Developing a Customer Service Vision

When you don’t know where you are going, it is really hard to get there. Delivering exceptional customer service starts with defining a clear and motivating vision of what you want to become. This is referred to as a customer service vision, without it, your employees can’t have a clear direction as to what to do for sure to ensure service standards are met.

How can you reach your destination if you don’t know where you are going?

The Customer Service Vision is what every employee, regardless of their department, or level must deliver to all Customers every time.
Note that a Customer Service vision is different from a company’s mission or purpose statements (read the differences here)

A strong customer service vision should have these traits:

  • It is easy to remember & understand – When employees read this vision they should know what it means & figure out what to do,
  • It is measurable, observable and trainable
  • It is aligned with core values of your brand
  • It is motivating & engaging – Employees should read this vision and say – Yes! That is who we’re going to be.

How can you develop a Customer Service Vision?

Customer service & employee training expert Jeff Toister lists the following steps in developing a customer service vision –

#1. Get feedback from your employees

The first step in developing a CSV (Customer Service Vision) is to answer the following questions:

  1. Who are my customers & what do they want from me & my organization?
  2. What do we do to serve these Customers?
  3. How do we want our Customers to feel about our service?

Have employees answer these questions, they help in identifying what your current customer service ideals are, and what they should be (vision).

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#2. Assemble A Team To Write The Vision

Image: huffpost.com

Assemble a small team of employees that can brainstorm on great vision statements for your company, from the feedback from your employees, you should have a pretty good idea of what your Customer service vision should look like. Brainstorm with the team and pick out the best statement that meets up with the traits of a strong customer service vision mentioned earlier.

#3. Share The New Vision With Employees

Share the CSV with all employees and ensure they all understand it. Now incorporate it into everything from daily work to customer service training, let leadership live the vision and promote it in their words and actions. Let it become

This is the one statement I want every employee in the organization to be able to recite and know backwards and forwards

–  John R. DiJulius III


Additional tools…

Customer service & employee training expert Jeff Toister has created this worksheet that will assist you in developing a solid customer service vision for your organization.

Kelechi Okeke
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