Guest Blog: Here’s The Best Way to Improve Customer Service, According to 63 Experts [INFOGRAPHIC]

This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post, my colleague Gigi Peccolo shares statistics and expert advice on the best ways to improve customer service. I am honored to be included in the OneReach report. – Shep Hyken

For businesses in any vertical, it’s becoming increasingly important to provide great customer service. Over 90% of customers expect to receive a consistent customer experience across channels, and over 90% of customers who have an effortless service experience with companies will buy from that company again.

So what’s the best way to make sure your customer service is meeting customer needs? Extensive employee training? Providing service across channels? Getting customer feedback?

A recent OneReach report found that the best way to improve customer service is to focus on the employee experience. Of 63 industry influencers interviewed (including this blog’s Shep Hyken), 16 experts said that concentrating on the employee experience was the best way to improve customer service, followed by walking in the customer’s shoes (13 responses) and defining and reviewing service values within the company (11 responses).

But let’s take a look at defining and reviewing service values within the company. Here’s what Shep Hyken had to say about that.

Research from Forrester has found that 90% of customer service decision makers believe good service is essential to their companies’ success. However, it’s important for everyone in your organization, from agents to CEOs, to be aware of what good service is and review those values on a regular basis. After all, over 80% of customers stopped doing business with a company after a bad customer service experience.

But ultimately, as the OneReach report proves, there’s no one way to provide great customer service. Rather, it takes a variety of perspectives and initiatives to make sure companies are delivering the best service possible.

See what some the influencers had to say about the employee engagement in the OneReach infographic below, and don’t forget to check out the rest of the responses on the OneReach blog.

Gigi Peccolo is the Content Manager at OneReach, where she is focused on creating content enabling companies to offer effective, meaningful customer support over text message. Gigi is a skilled writer, researcher, and content editor. She received her BA in Journalism Studies and Spanish from the University of Denver, where she graduated with Distinction in Journalism Studies.

For more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com. Read Shep’s latest Forbes Article:

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