Customer Service Policies: Importance, Benefits and Effective Ways to Create Them

# Customer Service Policies: Importance, Benefits and Effective Ways to Create Them <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgUM83n0X-440wPMv5mwyCDcRp1tkax1JJ2_LYrd8XtU5B3h6WC8-jQY_OiNqWFJKkyUBo1kNVLGyjY5qP2dvblhVs5cAMY7HAWtemGUw6AFXzYKbRCCxQ2vnAJ27Op_dTFs75fhlge5QZEOSmDBupqkWGoW2nvqWzBGkKDFBgfQfPgOuiX-mPUJtIt_Q=s663" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="663" height="359" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgUM83n0X-440wPMv5mwyCDcRp1tkax1JJ2_LYrd8XtU5B3h6WC8-jQY_OiNqWFJKkyUBo1kNVLGyjY5qP2dvblhVs5cAMY7HAWtemGUw6AFXzYKbRCCxQ2vnAJ27Op_dTFs75fhlge5QZEOSmDBupqkWGoW2nvqWzBGkKDFBgfQfPgOuiX-mPUJtIt_Q=w558-h359" width="558" /></a></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ouch! <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Brian here is clearly not very fond of Zachary’s customer support department. Imagine 192 million daily active users reading this tweet. Sounds dooming, right? <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, let’s talk about customer service. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Customer service is not a department. It is a philosophy that needs to be embraced by every member of an organization, from the CEO to recently hired interns. It doesn’t matter what type of business you have, whether B2B or B2C. It doesn’t matter what industry your business belongs to. Be it hospitality, financial, retail, IT, healthcare, manufacturing, service, etc. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Customer support finds its way into every aspect of every business. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Every department and consequently every employee has an impact on the customer. Therefore, every decision must be made keeping the customers in mind. It is important that every employee understands their role in customer experience and customer service strategy. The leadership must understand that the customer service policies play an important part in the overall strategy. Companies need to stick to just one mantra: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Customer service is a philosophy! <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And only customer-centric policies can help you stick to this mantra. In this article, I am going to list down the fundamentals of framing the perfect customer support policies by keeping customers at the center. We’ll talk about: <ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"> <li> <a href="https://www.deskxpand.com/blog/effective-customer-service-policies/#section1" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #644fe0; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Customer Service Policy – A Quick Rundown</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://www.deskxpand.com/blog/effective-customer-service-policies/#section2" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #644fe0; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why is Customer Service Policy Important</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://www.deskxpand.com/blog/effective-customer-service-policies/#section3" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #644fe0; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What Should be Included in a Customer Service Policy?</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://www.deskxpand.com/blog/effective-customer-service-policies/#section4" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #644fe0; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How to Create Great Customer Service Policies</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://www.deskxpand.com/blog/effective-customer-service-policies/#section5" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #644fe0; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Build Customer-Focused Policies: Empower With DeskXpand</a> </li> </ul> <h2 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 19pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Customer Service Policy – A Quick Rundown</h2> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Customer service policy is a living document created for support teams to keep everyone on the same page. It is a reference point for all customer support reps. It includes guidance, advice, and examples needed to ensure customer satisfaction and eventual retention. It is a set of procedures that guides the overall customer support approach and attitude. An example of customer service policy would be: <ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"> <li> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The kind of refunds that are handled in the organization </li> <li> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The criteria for offering refunds </li> </ul> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="39" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/caUOaw-x1_QIfFBxJVRNoSt17IOQD5noro1CgBmpJRZnG0zySRXJqAqSOo_hhdeuT2PI7dYjBBN9vW2yPTfQIW0vVjysqrMIIX3f9h1oAZQEtG4e2ureFi0CCAD5IxaKJfCZLCWz" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="43" /> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #707070; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just having satisfied customers isn’t good enough anymore. If you want a booming business, you have to create raving fans. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #202020; font-size: 13.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ken Blanchard <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #202020; font-size: 13.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="40" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/n4V7tx4Jqtiig15jJYno6KcpaaQg_5C4Rx3w38VQ4fPtt7206hH5CIkF7lCSg0HXQYw9wHTwl6IBxgAJBWRef6KKs3AwfVVNuBmoFdjhe5swgE0wXfETCyDbfXnWHd_DY4J9rLr6" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="46" /> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A customer service policy is a reference point for all customer service executives and allows them to handle situations similarly. If a brand keeps this consistency, a company ensures that every customer interaction is a success and every customer’s needs are fulfilled without any bias. <h2 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 19pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why is Customer Service Policy Important</h2> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Customer service policies are imperative for your support team more than anyone else. Customer support policies ensure that your customers are treated equally while seeking services in the company regardless of anything. With a document in place, your support team will strive to speed and ensure customer success. Some benefits of customer service policy involve: <ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"> <li> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Showcasing company values </li> <li> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Enhanced support for your customers </li> <li> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Improved customer retention </li> <li> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Clear customer expectations </li> </ul> <h2 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 19pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What Should be Included in a Customer Service Policy?</h2> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="What_Does_a_Customer_Service_Policy_Contain" height="227" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/afGRXNSCChcWsaed9txbjYRLTBHetTFp0FdGPdGOLrF55jam-PzrgvDlgrem4gyFbQGbL-lkiA0uupeZJHL_sYEPiSKS6J8A6Bra9DWFOAJUCfN0DPAVf0VXBh5n9XmBwF4nBrDK" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Customer service policy is usually a guideline for how the customer service representatives will (or rather should) act under specific circumstances. They will be unique to your business. Here are some common things to consider, including: <h4 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I. Company Values</h4> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You can include this as a part of your customer service mission statement. <h4 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">II. Resolution Time and First Response Time</h4> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When do you plan to get back to the customer once they report their queries? Will you get back to them in an hour or a day? How soon will you resolve an issue? What are the hours where you’re available? Include all this information in your policies. <h4 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">III. Customer-Centric and Professional Guidelines</h4> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Define how your employee behavior should be while interacting with your customers. Their approach must always be customer-centric, and you could include all this into your policy document. <h4 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">IV. Industry-Specific Policies</h4> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For example, if you are an eCommerce brand, you can include the rules pertaining to shipping, returns, exchanges, and billing. <h4 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">V. How You Collect Feedback</h4> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How do you plan to collect feedback from your customers? How often do you plan on doing it? Let your customers know how they can contact you and how they should respond to negative feedback. Think about questions like: <ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"> <li> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How to react to unhappy customers. </li> <li> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If the customer is not satisfied, do they get a refund? Do they get store credit? </li> </ul> <h4 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">VI. Escalation Rules</h4> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Make sure your support reps know what to do when your service level agreements or these customer service policy is violated. Make clear policies regarding the same. <h2 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 19pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How to Create Great Customer Service Policies</h2> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first step in creating a customer service policy is thinking about the big picture. Think about the mission of your customer service team as a whole? How do you define excellence? <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Usually, customer service policies begin with a mission statement. It includes one or two lines summarizing how you want to treat your customers. Here are some tips for creating customer service policies: <h3 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1. Align It With Your Vision and Objectives</h3> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A company’s vision and objectives must create successful customer service policies. Your customer service policy reflects your brand’s goals. Therefore, your policies must align with the vision of your brand. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Your customer service policy should focus on improving the welfare of your customers & your company’s productivity. Here are some things that you can address while developing a customer service policy: <ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"> <li> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A time period when your customer support reps can respond to all the queries. </li> <li> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A target for the percentage of services returned. </li> <li> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A target and method for how the support team handles queries. </li> <li> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A target for the percentage of customers who will return to buy your services again. </li> </ul> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you want to create a customer service policy that fits your customers’ needs, you need to align it with your business goals. Focus on the following key points: <h4 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I. Service/Product Overview:</h4> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Create policies that’ll help customers better understand the services you sell. <h4 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">II. Speed:</h4> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Informative and efficient customer support attracts clients to your businesses. Therefore, you need to have a proactive workforce. Empower your support reps to respond as quickly as possible. Prompt customer service can bring more customers to buy your products and services. <h4 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">III. Communication:</h4> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Customer relationship management completely depends on how the brands communicate with the customers. You must inform customers of changes in the customer policies, new products, and shipping policies. <h4 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">IV. Follow-up Process:</h4> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Give your customers the number, email, and the name of the customer support team to contact. You need to include this information on your policies so that customers can get fast service from an actual person. <h3 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2. Understand Your Audience</h3> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The primary goal of building a customer service policy is to make your customers happy. Hence, you must design your customer support policy to customers’ specific needs. Include a system in your customer support policy that records customer complaints, comments, and issues that require urgent care. You need to collect information about what customers want from the customer support system and implement it. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do not forget to review the feedback provided by your customers. The better you understand your customer service policy, the better you can optimize your services. Be sure to involve your support representatives as well. Since support reps interact with customers in the company, they can help create straightforward customer service policies and plans. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Besides this, online surveys and service providers can help you know things that your customers want and add them to the policy. <h3 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3. Identify Top Customer Operational Issues</h3> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As a brand, you need to consider customer feedback and feedback from your support reps while making your business policy. Create a list of challenges your customers face while trying to reach out to your support executives. You shall communicate with your team on things that affect the customer support processes. Understand the problems, know the cause, propose a solution, and include them in the implementation of your customer support policy. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Adhere to successful customer service policies and practices. Understand what customers want, and that will help you create a successful customer support policy. <h3 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4. Customer First Approach</h3> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The concept of having a customer-first approach is pretty straightforward. You need to develop policies with customer experience as the core of your brand’s goals or values. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="37" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/1zMxQoyMOfzCMhdJmGceFDMqXw7BIMwJtHTgk4DswYzQIGj2a6tUhH8GVMv1aExzAd0QohrT7vKGAakdUFV6Q8CwMuy6HllQa6M3M2RdR2sYqPykXZ1xT4VfMGXrkBbCUuchL6dK" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="41" /> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #707070; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The proper focus & investment of time and budget requires a more strategic approach and planning. It is not only a marketing problem or a technology initiative. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #202020; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kelly Uhlrich <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #202020; font-size: 13.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="38" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/c9mUtp2ikdyIS-1Fc5ttw4Bsnm74N8s3bwHLdcSi5C_unT0fqHqZBkLIO6C67ShzheRIabIKxUwn9FC_FUn9p_jfi1PwJ8BPdu3vOb5z_VbV27ysp0BE600BAvdIUeaj1uhzTGo2" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="42" />   <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As a brand, you’ll need to integrate customer service policy into your company culture as a whole. You need to hire and amalgamate a team of skilled customer service agents. The next important thing to do would be to communicate clear values to your employees. Make them more confident in what your company stands for. <h3 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5. Operationalize Customer Empathy into Policies</h3> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many companies and brands fail to understand and practice this buzzword: Empathy. Customer empathy simply means the ability to identify a customer’s emotional need. It involves understanding the reasons behind their needs and effective responses to them. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ask yourself the following questions: <ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"> <li> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do you have an empathetic customer service policy for frustrated customers? </li> <li> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are those policies customer-friendly? </li> <li> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do your policies encourage customers. Are they clear and honest? </li> </ul> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">According to a report by <a href="https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/consulting/library/consumer-intelligence-series/future-of-customer-experience.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #644fe0; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">PwC</a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, only 38% of U.S. consumers believe that the employees they interact with accurately understand their needs. Empathetic customer process design also significantly impacts marketing activities. Customer-focused policies build empathy, and empathy builds trust. If customers feel acknowledged, they’re more likely to be loyal to your brand. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the best customer service policy examples would be that of Slack. It operationalizes empathy right into its strategies. Their customer support reps spend a lot of time observing customer messages, and they try to understand their needs intuitively. The customer support specialists conduct thorough research. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Plan and make the customer journey maps and then frame your customer support policy to exercise empathy accordingly. Evaluate whether your customer touchpoints provide a good, fast, and convenient experience. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Take a look at the big-picture of your policies and processes. Lastly, implement customer empathy all around the company culture. <h3 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">6. Align Your Policies With SLA</h3> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The last thing would be to align your customer service policy with your service level agreements. It’ll set your brand and employees upto a certain standard and improve your brand value. SLAs are commonly used to measure problems and maintain the process timelines. Service level agreements establish the basic conditions of your support services—they lay out an agreement between brands and their customers. For example, designating the maximum amount of wait time is acceptable to be considered good quality of service. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is important to remember that SLAs are different from the key performance indicators. KPIs are usually used to track performance. Deriving and implementing SLAs will require you to facilitate constructive feedback from customers and analyze ways to improve customer satisfaction. <h2 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 19pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16.5pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Build Customer-Focused Policies: Empower With DeskXpand</h2> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A customer service policy is a way to hold your organization to a consistently high standard. The ideas in your customer service policy should be based on your company’s goals. You must be able to outline concrete ways to reach those goals. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is easier to keep the promises made in your customer service policy if you have the right tools at your disposal. Your technology investments can improve your customer service and track your success. Take your standards to the next level with <a href="https://www.deskxpand.com/customer-services-software/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #644fe0; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">customer support software</a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that can help you effortlessly implement your service policy and take your standards to the next level. Sign up for a free trial with DeskXpand now. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">DeskXpand is an exceptional customer support software that helps businesses provide quick resolutions to their customers, simplify their support and help them cultivate successful customer service policies. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are an ISO27001 certified development company with 15+ years of development experience. We build products that you can customize according to your present and future needs. <h3 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.04545; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: -19pt 0pt 8pt 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Article is Originally Published On:</h3> <h3 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.04545; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: -19pt 0pt 8pt 0pt; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.deskxpand.com/blog/effective-customer-service-policies/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.deskxpand.com/blog/effective-customer-service-policies<span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">/</a></h3>