Focusing on customer service in your business is very important. It is one of the three pillars of success every business should stand on. Even if you already have customer service in place, you can always make improvements. Here are four ways that you can improve your customer service department.

1. Build a single customer service statement philosophy

Your customer service representatives need something they can always come back to as their ultimate goal in serving customers. One great example of this given by Forbes is the Mayo Clinic’s phrase “The needs of the customers come first.” It is short, sweet, and to the point, and when new employees are being trained, they can be told this on day one as the ultimate goal. Every time they are struggling in any kind of service situation, they can remind themselves of that short statement philosophy of the company and make their decisions based on it. It really is a quick and easy way to make sure all of your employees are on the same page and understand the ultimate goal.

2. Teach customer service representatives essential skills

While it is nice if you can hire customer service agents who already know what to do and already know how to handle every situation properly, the truth of the matter is that you will need to teach them the skills they need for the job if you want to really help your customers properly. Teach them that smiling while on the phone can be felt on the other end by the customer, and it will improve the customer’s response to you. Teach them that while customers get angry, it is always about the situation and not them, so as a representative, they need to be able to step back and look at it from the customer’s view to try and solve the problem. Teamwork is an important skill because you can’t always do everything by yourself. And on that note, it is important that they know what they can resolve on their own and what they need to go to a manager for. You must give them the tools to succeed.

3. Use AI Chatbot when possible

AI Chatbot is the ability to have a computer recognize questions and send answers to a customer immediately. It is great for your business because you can quickly and easily resolve simple matters and the customers appreciate the clear, fast response. You can use this in texting with the customers by allowing for two-way texting communication. It can also be used on your website with live chat and on social media through messaging. Customers have become much more accustomed to talking through written channels than phone calls.

4. Refine customer service standards technology

Your customer service agents will only be as good as the technology they are provided. Your business needs to have the most updated computers and computer programs to ensure they have access to everything they need. Don’t make them put the customer on hold for 20 minutes while they wait for the slow system to load. It makes the customer angrier unnecessarily, and your employees will have a harder time doing their job the right way if they don’t have the technology necessary to succeed.