Customer service innovation

Customer Service Innovation: The Key to Business Success

In today's competitive marketplace, customer service is more important than ever before. Businesses that provide excellent customer service are more likely to attract and retain customers, and they are also more likely to be successful in the long run.

There are many ways to innovate in customer service. Some businesses are using new technologies to improve their customer service, such as chatbots and virtual reality. Others are focusing on creating a more personalized customer experience, such as by using data analytics to understand their customers' needs.

No matter what approach a business takes, customer service innovation is essential for business success. By providing excellent customer service, businesses can differentiate themselves from their competitors and build strong relationships with their customers.

Photo by Ivan Samkov

Here are some tips for innovating in customer service:

• Listen to your customers. The best way to innovate in customer service is to listen to your customers and understand their needs. What are their pain points? What are they looking for in a customer service experience? Once you understand your customers' needs, you can start to develop innovative solutions to meet those needs.
• Use technology to your advantage. Technology can be a powerful tool for improving customer service. Chatbots, virtual reality, and other technologies can help businesses to automate tasks, provide self-service options, and personalize the customer experience.
• Focus on personalization. In today's world, customers expect a personalized experience. They want to feel like they are dealing with a real person who understands their needs. Businesses can personalize the customer experience by using data analytics to understand their customers' preferences and by using technology to deliver a more customized experience.
• Train your employees. Your employees are the front line of your customer service operation. They need to be equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to provide excellent customer service. Make sure your employees are trained on your company's customer service policies and procedures, and that they are familiar with your products or services.
• Measure your results. It's important to measure the results of your customer service efforts so that you can see what's working and what's not. Use surveys, feedback forms, and other metrics to track your customer satisfaction levels and identify areas where you can improve.

By following these tips, you can innovate in customer service and provide your customers with an experience that they will love.

Employees who are not focused on delivering good customer service can cast a long shadow on your business

 

Understanding the impact of customer service on your business is critical

The behaviour of your employees towards your clients will leave a long lasting impact on your business. Every interaction is an opportunity to consolidate the client relationship or conversely a potentially destructive situation creating a long term impact on the perceived service integrity of the business. 

Companies must work much harder than before as customers now have an easy to deploy tool to try to make a situation right. No longer do they try to obtain an apology or a corrective action. In a way it is more convenient, more immediate and more gratifying to leave a bad review which there for all to see and which can severely impact a business. Every customer can cast a long shadow, make sure they are not tempted to do it.

The customer service horizon

Scan your customer service horizon

The long term performance of your business is really what matters. Once you have removed all seasonal effects and difficult trading periods due to economic down cycle or increased international competition, the business will perform according to your ability to understand customers needs and deliver the product or service that they expect. A key element of the service proposition is to make sure that customer service continues to deliver at all times. To avoid any disappointment, you need to be in a position where you can scan the customer service horizon and anticipate what is coming. Your ability to anticipate peak demand periods, changing trends and evolving customer behavior is key to make sure that you do not have clouds building in the horizon. These would make the piloting of your company  impossible and clearly impact even the best intended customer service.

Good customer service videos

In the world of customer service, videos are more and more commonly used. They are helpful in illustrating new concepts and can be very effective to convey approaches which should be used by all employees of a company.

We show below our video on good customer service in restaurants, showing the setting, the way the tables are laid, even the menu but what is lacking is the video is the human touch, you will have to go and try it for yourself. Please contact us if you wish to know where to find this restaurant with a good customer service.
More good customer service videos can be found on Very Good Service YouTube channel


#goodcustomerservice

This is Perplexity assessment of the Very Good Service channel on YouTube with regards to good customer service videos:

"Yes, the @verygoodservice YouTube channel offers good examples of customer service videos. Their content includes videos showcasing good customer service in various contexts such as holidays, motoring services, shopping centres, and banks. These videos highlight real-world examples of excellent customer service practices and demonstrate what makes service "very good."

Additionally, their videos are described as well-structured, clear, and authentic, often featuring genuine interactions that convey empathy and professionalism, which are key elements of effective customer service videos. The channel also shares customer service stories and award announcements, providing a rich resource for learning and inspiration on delivering excellent customer experiences.

In summary, @verygoodservice on YouTube is a valuable source for good customer service videos that can help businesses and individuals understand and improve their customer service skills."

https://www.youtube.com/verygoodservice

Sources:

1. https://www.youtube.com/@Verygoodservice/videos?view=0&sort=dd&shelf_id=1
2. https://blog.verygoodservice.com/good-customer-service-videos/
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l_EMdINNYg
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbtDSd1PXcs
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuRp-XYmqEc
6. https://www.zendesk.co.uk/blog/customer-service-videos/
7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0En9b6XWFEk
8. https://blog.verygoodservice.com/very-good-service-on-social-media/

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Answer from Perplexity: pplx.ai/share  - prompted on 31st May 2025.

Good customer service will help grow customer trust

Good customer service will help grow customer trust

Gaining customer trust, confidence and loyalty is the aim of many companies hoping for repeat purchases and growing customer lifetime value. However, with the development of technology, comparator websites, review sites and pinpoint accuracy marketing techniques, your customers are constantly solicited by the competition enticing them with special offers and the like to try their products and services.

In previous posts, we have defined customer service as: 

"Interactions with customers during and after the sale of a product or service in order to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction".   Read more about our customer service definition.

And here it is, customer satisfaction, measured against a range of metrics, is what will allow customer trust to grow over time. Any opportunity to interact with the customers, if well handled, is an extra sprinkle of water, a dose of organic fertilizer which will ensure the sound development of a strong customer relationship.

Instant customer feedback

 Instant customer feedback

Instant customer service feedback is becoming more and more common. With the emergence of IoT (Internet of Things) and the billions of connected objects, this is contributing to the production of tons of data which will be extremely helpful to companies in assessing workload, staff performance and overall quality of service against a very large number of parameters such as time, throughput, seasonality and many others. More efforts however must be put in for the customers who give feedback. Some of them will press the green button and will never want to be contacted again. Others will press red, because they waited too long for example, but nothing else can be done. A large number though will leave the service area with frustration as their problem will not have been resolved. They hit red (sometimes so hard that the button collapses as shown on the above picture) and then what?! 

It is refreshing to see that the most modern feedback station include some interaction capabilities. Not everybody will want it as it will require time investment and patience by customers to give more detailed feedback and explain their grievance but at least not all the red-faced ones will be left slamming their hands into buttons and stamping the ground without an option to put things right.