The Three Most Important Customer Service Suggestions I Tell Every CEO

This article answers the question: What are the three most important customer service and CX suggestions every CEO must follow?

Answer: The three most important customer service suggestions for any leader of any company or organization are to treat customer service and CX like a philosophy and not a department, train everyone to understand their role in customer service (and CX), and actively manage every customer touchpoint for the best experience.

A question that I’m often asked is, “What’s your top suggestion for delivering better customer service or customer experience?” In my desire to always give more than expected, I default to, “I could give you one idea, but let me give you three.”  

These three suggestions work for any and every company, regardless of size or industry. You can be a B2B or B2C type of business. You can even be in the government. And you can be the CEO, president, or owner. I think you get the idea. These are universal principles that are foundational to delivering the best experience to your customers, clients, guests, members, or whatever you call the people who do business with you.  

1. Customer Service Is a Philosophy, Not a Department: 

   Customer service (and CX) is not a department. It’s a philosophy to be embraced by everyone in the organization, from the leader to the most recently hired. People have asked me, “Then what do we call the customer service department?” Change the vocabulary. Call it the customer support department. And perhaps even better would be the customer retention department. After all, when they talk to a customer, their job is to resolve the issue or answer the question in such a way that creates confidence and gets the customer to come back.   

2. Customer Service Is Everyone’s Job: 

   Everyone, yes, everyone, must be trained on how they impact customer experience. If someone is not on the front line, they are supporting someone who is, or they are part of the internal process or system that eventually works its way into the customer experience. The point is, everyone serves someone, either an external customer or an internal customer inside the organization. And how people are treated inside an organization is going to be felt by the customers on the outside.  

3. Manage Every Customer Touchpoint: 

   Touchpoints are any interaction the customer has with the organization and can include in-person interactions, phone calls, websites, and any other opportunity the customer has to interact with you. Managing this starts by completing a journey mapping exercise to identify all touchpoints and then determining if they have been optimized to create the best experience. Here is where you might find potential gaps in the service experience. You may also find friction points and places that create inconsistent experiences. Look at every interaction point and manage it for the best experience possible. And once you’ve done that, you’re not finished. Customer experience is a journey, not a destination. Be sure to come back to this exercise at least twice a year to determine if anything has changed or needs to be fixed. 

And there you have it. My three suggestions for becoming a customer-focused organization that gives customers the best experience possible. In the end, we want our customers to like us, know us, and trust us. That is proven when the experience is one that gets customers to say, “I’ll be back!”