In customer service, tiny improvements matter

Business leaders are often trained to think big, analyze the overarching narrative, and place more weight on the bigger picture. When we talk of process improvement, however, even the tiniest tweaks matter.

Take for example customer service. Customer relations experts know that there’s no quick formula to improve the way they deliver support to their clientele. The process is long, research-heavy, painful, and difficult to implement. It’s also marred with trial and error, as not every technique used is sure to yield desirable results.

So managers keep refining their process until something clicks. And along the way, they may need to repeatedly substitute one technique for another, monitor and evaluate each, and then look for another solution in case the one in place doesn’t work.

This makes customer support strategy overhauls largely impossible. In processes as critical and complex as customer service, the best we can do is to focus on small and incremental changes. The problem is, many leaders are averse to this.

Why many managers don’t like small changes

Minor tweaks are not often noticeable. And in today’s business landscape, wherein everybody expects fast and impressive results, we can understand why many prefer flashy and bold decisions. The downside is, you can never be a hundred percent sure that a grand strategy will work. In the event that it doesn’t, you expose your company to more risks and vulnerabilities.

In contrast, making small changes feels more comfortable. Fine-tuning the tinier aspects of your processes is a more calculated move, as opposed to building a brand new strategy from scratch.

Improving your customer support processes

Take a good, close look at the way you deliver your customer service. Ask yourself, “What can be done to make our performance just a tiny bit better? Can we solve problems just a tiny bit faster? Can we tell our agents to possibly sound a bit cheerier on the phone?”

The same thing goes for employee engagement. As only happy employees can make customers happy, this is another aspect worth paying attention to. What daily habits can you change to be better at managing your team? Is it possible to give more compliments when they’re due? Should you smile more to your employees and be warmer toward them?

At first glance, these may not look like much. You may not notice it initially, but small adjustments pile up into a good customer experience. By looking at the smallest aspects of your services, you can identify instantly actionable ways to improve your performance even just by a tiny bit.

Consistency is key.

Over time, these tiny improvements can make your brand stand out. By building good habits, you would appear more reliable and trustworthy. You’d be able to keep your customers satisfied with a high-quality customer service that gets better every time. Just make sure to communicate your desired changes to all your call center agents to onboard everyone onto your performance improvement strategy.