The Seven Elements of Exceptional Customer Service Related Articles The Key Elements of a CX Lifecycle and Ways to Improve It What Is Exceptional Customer Service? Seven Tips to Avoid Dead Air Time in Customer Service Calls 2020 Survey Report: Is Your Contact Centre Delivering Exceptional Customer Service? 3,233 Filed under - Business Insights, Customer Service, CX A journalist recently contacted me, posing a single question: “What makes good customer service?” This was my response: Let’s start with a definition: Customer service is a voluntary act that demonstrates a genuine desire to satisfy, if not delight, a customer. Within this definition are seven elements that are key to consistently providing exceptional customer service: 1. Voluntary: Exceptional customer service is predicated on a service provider’s willingness to take initiative and expend discretionary effort in the moment of choice. 2. Act: Service is a verb, requiring action. 3. Demonstrates: Exceptional customer service reflects job essence, a service provider’s highest priority at work, in words and actions. 4. Genuine: Exceptional customer service is authentic. Service providers do not mask their true feelings; they actualize them. 5. Desire: Service providers must want to deliver exceptional customers service. While there are things they have to do (job functions), delivering exceptional customer service isn’t one of them. You can’t force an employee to provide exceptional customer service any more than you can force a customer to be loyal. 6. Satisfy, if not delight: Attempting to delight customers by exceeding their expectations in every case is exhausting and unsustainable. In everyday service situations, most customers simply want to be acknowledged, appreciated, and have their expectations met. 7. Customer: The purpose of a business is to create a customer who keeps creating more customers through referrals, testimonials, and positive reviews. The opposite of exceptional customer service is not poor customer service, it’s indifferent customer service. This occurs when service providers simply execute job functions (within a transactional, process-focused work environment), disconnected from job purpose, treating each customer like the previous customer until the end of another boring and monotonous shift. Don’t settle for ordinary. Choose extraordinary. (It’s always a choice.) Author: Jonty Pearce Published On: 11th Sep 2017 - Last modified: 17th Apr 2024 Read more about - Business Insights, Customer Service, CX Recommended Articles The Key Elements of a CX Lifecycle and Ways to Improve It What Is Exceptional Customer Service? Seven Tips to Avoid Dead Air Time in Customer Service Calls 2020 Survey Report: Is Your Contact Centre Delivering Exceptional Customer Service? Related Reports Guide: Five Steps to Mastering Conversation Intelligence eBook: Generative AI and the Contact Center of the Future White Paper: Counting the Cost of CX for Financial Services Contact Centers Webinar Replay: How to Excel at Managing and Exceeding Customer Expectations Contact Centre Reports, Surveys and White Papers Get the latest exciting call centre reports, specialist whitepapers and interesting case-studies. Choose the content that you want to receive. Contact Centre Reports, Surveys and White Papers Invites to Webinars & Events Weekly Newsletter