Some more great takeaways from the Conference Board event on Customer Service….5 Simple Steps for Creating a Culture Where Customer Service and Experience Is King:

1. Define success in an actionable way – Every company has something in their vision, mission or values that talks about creating a great customer experience. The organizations that are successful at achieving this break it down into meaningful actions, that are relevant to the day to day job activities…..providing not just a “what” but also a “how to.”

2. Track success through regular measurement – by the time your customer satisfaction scores are low, the damage is done. Identify the early warning indicators of success (or failure) and measure and track them so you can course correct along the way. Social media can be a great early warning system of what is going right, or not, long before you see it in your data.

3. Leaders must walk the talk – Ed Reilly of the AMA said it best “There is no substitute for unfiltered information.” CEO’s and leaders that work on the front line – for real, not for a reality TV show – who take customer service calls and are active and involved on an operational level on a regular basis have a real understanding of the issues. And because they are demonstrating the desired behaviors – not just talking about them – their team understands that this is a serious mandate and not a values statement to hang on the wall.

4. Make sure that all employees understand their role in customer service – not just customer contact employees. Customer delight begins with a great product (design and development and production), that is available where and when they want it (production, sales and inventory management).

5. Align performance measurement with these goals – You need to reward employees for the things that are important to your organization…and really, what could be more important than exceeding your customer’s expectations.

Simple to say. Harder to do.

Carreen Winters can be reached at cwinters@mww.com

cwinters General Corporate Conference Board, culture