What is customer service philosophy?

Definition: Customer service philosophy is a set of guiding principles and beliefs that businesses use when interacting with customers. More precisely, these predefined guidelines are the framework that influences all decisions and actions during customer service.

By having a customer service philosophy, businesses ensure customers get a consistent, memorable, and unique customer experience. For example, Amazon’s customer service philosophy is“ customers first,” which aligns with their decisions to offer 24/7 customer support and a lenient return policy.

How to create and write a customer service philosophy?

Statement

The first step is crafting a clear, concise, and precise statement that defines the company’s overall approach to customer service. The statement directly reflects the company’s commitment to customer service and sets the tone for customer expectations.

An example of a statement is,“ We are committed to delivering exceptional customer service that builds strong relationships with our customers.” This statement prompts customer service agents to be attentive to customer needs and provide personalized experiences.

It also implies that the company needs to ensure the agents have all the tools and knowledge they need to deliver exceptional service.

Mission

The company’s customer service philosophy needs to align with the company’s mission. In the second step, the company needs to define how the philosophy supports its mission and contributes to the general business objective.

An example of a mission is“ Our mission is to provide innovative solutions, so our customer service needs to be top-notch.”

This mission implies that customer service agents need to have a creative mindset and provide tailored solutions to customer needs, and companies should give them more freedom when making decisions.

Vision

The third step is developing a vision for the company’s customer service that follows the company’s long-term goals. The company defines what they want their customer service to look like in the future and the steps needed to get there.

For example,“ Our vision is to become industry leaders in customer service, and thus we will deliver memorable experiences to our customers.” This vision implies that the company has committed to being customer-centric and improving over time. Customer support agents are urged to focus on customer experience by listening to them and meeting their needs.

Values

The company’s values underpin the customer service philosophy, so when companies prioritize values like empathy and respect, customers are more likely to feel respected and heard. If the company's customer service philosophy emphasizes values such as empathy and respect, the agents are encouraged to listen to customers needs patiently.

Service standards and goals

Once the essential things are written down, the company focuses on more practical things, such as service standards and goals in terms of response time, problem resolution, and satisfaction scores. “ Our service standard includes a response time of 5 hours and a resolution rate of 95%”.

Actionable steps

The last step in crafting a customer service philosophy is writing down actionable steps for customer support agents to ensure all customers receive consistent and unique support. Examples of actionable steps:

Always address customers by their first name
Actively listen and ask follow-up questions
Follow up with customers after the issue has been resolved