If you are a retailer, or in business of any kind in any industry how do you increase and improve customer service? How do you get the word to your teams that customer service is the #1 most important aspect of having a successful business?

A great deal has been written about customer service. There are magazine articles and books, e-books, white papers, research reports, classes and blogs on the subject and it’s safe to say there is no shortage of advice on giving quality customer service. Serving the customer is an important topic, and given the importance of keeping customers engaged, it’s amazing how many organizations still don’t get it. Too often the sales teams dealing face to face with the customer and support staff taking the calls either are not empowered to make decisions, they are not properly trained or they just don’t care. It’s sad to think that a company with a great product would not make customer service their highest priority.

Despite all that has been written about customer service, research by TARP (an organization which researches the effectiveness of customer service) and the American Customer Satisfaction Index (which ties customer service to profitability) indicates a continual decline in customer service. So, what’s the problem? Doesn’t anybody get it?

In order to ‘get it’, you have to take a serious look at how you treat customer service within your organization. In that vein, three important considerations must be looked at:

# 1: Customer service must be thought of as a leadership issue. In my opinion customer service has been on a rapid decline for the past 10 years. That being said, employees who are in their 20’s and early 30’s have not experienced good customer service, therefore they have no idea how to deliver good customer service! Reading about it, being told about, even attending training about it, are not the same as personally being on the receiving end of good customer service. So, it becomes a leadership issue. It becomes incumbent upon leadership to ensure that good customer service is modeled and rewarded. People grasp what they experience.

#2: Leadership thinks they are too busy. I think most leaders start out emphasizing great customer service. They hire people to promote that concept. But then, they get so tied up with the financial side of the business, trying to grow the business, and enjoying their success that the key to that success, great customer service gets diluted and overlooked. The Leader assumes it is happening on the front lines but they fail to ensure that it actually is.

#3: Customer service is a marketing issue. It always has been, yet often it is set aside as a separate issue. Marketing is, after all, everything you do to reach and keep customers. Therefore, any organization that commits to making customer service the focal point of its marketing strategy has an opportunity to gain a great competitive advantage. Today, organizations that understand and deliver effective customer service will stand out in a customer’s mind when compared to the poor customer service that is delivered by many organizations, even when both are selling or promoting the same items. Jeans are jeans, coffee is coffee and towels are towels.

In almost every case, when customers feel they received substandard customer service, they automatically blame the person across the counter or on the other end of the phone. However, the culpability ultimately rests on the leaders of the organization. What happens at the customer point of contact is the responsibility of upper management. If they want to keep customers the Leaders , being the Owners, District Managers or Managers need to have a better handle on what is actually happening on the front lines and they need to lead the efforts to elevate customer service.

Following are six leadership practices for improving customer service that I feel are essential:

• Be the Leader: The leaders of an organization must decide that customer service will be a top priority. They need to establish this culture at all levels. The decision will come from the top of the organization and permeate through all levels. It must be done intentionally, and with the health of the organization in mind.
• Hire the right people: The leaders will hire people who know how to work with customers. They will look for people with experience at helping customers understand the products and get the most value from their services. Leaders will look for people with a proven track record of doing the right thing for customer (which occasionally might mean referring them to another company’s product). Leaders looking to hire the right people will do everything in their power to ensure that they hire the people who will place a priority on customer service.
• Give Proper Training: As you establish a culture of customer service and hire the right people, train them to effectively work with customers and teach them how to handle difficult situations. Identify a few of the top performers and put them to work coaching others in the company. This infuses the service culture more deeply and promotes a more unified approach throughout the company. If you do not yet have people in-house who are capable, hire a coach to train your teams, and work with the coach to identify people within the organization who can extend the right principles throughout.
• Follow Up: You lead the team, you have the right people in place to do the job and you have given them the proper training. This is the point that a lot of organizations fail; there is no follow up to ensure that the plans you put in place are actually being effectively implemented. Too many leaders think that because a customer service program is on the books that it is actually being properly practiced. Follow up and evaluation is essential for success!
• Inspire them: Motivate the people in your organization — at all levels — to want to serve others. Establishing the culture of inspiring others to give outstanding customer service is a key ingredient if you want to have a successful company. Financial incentives and career advancement only go so far. When the leaders of the organization place customer service as one of their top priorities, they have the prerogative to expect everyone to do the same. Let your actions and behaviors inspire others.  As Ralph Nader said: “The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.”
• Power to the People: Finally, grant people — at all levels of the organization — the authority to make decisions. The scope and magnitude of decisions will vary by title and responsibility. The people on your team are representing the company, no ifs, ands or buts’ about it. Every person at any level should be empowered to make decisions on behalf of the organization. Start by asking leaders at all levels to make a list of five things their people can do without having to escalate to their supervisor. Place appropriate guidelines around the actions that can be taken, and trust your people to make the right decisions. When people know they work for a customer-focused organization they will give much more to their individual efforts.

Quality customer service has taken a serious backseat in organizations that are trying to stay alive and it must become more important as time moves forward. Each of these steps is critical for true customer service. It must come from the top and permeate the entire organization.

What are you doing within your business, store or organization to ensure that the customer service you give will set the standard for all others to follow?