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What is Good Customer Service? 4 Tips to Exceed Customer Expectations [Definition Post]

By Ellen Christenberry | Learning & Development | Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes

As customer expectations continue to soar, company leaders like you want to ensure they deliver good customer service. But what is good customer service, and how do companies achieve it?

We’re reviving our Definition Series to explain what good customer service looks like in a successful contact center, all in a few hundred words for the busy manager.

What is good customer service?

Good customer service means providing reliable, knowledgeable, and friendly help to your customers in a way that values their time and meets–or exceeds–their expectations.

The strength of a company’s customer service has a tremendous impact on customer loyalty and company success. While there are endless ways to experiment and achieve great CX, these are a few best practices that guarantee good customer service.

1. Developing your agents

Your agents are a big reason your customers choose to do business with you. In fact, most customers remain loyal to a company because of friendly customer service reps. So, prioritizing your agents’ training, skills, and well-being is mission-critical to achieving good customer service.

Your agents need to be knowledgable about your products and services, so it’s important to train them well. Identify weak areas in your agents’ knowledge and customer technique, then develop ways to strengthen them.

Coach your agents in empathy and effective communication skills. Leave feedback on their interactions to steer them in the right direction. Cheer them on when they’re doing well, and step in to help when they need extra support.

2. Providing speedy service

Some 80% of American customers say speed is the most important aspect of a positive customer experience. Delivering efficient responses to customer questions and complaints keeps your company ahead of the curve. Exceed expectations by getting ahead of customer frustrations with proactive service. Show your customers you value their time by improving slow processes and being transparent about delays. And, if you can’t answer their questions quickly, offer up alternative options to solve their problems.

3. Streamlining your processes and teams

Customers expect companies to feel unified. They can tell when company departments are siloed and don’t communicate well with each other. And they grow frustrated when they have to repeat their questions with every agent interaction.

Companies that invest in the tools to streamline processes see 35% higher customer satisfaction rates. Agents are more efficient when they have easy access to pertinent customer information and when they aren’t toggling between systems. Plus, customers are happier with more saved time.

4. Helping customers help themselves

Customers appreciate when they can solve their problems on their own. And, most customers expect to use multiple communication channels for help, especially when phone calls lead to long wait times.

Accessibility is one of the keys to good customer service. The simplest way to make your service more accessible is to adopt an omnichannel strategy to meet customers’ needs.

While complicated issues may require a phone call, your customers can often solve simpler questions using other channels, like a knowledge base. Offering helpful FAQs on your website and bots to answer quick questions gives your customers self-help options & eases pressure on your agents.