Today, especially with the risks posed by scammers and fraudsters on the web, crafting a robust customer service charter with legal security can be quite intricate.

It will, for certain, involve several pivotal steps so charter management can be somehow relieved, not only of safety but of compliance, as well. In this guide, you’ll find some actionable insights tailored to experts in the field.

Your Customer Service Charter Strategies

1.   Navigating Compliance Assessment Waters

Your every strategy has to begin by conducting a thorough review of whether you’ve used all means to understand your customers and have complied with all of the relevant laws and regulations that cover all about customer service, like:

• Thorough Review of Laws and Regulations

You need to meticulously examine all applicable statutes and regulations affecting customer service operations.

• Alignment with Legal Requirements

What about your customer service policies and practices? Are they still aligned and compliant (remember your report dues?) with the provisions outlined in your state laws and regulations?

• Focus on Consumer Rights and Data Protection

You are and will be what your customers or consumers will make of you. So it’s best to ensure and pay particular attention to related laws in consumer rights, data protection, privacy, and any other legislation, and you’ll surely fare well.

• Mitigation of Legal Risks

With a comprehensive legal compliance assessment on your desk, you can proactively identify and address these potential risks before they blow out of hand.

• Enhanced Trust and Transparency

In a business as competitive as yours, ensuring that you continue to demonstrate your commitment to legal compliance can enhance customer and allied firms’ trust in your transparency. It can also help reinforce your reputation for ethical conduct in doing business.

• Continuous Monitoring and Adaptation

Hey, change can be the only thing constant in your field, so regularly reviewing and updating your customer service policies will help reflect changes in laws, regulations, and your industry’s best practices in your day to day business.

2.   Expert Legal Guardianship

When going through elements for a customer service charter that exceed traditional norms, it’s best to work it out with legal experts. Their expertise can go beyond standard expectations and may provide insights into often overlooked facets, such as employee protection and accountability.

You can have policies where employees are encouraged to reach out to private law firms, like Vaughan & Vaughan, for their concerns, whether job-related injuries or not. This way, you could spearhead the norm of full employee support and be known for exceeding industry standards.

Your assistance will not only be limited to providing support, like grievance committees and other employee support groups but also encouraging them to be aware and protective of their rights and claims-their way.

3.   Blueprinting Customer Service Excellence

In policy development, like a building’s blueprint, you need to craft customer service guidelines that fulfill legal obligations and customer expectations. These policies could balance well with your legal compliance and your drive for customer satisfaction. They’ll ensure and enhance the overall customer experience, making your hope for a return purchase and increase in engagement a reality.

So, by drafting comprehensive and relatable policies, like product returns, exchanges, and/or refunds, you can uphold legal standards while delivering exceptional service. It could also include relatable language and scenarios to make sure customers understand their rights and responsibilities.

This will make it easier for your consumers to navigate the process and feel confident in their interactions and transactions with you, further stepping up customer experience.

4.   Mastering Integrity in Documentation and Record-Keeping

For effective compliance and accountability, your enterprise can implement competent systems for documenting customer interactions, complaints, and resolutions. These company records will not only ensure your adherence to regulations and legal standards but also facilitate transparency and accountability within your organization.

As you strive to establish these comprehensive documentation practices, you can confidently navigate other compliance and legal requirements. At the same time, you can efficiently address customer or client concerns promptly and effectively.

5.   Elevating Customer Service Standards

To make sure you exercise effective implementation of your sector’s legal requirements, you can provide targeted training programs, like customer service excellence seminars, and customer data protection and protocols.

Your team will not only be provided with essential knowledge and skills, but with these programs, they could also focus on legal compliance, customer interaction techniques, customer data policies, and conflict resolution strategies.

Bottom Line

In crafting a customer service charter with legal security, these key steps could well drive you to your target–excellence. Through meticulous policy development, robust documentation, and comprehensive training, you can ably navigate legal complexities while fostering customer and employee trust and loyalty.

Embracing these principles will guide you to a culture of integrity and dependability, ensuring compliance and enhancing customer satisfaction for you and your organization.

While on a client engagement, I could hear customer service personnel repeatedly apologizing to customers. When asked why, they informed me of a scenario where customers make purchases and are promised a 24hr installation of the product by one department, when in fact, the department in question had no idea if the promise could be met.

The customer was stuck in the middle between the sales department and the installation department. It’s important to remember to make sure your customer’s experience is as seamless as possible.

Let’s look at three ways to accomplish this feat.

Establish Customer – Focused Policies

When developing policies and procedures for customer service personnel to follow, it’s important to remember to get their input. After all, they’re being held accountable for both adhering to the policy and providing a great customer experience. They know what drives the customer crazy about your company’s policies and procedures.

For instance – if your company has a product return policy, be sure to take into consideration how this will impact both customers and customer service personnel. Will you allow returns for specific reasons? Make sure the customer is fully aware of your return policy when they make a purchase. If your customer purchases your product online, make sure that your return policy is prominently displayed on the page where the purchase is completed. Will you allow blanket returns – or in other words – can they just bring it or send it back for whatever reason? Think about this – Do your policies make sense? Are they easily understandable by customers? Will they encourage repeat business? Will they incent customers to refer your company to potential customers? These are some issues to consider when developing policies and procedures.

Create Employee Autonomy

Often times the customer ends up in the middle of your policies when customer service personnel are not provided with the power to make decisions. When working with a hospitality client recently, it became apparent that front desk personnel were not equipped with options to deal with a variety of situations they faced when dealing with hotel guests. After about 15 minutes of identifying issues which required they contact either the hotel general manager or assistant general manager, we were able to create options that could be utilized without the need to contact anyone. The front desk personnel were visibly relieved upon the completion of this exercise as they could now feel good about their ability to make decisions that were both good for guests and for the hotel. Give customer facing personnel options that can be executed autonomously. It’s a good idea for both customers and customer facing personnel.

Communicate Internally

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, it’s of the utmost importance to make sure that there is good cross functional communication within your company. Make sure that everyone understands how their roles impact other employees, departments, etc. Your customer need not be caught in the middle due to poor communication within your company. The goal should be to ensure that the customer receives a great experience. This requires setting customer expectations that are achievable by personnel who will actually perform what the customer requires.

When developing policies and procedures that impact customers, remember to get input from all departments that contribute to and or participate in the process of providing a great customer experience. As my Dad used to say – “Everything you do affects someone else. You do nothing in isolation.” One should never hear this statement from a customer – “It seems as though you all do not communicate with each other there.” If you do, it’s an indication that you probably need to work on improving internal communications.

Well, there you have it. In order to make sure your customer is not “stuck in the middle”, be sure to establish customer-focused policies, create employee autonomy and communicate internally. Doing so will lead to both great customer and employee experiences.

About the Author

Recognized as “one of seven useful Twitter people for retailers to follow” by mystery shopping experts of the UK, Customer Service Speaker, Author and Consultant Errol Allen utilizes his 25+ years of practical hands on experience to assist organizations in developing customer service strategies for maximum customer retention. Errol believes that a systems mindset is critical to an organization’s success in providing great customer experiences.

One unhappy customer will tell the world about inferior service while a happy customer rarely tells a soul.

Your challenge as a business owner is to create a buzz so positive about your products and services that your clients and customers will become your raving fans and will tell the world about you!

Your lesson for today is to put pen to paper and write a rock solid customer service policy for your business.

This policy should state explicitly how you will treat your customers at each and every turn.

By answering the following questions, you will have covered the basics of your customer service policy. Are you ready?

1. Who is your customer, and what are you doing to get to know him or her on a personal level?

Examples:

– Customer profile cards

– One employee assigned to following the wins and wows of your customers

– A bulletin board celebrating the events in the lives of your customers

2. What is your return policy, and how are customers treated when they return an item?

Use the same courtesy you used when a customer purchased an item.

3. What is your policy for returning phone calls and emails?

Customers generally want a response within 24 hours, and this policy should be stated and posted.

4. How does everyone in your company answer the telephone?

People want a cheerful voice on your end of the telephone. They also do not want a busy signal when they call.

5. What is your policy for dealing with customers during a wait?

People love special treatment. Use this time to roll out the red carpet by offering a cup of coffee, a soda, or a glass of sparkling water.

6. What is your policy for training staff on how to serve your customers?

Spend one hour, two times per month, educating your staff on how to treat your customers. This treatment could make or break your relationship with your customers.

7. What is your policy for dealing with vendors and their products?

Your vendors are a part of your company, and the quality and care, which you request from them for your customers, should be exceptional. Remember, if your vendors are not providing you with outstanding customer
service, your clients/customers will suffer.

8. If you offer a guarantee or warranty, are you honoring this?

If your customer knows that your product or service is guaranteed but there are too many loopholes that make this null and void, you will lose trust with your buyers.

9. Who is your benchmark?

Benchmarking is the continuous process of measuring products, services, and business practices of your company against the toughest and best competition in your industry. Your benchmark can be anyone and does not have to be restricted to your local region. What is the best company in your field doing that you are not doing or that you can do better?

10. What is your policy for dealing with customer complaints?

People do not want excuses from you regarding poor service. They want help, and they want words that are empathetic such as “I can tell you are disappointed. I am so very sorry. Let me see if I can help you out of this jam.” If a customer thinks there is a problem, there is a problem. A customer is always right even when he or she is wrong.

11. What is your shipping policy (if you ship products)?

People want quick delivery, and they want their product delivered in impeccable condition. Work this out on paper and be prepared to tell a customer with confidence that he or she will receive the product quickly and in great shape!

12. How do you keep a client updated when an item is on backorder?

Keep the lines of communication open by sending frequent updates on the status of a customer’s wait.

13. What are your hours of operation?

This seems simple, but it is very important. People want to know when you are open and when you are closed. Post these on your website and add them to your voice mail greeting.

14. What are the 20 ways that you add value to your customers?

Do you offer private sales?

Do you offer discounts to current customers?

Do you invite your customers in to sample new products and services before the general public gets a peek?

Do your best to come up with at least 20 ways that you add value to your services, and deliver those with a wonderful attitude?

Do you offer a kid’s corner, Valet parking, a Concierge service, or something that makes your customers go WOW?

Think creatively on this question, and come up with at least 20 ways you add value to the life of your buyers. This could be something as simple as special soap in the restrooms or the most current selection of magazines in your waiting area.

15. How often do you use customer satisfaction surveys to improve your business?

Surveys are a great way to find out what is on the minds of your customers so begin thinking about what it is that you want to know that will improve the effectiveness of your company.

About the Author

Alicia Smith is a professional Coach and Trainer. © Copyright by Alicia Smith

Many organizations, when faced with a difficult customer situation may succumb to the tendency to “just let this one go,” allowing the customer to leave rather than make an exception to a rigid policy to accommodate the particular situation.

But this kind of short-sighted approach can have long-term implications on the sustainable viability of the company. For example, a single bad experience with an airline, compounded by their unwillingness to correct the situation, could very easily convince me to avoid travelling with that airline in the future.

Of course, this would be a bad move on the airline’s part, since I am a frequent flyer. A very frequent flyer. At the time of this writing, I am about 15,000 miles shy of two million total miles in the American Airlines’ Advantage program.

Do the math with me based on the following very conservative assumptions:

• My average ticket costs $500
• I fly twice a month
• I work ten months out of the year
• I will travel at this level for 20 years

This makes my lifetime value to an airline $500 x 2 x 10 x 20, or $200,000! And, as I said, this is a very conservative estimate. Over a twenty-year period, I’ll almost certainly spend at least twice that amount, and probably more.

The point is that when you are determining the value of the customer – whether in a difficult situation or simply for planning purposes – you must look not only at the value of the current transaction, but also at the long-term cumulative value of that relationship.

Keep this in mind as you look at your customer service policies, or in the future you might find your business grounded!

About the Author

Ron Kaufman is an internationally acclaimed educator for quality service. He is author of the bestselling series “UP Your Service!” and founder of “UP Your Service College”.