Good customer service is essential to retaining your participants and increasing income. Superior customer service will be so noticeable among your customers that it will enhance your image and separate your program from your competitors.

The irony about all the talk about customer service these days is that it appears that customer service is actually declining and people are getting worse service. And when they do find good customer service, they return, enroll more often, and praise your organization.
Customer service may be particularly timely now when only about 20% of your customers give you 80% of your income. Your best customers value customer service even more than the average participant.

3 Keys to Good Customer Service

1. Speed.
A same-day turnaround time for almost all customer service requests is mandatory. Not only does the customer expect a same-day or 24 hour turnaround time, but taking longer costs your organization much more in staff time, redundancy, and mistakes.
2. Accuracy.
The most wasteful use of your staff time is in fixing mistakes that should not have happened. Get it right the first time. Your customers will appreciate it. And you can shift valuable staff time from fixing mistakes to increasing service.
3. Customer advocacy.
Your front line staff should advocate for the customer. Advocating for the customer, putting the customer first, going out of the way for the customer, is essential.

For more great information on Best Practices in Customer service, download LERN's free white paper "Customer Service is Key - Again."