Every company in the known universe wants to provide great customer service and deliver an attractive customer experience. But a lot can go wrong along the way to accomplishing these goals. Below I list 19 missteps I encounter frequently when consulting on customer service and the customer experience. Check and see which ones, if any, are dragging your customer service and customer experience down. [Note: In most of the cases below, I've linked to a page-long article on the subject. Check out these links for a more in-depth discussion of each issue.]
1. Inappropriate employee selection (hiring). (More about this here.)
2. Shoddy or entirely transactional onboarding. (Explore the solution here.)
3. Lack of commitment from company leadership to customer service and customer experience improvement
4. Lack of high-level participation in training and onboarding. (Learn the details of this issue here.)
5. Failing to have a defined mission, values, principles, and definition of “why,” of the purpose behind the actions taken every day to serve customers. (More on this here.)
6. No daily reinforcement of this customer-focused “why.” (Read more about this here.)
7. Not taking the time to make a customer journey map. Without one, your view of the customer experience will remain, literally, inside-out.
8. No service recovery guidelines (Here is my ARFFD service recovery approach.)
9. No organized approach to responding to surveys, complaints and suggestions. If you don’t respond, customers learn very quickly that their input isn’t valued. If this is the case, it’s better not to ask in the first place!
10. Failing to "think anticipatory" the way the
11. No effort to get buy-in at the launch of the customer service initiative
12. No empowerment given to the front-line. (Read more here.)
13. Failing to involve your employees in a continuous improvement effort. (More on this here.)
14. No social customer service strategy—social customer service done entirely ad hoc and in desperation.
15. Lack of a self-service strategy. (More on this here.)
16. Management acceptance of "good enough" performance. When poor performance is tolerated, it becomes the standard.
17. Failure to pursue a true omnichannel strategy. (More on this here.)
18. Failure to adjust your style to the new, eye-level service style preferred by millennials and other shoppers of today. (More on this here.)
19. Not paying enough attention to the beginning and ending of the service experience. (More on this here.)
Micah Solomon offers customer experience consulting, customer service consulting, training, and speaking. He's a thought leader, keynote speaker, and bestselling author on customer service and the customer experience. [Credit where credit’s due: this list was brainstormed together with fellow customer service expert Bill Quiseng. I suggest following Bill at @billquiseng.]
