Marketing Donut's Customer Service Manifesto for small businesses

Marketing Donut's Customer Service Manifesto for small businesses

At the start of the week we asked you to put forward your key ideas for a best practice customer service manifesto that small businesses should adopt and you didn’t let us down. Below are the best tips that any small firm should abide by, not on occasion but all the time. Thank you very much to everyone who contributed.

 

“Great customer service as a standard, not a bonus.” 

 

 

Our basic core principles are built on:

Listening. By @picseli

Being nice, being helpful and being there. By @RealTrevorLever

Honesty. By @Web_D

Thinking about how we would wish to be treated in the customer’s position. By short couture

Understanding the context of our customers. How does your service affect their life/business? By @tazbride

Good communication and respect for your customers. By @atkirby 

 

In our endeavours to provide a first rate customer service, we will:

Show that we appreciate their business. Say thank you once in a while. By @SonjaJefferson

Think of our customers' needs. Focus on their problems and make ourselves invaluable. By @SonjaJefferson

Care (and don't just pretend). By Digital Jonathon

Treat our customers as we would like to be treated. Call when we say we will, even if we have nothing new to tell them. By @nigel_dean

Act fast, speak truth, admit mistakes, undertake to fix and follow through fast...do NOT pass the buck! By @DebraTemplar

 

In improving our existing customer service offering, we will:

Acknowledge it is OK to make mistakes but crucially, to learn from them. Be genuine and humble in our apology. By @jamesainsworth

Communicate in ways they appreciate. Find out how they want to hear from us. Don't spam. By @SonjaJefferson

Be reliable. Do what we say we'll do or be honest when we can't. By @SonjaJefferson

Measure our success - get regular feedback from customers on our service quality. By @benpopps

 

To ensure that our high standards of customer care are uniform across our business, we will:

Be consistent. By Will Stone

Give authority to ALL staff to fix problems for customers without miles of red tape. By @DebraTemplar

Provide multiple contact channels. Customers are different and have diff contact preferences. By @benpopps

Empower front line team to recover service without having to go to a 'supervisor' - give a budget and ensure they spend it. By @michellecarvill

Incentivise 'extra mile' service from staff. By @benpopps

 

To keep up with the competition and to go the extra mile in a way a larger business can not, we will:  

Always be thinking about what we can do that their larger competitors can't. By Andrew McMillan

Treat every customer as an individual. By Chris W

Adopt proactive communication...at beginning, middle and end of service delivery. By @benpopps

Transparency helps in customer service - if we are open and honest customers often feel they can trust more. By @ronkelawal

Stay in touch. Too many businesses chase new business when existing customers are much more valuable. By @mickdickinson

Have a phone number so a customer can contact a real person directly. By @yBCmels

The quicker a caller speaks to a real person the better, even if they gone on hold/into a queue after that. By @jakepjohnson

 

Have we missed anything important? Please share your thoughts and comments with us in the box below.