlines). Once you have hashed out a policy, take time to consider it from the customers’ point of view. Policy areas to touch on include:   Product or service overview – Do you have policies in place to make it as easy as possible for customers to learn about what you sell?  Speed – Can your customers order quickly and painlessly? Are knowledgeable customer service representatives readily available? Consider setting a maximum wait time for in store and phone service, and then consider what it will take to achieve those service standards.  Communication – Do you do a good job of informing customers of everything they need to know to do business with you? Return and shipping policies should be easy to locate. Accepted forms of payment should be clearly displayed. Add-on services and warranties should be explained without pressure to buy.  Follow up – Your customers should be given the name, phone number, and email of a person to contact if they need help after a purchase. Show them a timeline for service or product delivery. Give information on how to seek technical support or other help. Make it easy for them to complain if they need to do so.  Complaints – Are complaints handled promptly? Are employees given the freedom to problem solve to reach the best solution? Is higher level management involved quickly? How are customers compensated for various problems? Is there follow-up to ensure customer satisfaction?   Retention – Are you building long-term relationships with your customers? Contact them a month after the transaction to be sure they are satisfied. Consider sending out a newsletter or coupons to customers. Create customer forums on your website.  Employee monitoring – Are you encouraging your employees to provide good customer service? Do you share customer feedback with them and confront them when they are not meeting service standards? Do you recognize and reward them when they provide good service? What you don’t want are policies that are used as weapons against the customer – e.g. “I’m sorry I can’t do more, but it’s company policy” – or problems that drag on and frustrate customers. Instead of strict rules, give your employees broad guidelines to help them problem solve:   Understand the problem – Let the customer speak without interrupting, note the important facts, and repeat them to be sure you got it right. “Just to confirm, you want to receive a new unit and get a refund, right?”  Identify the cause – Find out what the customer did, review what should have happened, and isolate the problem. Identifying the cause often means accepting that the company, not the customer, is responsible for the problem. “You ordered a unit that our website says works with your system. You should have been able to plug it in and use it, but the literature on the website must be mistaken, because the unit is not compatible with your system.”  Propose solutions – First ask the customer for ideas. If he or she has a clear idea of how they want the situation resolved, either agree or work with them to finalize a plan that works for the customer and the company.  Solve the problem – Take corrective action and ask the customer if they are pleased with the way the problem was resolved. Apologize for the trouble and ideally, offer the customer something as compensation for their trouble. Hold a mandatory meeting to introduce the plan and to explain its purpose. Afterwards, work training into regular meetings, as well as holding training workshops to teach your personnel particular skills such as problem solving for complaints.

What is a summary?
Develop a vision statement. Set customer service goals in line with your vision and based on your research into customer needs. Make your customer policies straightforward and customer-friendly. Use your goals as a guide in creating your customer service policy. Give your employees discretion to deal with customer problems. Train your employees in the new policy.