There is a lot written about customer service. There are books, talks, videos online and courses you can take. Just about everyone is an expert on the subject because everyone has experienced bad customer service. I am not a customer service expert. I’m one of the people who have experienced bad service and thought long and hard about what good service to me and my customers.

In my career, I have had to deal with customers online, in retail stores, end-consumers, CEOs as clients, event managers and everything in between. I have serviced customers well and I have serviced customers terribly.

Here’s the simplest method that I have learned to ensure you are offering up the best service to your customers:

1. Define what you are going to give your customers (internal)

2. Set their expectations (external)

3. Deliver (internal ➩ external)

That’s it.

These three steps a customer service strategy that just about anyone can deliver on.

Step 1: Define what you are going to give your customers

The first part of the three-step process is internal.

This is not as simple as you might initially think. Everyone assumes that good customer service always looks the same but that’s not true. For some businesses that means delivering fast service. For others, it means answering a call in a minute or two. For many brands, “always-on” is key and they ensure that you can get hold of them at any time in the day. For a fast-food delivery joint good customer service could mean delivering food while it’s still warm.

The internal process of defining exactly what you are going to give your customers is fundamental. I’m shocked at how few businesses can clearly tell me what they offer up to their customers. This is such an important part of the method because it helps you outline your internal processes in relation to the desired victory condition for your customer.

If you are going to decide to answer calls from customers then you need a phone number for them to call and a person to answer. If you’re going to ensure that your website has 100% uptime then you need sufficient infrastructure to make this happen.

When defining what you specifically want to deliver to your customer in the way of service it’s imperative to look at your internal resources and think about how you’ll deliver the same level of service in the future. Not all customer service is made equal.

Is your plan in line with your brand? Maybe being polite isn’t the best route to represent your particular voice? A great example of this kind of thinking is a cellphone case and skin brand called dbrand.

“overpriced electronic tape…” dbrand knows themselves.

Their social media is filled with what other brands would consider horrible service. Cheeky responses, aggressive replies to irate customers and straight-talking, no-bullshit honesty with a tongue firmly planted in someone else’s cheek for good measure.

Here’s an example of what I mean:

This is precisely what I mean when I say that you should define internally what kind of service you are delivering.

Make sure that everyone in your business knows what success looks like and then get ready to rumble!

Step 2: Set their expectations

Setting expectations is very much an external process. This means that much of the work required is telling the customer what they can expect from you. It’s important that your team is constantly made aware of the expectations too, but this is mostly covered in step one above.

The key part of delivering on my three-pronged customer service strategy is setting your customers expectations right from the start. Do not ease into it, do not renege on your promise, do not waiver from your goals. Everyone needs to get on board and go for the goal, every day.

It’s also important at this point to actually state openly the kind of service you expect to deliver to your customer. Use your FAQ page, use blog posts, use your social media bios and literally spell out what you’re going to give customers.

“Expect a cheeky reply from us within 5 working days.” If customers see this then that’s what they expect, no more, no less.

This part of the method requires external communication that is clear, consistent and repetitive.

Tell them what you’re going to give them. ➩ Give it to them. ➩ Remind them what you said you were going to give them.

Simple.

Step 3: Deliver

Once you have publicly stated what kind of customer service you’re going to deliver, you better damn well deliver on exactly what you promise. Anything less than that and you’re in trouble.

dbrand goes to great lengths to consistently deliver on their promise. They rarely waiver, if ever, and their customers shower them with love, RTs and fan frenzy.

The Delivery step is broken out into two parts: internal and external.

Internally you need to ensure that you are geared up to deliver on your promise in whichever way is required. This is why the initial step is so key. Figure out what you’re going to deliver in the most minute of details and then deliver exactly that. Realign your company if you have to. Do whatever it takes to make sure that you are able to deliver on your initial promise.

Overall, customers just want to be treated the way they expect to be treated. So set their expectations in line with your abilities. Do not over-promise, that’s a rookie mistake. Always, always under-promise and over-deliver.

—

Nic Haralambous is an obsessive entrepreneur and keynote speaker. You can book him for your next conference, sign up for his newsletter or follow him on Twitter.

Photo by Chromatograph on Unsplash