Customer Service Business Plan Template

Finding the right customer service business plan template is the first step to creating a customer service plan. 3 min read updated on February 01, 2023

Finding the right customer service business plan template is the first step to creating a customer service plan. A customer service plan is the policy or contract that is included with the purchase of an item, typically for an additional fee. Using a template to develop the plan can help ensure all important factors have been included in the plan.

How to Create a Customer Service Plan

The first step in creating a customer service plan is to understand the needs and expectations of the customer. A proper service plan should address the client's immediate needs, as well as long-term needs. Considering both will help avoid any future issues for the customer. The next step is to utilize the feedback to create clearly defined steps for executing the service plan.

Advantages of a Customer Service Plan

There are numerous advantages to creating a customer service plan. Several of the advantages include:

  • Increased employee efficiency
  • Higher morale and employee satisfaction
  • Reduced confusion of expectations
  • Minimized stress from misunderstood expectations
  • Maintaining customer satisfaction
  • Competition with other businesses
  • Assessing customer opinions effectively
  • Creating a successful customer strategy

Steps to Create a Customer Service Strategy

1. Create a Customer Service Vision

It's important to begin by understanding the vision and customer service goals of the organization. This information should be communicated to the employees in order to help them provide the best customer service. The business should include all customer-facing employees in training that covers the expectations and company vision.

2. Assess the Customer's Needs

Assessing the needs and expectations is a vital part of business. Misunderstanding the needs of the customer, or blatantly ignoring them, can cause many problems for the business. Some of these problems includes:

  • Wasting valuable resources
  • Not meeting customer expectations
  • Not meeting customer needs
  • Creating unnecessary products or services
  • Loss of sales

There are a few ways to assess customer needs, such as sending out surveys, holding focus groups, or providing customer comment cards. Customer expectations and needs can change quickly and drastically, so it's important to pursue feedback regularly, and assess the results for changes. Using outdated feedback could be just as bad as not collecting feedback at all, or possibly even worse.

3. Hire the Right People

Not everyone has a customer service mindset, so it's important to search for potential employees who have strong customer service skills. Of course some skills can be taught through training and experience, but that's not the case in all situations. To avoid hiring delays or mistakes, the customer service expectations should be clear in the job description and verified during interviews. When going through the hiring process , managers should focus on hiring people of who already have the right skills.

4. Set Customer Service Goals

Understanding the company's goals will help the employee align their efforts with the most important areas. When employees understand how to focus their effort, they will be able to help the company achieve its overall goals . For example, if the company strives to resolve all customer service phone calls within 5 minutes, the employees should be aware of the goal and be held accountable. Creating an environment with recognition of meeting the goal is also a great way to motivate them.

5. Provide Customer Service Training to Employees

Customer service training should outline the expectations and criteria the employees should strive for. Training should be provided for all new employees. In addition, retraining should happen semi-frequently to keep the information fresh for all employees. Training should also be updated as changes are made to the expectations.

6. Hold Employees Accountable

As with providing recognition for success, it is also necessary to hold employees accountable for meeting the expectations. If employees are not meeting goals regularly, they should be notified and actions should be taken to help them achieve the goals effectively.

7. Recognize Employees for Good Service

It's important to provide recognition and feedback to the employees so they understand their situation and performance when it comes to customer service expectations. The frequency of this feedback may vary by business type, but at the very least should be given in a yearly review format.

If you need help with a customer service business plan template, you can post your legal need on UpCounsel's marketplace. UpCounsel accepts only the top 5 percent of lawyers to its site. Lawyers on UpCounsel come from law schools such as Harvard Law and Yale Law and average 14 years of legal experience, including work with or on behalf of companies like Google, Menlo Ventures, and Airbnb.

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Business Plan Template for Customer Service

Business Plan Template for Customer Service

In the fast-paced world of customer service, having a well-defined plan is essential for success. That's where ClickUp's Business Plan Template for Customer Service comes in handy!

This template is specifically designed for business owners and entrepreneurs in customer-focused industries like retail, restaurants, and call centers. It provides a comprehensive framework to define your customer service objectives, strategies, and tactics.

With ClickUp's Business Plan Template for Customer Service, you can:

  • Outline your service training programs to ensure consistent and exceptional customer experiences
  • Establish complaint resolution procedures to address customer concerns promptly and effectively
  • Implement customer satisfaction measurement strategies to gauge and improve your service quality

Don't leave your customer service success to chance. Get started with ClickUp's Business Plan Template for Customer Service and take your customer experiences to the next level!

Business Plan Template for Customer Service Benefits

A customer service business plan template can provide numerous benefits for businesses focused on customer service, including:

  • Clear definition of customer service objectives, ensuring alignment with overall business goals
  • Effective strategies and tactics to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty
  • Comprehensive training plans to equip employees with the skills and knowledge needed to deliver exceptional service
  • Streamlined complaint resolution procedures to address customer issues promptly and effectively
  • Measurement strategies to track customer satisfaction and identify areas for improvement
  • Consistent and exceptional customer experiences, leading to increased customer retention and positive word-of-mouth referrals.

Main Elements of Customer Service Business Plan Template

ClickUp’s Business Plan Template for Customer Service provides entrepreneurs and business owners in customer-oriented industries with the tools they need to create a comprehensive and effective customer service plan. Here are the main elements of this template:

Custom Statuses: Organize your tasks with statuses like Complete, In Progress, Needs Revision, and To Do, allowing you to track the progress of different action items within your customer service plan.

Custom Fields: Use custom fields like Reference, Approved, and Section to add additional relevant information to your tasks, such as document references, approval status, and categorization based on different sections of your business plan.

Custom Views: Access various views such as Topics, Status, Timeline, Business Plan, and Getting Started Guide to visualize and manage different aspects of your customer service plan. From a high-level overview of topics to a detailed timeline view, ClickUp has you covered.

Collaboration and Communication: Utilize ClickUp's collaborative features like comments, assignments, and notifications to keep your team on the same page and ensure seamless communication throughout the execution of your customer service plan.

Integrations: Connect ClickUp with other essential tools, such as communication platforms like Slack or project management tools like Jira, to streamline your workflow and improve efficiency in executing your customer service plan.

How To Use Business Plan Template for Customer Service

Crafting a comprehensive business plan for your customer service department is crucial for success. With ClickUp's Business Plan Template for Customer Service and the following steps, you can streamline your operations and elevate your customer experience:

1. Outline your customer service goals

Start by clearly defining your customer service goals. Determine what your team aims to achieve, whether it's improving response times, increasing customer satisfaction ratings, or reducing customer churn. Having specific goals will help guide your strategy and keep your team focused.

Use Goals in ClickUp to set and track your customer service targets.

2. Identify your target audience

Identifying your target audience is essential for tailoring your customer service approach. Analyze your customer base and create buyer personas to understand their needs, preferences, and pain points. This information will enable you to provide personalized support that resonates with your customers.

Utilize custom fields in ClickUp to store and categorize customer information.

3. Develop your customer service processes

Build a framework for your customer service processes. Outline how your team will handle inquiries, complaints, and requests. Determine the channels you'll use for communication, such as email, phone, or live chat. Additionally, establish guidelines for response times, escalation procedures, and customer satisfaction measurement.

Visualize your processes with a Gantt chart in ClickUp to ensure smooth and efficient operations.

4. Implement feedback and continuous improvement

To continually enhance your customer service, establish a feedback loop. Regularly gather feedback from customers through surveys, reviews, and support interactions. Analyze this feedback to identify areas for improvement and implement necessary changes to enhance your customer experience.

Automate feedback collection with Automations in ClickUp and use Dashboards to monitor customer satisfaction metrics.

By following these steps and utilizing ClickUp's Business Plan Template for Customer Service, you can build a strong foundation for your customer service department and deliver exceptional support to your customers.

Get Started with ClickUp’s Business Plan Template for Customer Service

Business owners or entrepreneurs who operate businesses focused on customer service, such as retail stores, restaurants, or call centers, can use the ClickUp Business Plan Template for Customer Service to define their customer service objectives, strategies, and tactics.

First, hit “Add Template” to sign up for ClickUp and add the template to your Workspace. Make sure you designate which Space or location in your Workspace you’d like this template applied.

Next, invite relevant members or guests to your Workspace to start collaborating.

Now you can take advantage of the full potential of this template to create a comprehensive customer service business plan:

  • Use the Topics View to organize different sections of your business plan, such as customer service objectives, strategies, and tactics
  • The Status View will help you track the progress of each section, with statuses including Complete, In Progress, Needs Revision, and To Do
  • The Timeline View will allow you to set deadlines and milestones for each section of your business plan
  • The Business Plan View provides a holistic overview of your entire customer service business plan, allowing you to see all sections at once
  • The Getting Started Guide View will help you outline the steps and resources needed to implement your customer service strategies
  • Utilize the custom fields Reference, Approved, and Section to add additional information and categorize different aspects of your business plan
  • Update statuses and custom fields as you work on each section to keep team members informed of progress
  • Monitor and analyze your customer service business plan to ensure it aligns with your overall business goals and objectives.
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business plan for customer service department

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business plan for customer service department

‘Happy customers are returning customers’ is a great saying every businessperson should keep in mind. If your business ensures customers use the products and services with a smile on their face, they are more likely to return and spend more on your business.

But things don’t always go according to plan and customers can be dissatisfied with your business. In order to salvage the situation, your business needs a good successful customer service department. If you help your customers and fix the situation, you can win back their trust and often their wallet as well.

How to Build a Successful Customer Service Department

© Shutterstock.com | Monkey Business Images

In this guide, you’ll be able to read about 1) the reasons a business needs a customer service department and 2) the steps you must take to build one as part of your business strategy . Hopefully by the end, you’ll also understand how to guarantee customer service success.

WHY DO YOU NEED A CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPARTMENT?

Many entrepreneurs and business owners still don’t put enough emphasis on customer service. This is often due to lack of understanding of the many benefits a successful customer service department will bring to the business or the brand. Customer service shouldn’t be seen in a negative light, even though your department will have to deal with some bad and negative experiences. The sooner you understand the positive value of the customer service department, the faster you’ll help your business develop and grow.

What are the key benefits a customer service department will provide for your business?

  • You’ll learn more about your product or service – no matter how much effort you’ve put on designing and developing the service or the product your business offers, things will eventually go wrong and customers won’t always enjoy what they get. But this negative feedback could often provide you with valuable information about your business and the things it offers. Customer service can receive a lot of useful information, which can then be used to develop your product and service further.
  • Your business will be financially better off – a good customer service department will naturally mean extra costs for the business, as you’ll need to hire the personnel and the systems to support the unit. But in the end, your business will enjoy much more financial benefits. First, you’ll increase sales. Harris Interactive’s study found that nearly 90% of consumers stop doing business with a business if they experience bad customer service. Provide customers a good experience and they’ll keep coming back and most likely will recommend your business to their friends and family. Second, customer service department will help save your business money by resolving issues before they turn into bigger problems. Customers who’ve had a negative influence could potentially cost your business a lot of money, not just by ruining your reputation but also by suing you for any misdemeanour. With a good customer service team, you can resolve these issues immediately and avoid long-term consequences. Finally, as mentioned above, you can develop and improve your business through customer service. There is no need to organise costly focus groups regularly, as your real-life users will be able to provide feedback about your business. The ability to tweak your products will greatly enhance the financial success of your business.

Today’s customers have a lot more choices at their disposal and better opportunities to share consumer experiences with others through social media. It is essential for a modern business to focus on customer service to ensure you provide customers more than just a service or a product. You also need to be able to tap into the positive marketing customers can help you with.

A good customer service department helps your business to focus on creating unique consumer experiences. This will provide you with the above benefits and create valuable customer relationships that will last longer and continue being more profitable over time.

THE KEY STEPS TO ESTABLISHING A GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPARTMENT

You should hopefully now understand the value and importance of customer service to your business. But anyone who has ever dealt with a customer service department knows there is bad service and then there is good service. While it is better to try something than do nothing, you can also damage your business further with inadequate service.

How can you guarantee your customer service department becomes a success and not a hindrance to your business? Here are the key steps you should do in order to establish a successful customer service department.

Establish the function of your customer service team

Before you get started with the foundations of building a customer service team, you need to think about its functions. Not all customer service units serve the same purpose and your objectives will help define the roles of your team in a more coherent manner.

You can define the function of your department by asking the following questions:

  • What is the main function of the department?
  • Will the department deal with sale issues?
  • Does it look into financial queries?
  • Is the customer service department in charge of dealing with technical problems?
  • What are the core values of my business that should drive customer service?

You might notice that certain departments in your business might already be doing certain customer service jobs. For example, your sales persons might get feedback about the product and so on.

Make sure you identify these departments and help them better answer customer needs. You want everyone in your business to know about the objectives of customer service and how to direct people towards the special unit in case problems arise.

Use your answers as a guide to defining objectives of your customer service department and each team member. You want the objectives to be all about improving the service.

Hire the right employees

A customer service department depends more than any other department on quality workforce. If your employees are not passionate about customer service and they do not have the right skills for the job, you aren’t going to succeed in your task.

The right skills will depend on the core functions you want the department to do, as well as the field your business operates in. But there are certain characteristics all customer service representatives should have.

The following skills are a great starting point to keep in mind when hiring new personnel :

  • Empathy and patience – each customer will be different and your employees need to be able to have empathy, even when the customer might be irritating. Customer service takes quite a bit of patience, as you’ll deal with customers who might be heated.
  • Ability to adapt – relating to the above point of different kinds of customers, your employee must be able to adapt quickly to new situations. In addition, the problems might be slightly different each time and you need someone who can think quickly.
  • Clear communication – employees must be able to discuss complicated issues in a clear and concise manner. This is especially important if the job requires helping with technical aspects of the service or the product. Your customers won’t be as acknowledged so clear communication is the key.
  • A sound work ethic – customer service is among the toughest jobs in the world, as you need to stay upbeat and positive at all times. It’s not an easy job by any means and your employee must have the right work ethic.
  • Plenty of knowledge of the field your business operates in, as well as the product and the service on offer – your employee must know the product and your business inside out. You’ll solve problems much quicker and provide a more confident image to the customer with appropriate knowledge.
  • Ability to swallow one’s pride – it might sound cliché but the customer is always right, even when they aren’t. A great customer service person fixes customer problems without belittling them or making them feel like a fool – even if they were the fool!
  • Great problem solving skills – another obvious point, but crucial, nonetheless. You’ll never know what type of problem your customer throws at you, so you need to be able to think fast and solve issues with speed.

Some of the above skills can naturally be developed and enhanced by training . Indeed, training is a crucial part of your customer service department and you should regularly provide employees the opportunities for self-development.

All the great companies invest in training both in improving knowledge about the business’ product or service as well as in developing soft kills such as being more mindful about one’s choice of words. You want your customer service department to continue reaching higher.

When it comes to training, you need make sure you allow employee personalities to shine. You want people who are able to think quickly and take each customer enquire as an individual case to be solved – your employees should never be trained to simply read out the procedure!

Don’t forget the Internet is a great treasure chest of self-development tools your employees can use as part of their training. For example, below is a great video about the keys to better communication:

Above all, make sure you nurture your employees’ wellbeing. You want your employees to be able to voice their problems with a manager, you want them to feel trusted and respected, and you want them to be passionate about the work. Engaged employees will automatically provide better customer service because they care about your business.

Create a solid plan for dealing with issues

You also need to create a solid structure and procedure for solving customer complaints, feedback and questions. Structure is important because it generates more coherence and confidence within the department, which in turn will help result in better customer service. If your employees are fully aware of the procedure, then they don’t need to worry about what to do next.

Coherence is essential because today’s customers aren’t going to enjoy having to wait for a reply. Many expect a customer service query to be resolved within 24 hours. Why wouldn’t you? Your customer’s life might be unexpectedly disrupted by a malfunction in your product, for instance, and you don’t want to let their disruption last for any longer than necessary.

A proper game plan for answering customer queries will help the employee solve the issue much quicker. They can act in a more professional manner because the training has already covered the particular problem and they are confident in knowing how to solve it.

Your customer service department should also have a clear system in place for the problems that require special attention. Your employees need to be able to move the problem onwards, perhaps to a high-positioned manager, swiftly in case they are unable to solve the problem. This will cut the waiting time for the customers and it can prevent the issue from escalating.

But remember that a structure should not mean your customer service should become automated. You don’t want to solve a customer enquiry by treating it as a generic problem; you want to deal with each issue as an individual case.

Measure customer service performance

A successful customer service department measures performance. Your department needs to have objectives in mind that drive better performance and these objectives should be measurable to some extent.

When you are using metrics as part of your business, make sure to understand which metrics are the most important. Some of the traditional customer service metrics such as the average handle time don’t reveal to you much about the quality of the service, only the length of the conversation.

One crucial metric to keep in mind is customer satisfaction, not just towards the product or the service, but also the customer service experience. It is important to figure out a way in which customers can provide feedback over how their case was handled. Getting back to your customer with a follow-up can show your business truly values them!

Measuring customer service performance will also help you fix the problem within your team before they escalate. In some instances, you might find that your business needs to change and redefine its objectives.

In addition, don’t focus solely on customer feedback – you also need to get feedback from your employees. It is important they are part of the solution when it comes to improving your customer service. It’s a good idea to have a regular meeting to hear what your employees think are the most challenging aspects and what they would like to change in the way the department operates.

Have the right tools for dealing with customer service queries

Finally, in order to establish a successful customer service department, you need to invest in proper technology. You need the right tools to support your employees and to guarantee customer satisfaction.

The main thing to keep in mind is that customer service comes in many different ways. Modern customers could look to contact you through various means, with the most common ones being:

  • Through your website
  • On your social media channels
  • On an online chat platform

It is important to place special attention to these new online customer service models to ensure your customers have a range of options at their disposal.

Running an online customer service department will require additional technical expertise. You want to get the right people to do each job to ensure you provide quality service without any glitches.

Options for 24/7 customer service are another important part of successful service. Customers in today’s busy world need to be able to get in touch with businesses outside of office hours. Even if your small business cannot afford to have personnel responding messages directly, you can benefit from an online form or e-mail option. For instance, with the e-mail route, you can always include an automated message to ensure your customer is instantly aware the problem is being solved.

If your business has many international customers, it is important to think how you can best help them. You don’t want your customers to have to deal with automated or written responses all the time, so it might be important to establish another department that operates in different international time zones.

The most important thing is to focus on speed without neglecting quality. You want to sort each enquire as soon as possible, but not in a hasty manner. Getting the right software and technology to do the job is an important part of guaranteeing both speed and quality.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Plenty of businesses out there continue to suffer from the consequences of having a bad customer service department. But in the time of social media and online reviews, emphasis on a good customer service has never been more important. If businesses want to succeed in a modern world, they need to build the foundations of a strong customer service with the steps mentioned above. Focus on these points will not only provide success in customer service, but will help the whole of the business to succeed.

Strong and successful customer service is essentially about creating a strong service culture in your business. It is about creating a culture of problem solving and empathy. With the above steps, you can instil the right elements to your business and ensure your customers, as well as your employees, feel how passion and gratitude at the core of your business.

business plan for customer service department

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Insight to drive subscription growth

business plan for customer service department

Establishing a Customer Service Department

Customer service, at its core, is ensuring that your customers are happy with your products and company so they will continue doing business with you. Seems simple, right? Yet it’s becoming increasingly complex as the responsibilities of customer service change, the number of customer service channels expand and customer expectations increase. When you consider that 82% of consumers have stopped doing business with a company because of bad customer service, you begin to understand the scope of the issue. Poor customer service ultimately means lost customers and lost revenue.  Even worse, given the information sharing tools available today, unhappy customers can impact the choices of prospective customers more than ever before.

The good news?  Customer service still comes down to prompt, honest, empathetic communication with your customers, and even small companies can do it well.  The question is – how?  We are tackling this question on our Focus On: Customer Service series, where we’ll explore planning for, implementing and scaling customer service for your subscription business.  The full series includes:

  • Customer Service: The Basics
  • Outsourcing Customer Service
  • Handling Common Customer Service Questions
  • Your First Customer Service Hire
  • Scaling Your Customer Service Team

The  Establishing a Customer Service Department   primer below provides you with the details you need to consider in setting up your own customer service department.

Whether you’re new to running customer service or at a growing company that is just building out a formal customer service department, preparing a customer service plan for your company should start with what you already know. Like any journey, the secret to creating an effective Customer Service department is starting with a compass and a map – and refining as you move forward.

Understand What You Need and Want from Customer Service

Map external touchpoints to your company, creating your customer service response plan.

  • Activating Your Customer Service Plan

Answer these six questions to understand how you needs and philosophical approach for setting-up your customer service team.

1. How accessible can you be?   As a sole proprietor, or even with a small staff, there’s no way you can offer 24-7 response, respond to emails within minutes or always answer the phone.  Larger organizations may need to grapple with specific support skill sets, such as technical expertise or subject-matter knowledge, language and time-zone issues. So, before you begin to staff up, ask yourself what service level you can offer to be responsive to customers, produce your product and leave time to sleep?

2. Who are you providing Customer Service to? Most subscription businesses sit in the middle of a complex network of subscribers, gifters/non-user buyers, advertisers, sponsors, and investors.  Each of these audiences will need help – often very different kinds of help.  And it’s wise to include the press, analysts and agencies in your plan, too. Will they be using all or one particular communications channel that you mapped out earlier?

3. What sorts of issues will your customers have?   Some common, subscription-oriented customer-service challenges include:

  • Inability to access subscription/didn’t receive subscription box
  • Billing inconsistencies (double-billed/credit card billed after cancellation)
  • Gift subscription not delivered
  • Forgot ID and/or password
  • Forgot security question
  • Unsure how to comment, share or like an article

4. What is the solution to each of these issues?   Having well-thought answers to your most common questions at the ready will save you time and effort when you need it most.

5. How do your subscribers define good service? Many definitions are universal, such as prompt refunds when overbilling occurs, or being treated pleasantly and offered a sincere, “I’m sorry” when problems pop up. But your customers may prefer text messaging to email, live chat to telephone calls or require live help access on the weekend, versus a Monday-through-Friday schedule. Establish a customer service standard that meets the known or estimated needs of your market, and adjust as you come to learn more about them.

6. What automation do you have in place to help?   Are you using a live-chat or Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system already? Have a contract with a call center? Take an inventory of the response and routing options you have at your disposal today.

We recommend an audit of all touchpoints and identify who is getting in contact with your company, and how they are doing so. Depending on its size, you should revisit this on at least an annual basis. What channels (e.g. phone, email or social media) is the public reaching out to you on, and in what volume?  Are there ways your customers will contact you in the future that you need to think through? Are there ways you do NOT want customers contacting you?  To help you get started, figure #1 below shows the number of ways and different types of inquiries you should be thinking about as you map this out for your company.

There is no one right way to set up Customer Service. Budget, scale and volume of your business, industry specific requirements, how your subscribers or members prefer to interact with your business (e.g. online, mobile, social) and even how quickly you need to respond (minutes, hours, days) all determine the best plan and approach specifically for your company.

To create a customer service response plan, take the information you identified on running your customer service function as well as your map of how people are contacting you.

It’s important to note that this plan should be company-wide, not just for your customer service team. Having a company-wide blueprint avoids mishandled customer service inquiries that result in poor customer service and an angry customer or partner, potential lost revenue, or a “helpful” employee unwittingly providing information to an investor, reporter or even customer that you want to keep confidential.

Your company’s customer service response plan will include an availability schedule, issues map, executive issues escalation map, and a repository of reference docs for those who are handling the inquiries, as well as links to any resources such as pricing, policy guidelines and escalation contacts.

1. Identify Common Problems and Their Resolutions

Once you have identified how you want to run your customer service functions and have documented how customers, partners, media and others are reaching out to you, you are ready to create the customer service blueprint for your company.

Essentially what’s needed is a combination of your common questions and answers into a fact sheet that will become the customer service blueprint for everyone in your company.

Think through how quickly you want each touch point ideally handled:

  • Who or what team in your company is the “owner” for following up?  For example, who do media inquiries go to and what are your expectations for that follow-up?
  • Who handles questions from potential customers who may subscribe or join your service and how quickly do you expect to get back to them?
  • If a visitor or customer has a technical issue, who does that issue go to, how to you respond to the customer, how to you address or fix that technical issue and ultimately close it out?
  • Is there a difference between the communications channels in the follow-up that you need to plan for?  For example, should inbound phone calls be treated differently from email, which are treated differently than social media?
  • Are there ways your customers will contact you in the future that you need to think through?

Your company customer service blueprint also should have links to any resources such as pricing, and include policy guidelines and escalation contacts.

Here is an example of some issues and items that would be included in a customer service company blueprint:

customer service issues

2. List of Executive Issues

In addition to the frequently-asked questions, you should also make a list of those instances when a call should be routed directly to an executive.  Depending on the size of your business, this may be the owner or CEO, the legal department or head of PR or investor relations.  Some examples of these questions include:

  • Call from a b oard member or i nvestor
  • Press inquiry
  • Service of subpoena or other legal notice, or contact from an attorney representing a client against your business
  • Accusation of plagiarism, fraud or other illegal activity
  • Threat to personal safety of the c ustomer service representative, other employees , or the company as a whole

3. Availability Schedule

This is a simple spreadsheet of who will cover what media at what times, and how that person can be contacted if a customer inquiry comes in another part of the company.  There are certainly tools you can leverage as your team gets bigger, but a simple document outlining who is covering what and when works whether your company is two people, one hundred or more.

We recommend you set up:

  • Who is covering what by inbound channel (e.g., phone, social media or email)
  • What is the expected service level (SL) of that channel (e.g. goal of how fast your response is)
  • Specifications for the types of customers

schedule

4. Repository of Materials

Make sure your customer service team has access to the most recent technical specifications, policy guidelines and special offers by centralizing these materials in one place. Whether that includes binders on a shelf, files in Dropbox or a sophisticated Business Information (BI) system, appoint someone on the team to make sure the repository is current and complete.

Activating Your Customer Service Plan – 12 Best Practices

With your customer service plan now in place, make sure your team is following these foundational 12 customer service best practices, if they are not doing so already:

  • Make sure your website makes it easy for customers to get help.  Your help phone number and email should be visible everywhere on your website, invoices and shipping materials if needed.
  • Be transparent about limited availability, or risk disappointing customers. Communicate hours of operation to manage expectations that you won’t have customer service reps available 24/7.
  • Set up multiple emails such as “info@” or “helpdesk@” or “media@” other email based on source, issue or destination that delivers right to one (or more if you have a larger team) group inbox, so you can prioritize answering.
  • Establish an FAQ page with answers to the questions you already know might come up. Make sure your customer service team is pulling from an internal FAQ and answers list so your company is providing consistent answers to questions and saving valuable time.
  • Make sure calls go straight to voicemail when your offices are closed and set a different greeting. Leveraging a good cloud-based phone system makes this easier.
  • Set extended-absence email replies when you will be unavailable to respond within a day.
  • Consider setting an ongoing “extended absence” greeting on your “Help@” or “Info@” email address, with the reply, “Thank you for your message. ABC Subscription will get back to you within 1 business day.”
  • Invest in a toll-free number for subscribers who might be using a land line.
  • Expect and plan to answer the phone as many customers still believe it to be the quickest way to get an issue resolved.
  • Set up automated responses to customers who fill out forms on your website. These are easily set up via most Forms plugins, and ensure that your subscriber knows you’ve received their question.
  • Establish and maintain a “Do Not Send” list. Failure to respect DNS requests could land you on the bad side of the CAN-SPAM folks, hindering delivery not only of marketing but business emails as well.
  • Maintain a “bug” log. Log all requests from customers including bug fixes, pricing questions and ideas for enhancement. These are excellent drivers of new product development, pricing and refund policies.
  • By Diane Pierson
  • October 1, 2019
  • Filed in Best Practice and How To , Business Operations , Customer Service , Start Here , Subscriber Only

Diane Pierson

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Service Business Plan Template

business plan for service company

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 10,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their service businesses. On this page, we will first give you some background information with regards to the importance of business planning. We will then go through a service business plan template step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

Before we get into how to write a service business plan, here are links to several service business plan templates:

  • Beauty Salon Business Plan
  • Car Detailing Business Plan
  • Car Wash Business Plan
  • Catering Business Plan
  • Cell Phone Repair Business Plan
  • Child Care Business Plan
  • Cleaning Services Business Plan
  • Computer Repair Business Plan Template
  • Construction Business Plan
  • Consulting Business Plan
  • Day Care Business Plan
  • Dog Daycare Business Plan
  • Dog Grooming Business Plan
  • Financial Advisor Business Plan
  • Hair Salon Business Plan
  • Indoor Playground Business Plan
  • Insurance Business Plan
  • Janitorial Business Plan
  • Landscaping Business Plan
  • Massage Therapy Business Plan
  • Nail Salon Business Plan
  • Photography Business Plan
  • Plumbing Business Plan
  • Salon Business Plan
  • Spa Business Plan
  • Staffing Agency Business Plan
  • Tutor Business Plan

Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template here >

What Is a Service Business Plan?

A service business plan provides a snapshot of your service company as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your goals and your business strategy for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your company plans.

Why You Need a Business Plan

If you’re looking to start a service business or grow your existing business you need a good business plan. A business plan helps you attract investors to satisfy your funding requirements, and plan out the growth of your entire business in order to improve your chances of success. Your service business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.

How to Secure Funding for a Services Business

With regards to funding, the main source of funding for a services business are personal savings, credit cards, bank loans, and angel investors. 

With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your service business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable, but they will want to see a professionally written plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business.

Angel investors are wealthy individuals who will write you a check. They will either take equity in return for their funding or, like a bank, they will give you a loan.

Finish Your Business Plan Today!

How to write a business plan for a service business.

The traditional service business plan format includes these 10 key elements:

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan in 1 – 2 pages, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal of your executive summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of services business you are operating and the status. For example, are you a startup, do you have a services business that you would like to grow, or are you operating a chain of services businesses?

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. For example, give a brief overview of the service industry trends. Discuss the type of service business you are operating. Detail your direct competitors and your competitive advantage. Give an overview of your ideal customers. Provide a snapshot of your marketing plan. Identify the key members of your team, and offer an overview of your financial plan.

Company Overview

In your company description, you will detail the type of service business you are operating.

In addition to explaining the type of service business you operate, the company analysis section of your service business plan needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to questions such as:

  • When and why did you start the business?
  • What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include sales goals you’ve reached, new store openings, etc.
  • Your legal structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.

Industry Analysis

In your industry analysis, you need to provide an overview of the service business.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching your specific niche of the service market educates you. It helps you gain insights and understand the market in which you are operating. 

Secondly, market research can improve your strategy particularly if your research identifies market trends. For example, if there was a trend towards more eco-friendly services, your company might want to emphasize its environmentally friendly initiatives.

The third reason for market research is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section of your service business plan:

  • How big is the service business (in dollars)?
  • Is the market declining or increasing?
  • Who are the key competitors in the market? What is your market share?
  • Who are the key suppliers in the market?
  • What trends are affecting the industry?
  • What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
  • What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential market for your service business. You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section of your service business plan must detail the target market you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments in the service industry:

  • Businesses in need of a specific service, such as computer repair or consulting
  • People who have a need for a service that is not currently being met
  • People who are price conscious and are looking for the best deal on a service
  • People who want to support businesses with social responsibility values

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will greatly depend on the type of service business you operate. Some of your clients may want different pricing and product options and would respond to different marketing promotions compared to other target customer segments.

Try to break out your target market in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, including a discussion of the ages, genders, locations, and income levels of the customers you seek to serve. Because most service businesses primarily serve customers living in the same city or town, such demographic information is easy to find on government websites.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can understand and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your existing clients.

Finish Your Service Business Plan in 1 Day!

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Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other businesses that provide similar services.

Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from that aren’t direct competitors. This includes businesses that provide an alternative solution to the services that you provide, but not the exact service. Think do-it-yourself and public options for similar services. You need to mention such competition to show you understand that not everyone who needs the specific services will engage your service business.

With regards to direct competition, you want to detail the other service businesses with which you compete. Most likely, your direct competitors will be service businesses located very close to your location. 

For each such competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:

  • What types of customers do they serve?
  • What products and services do they offer?
  • What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
  • What are they good at?
  • What are their weaknesses?

With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. And don’t be afraid to stand outside your competitors’ locations and ask customers as they leave what they like most and least about them.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your competitive advantages. For example:

  • Will you provide superior services?
  • Will you provide services that your competitors don’t offer?
  • Will you make it easier or faster for customers to book your services?
  • Will you provide better customer service?
  • Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a service business plan, your marketing plan should include the following:

Product : in the product section, you should reiterate the type of service business that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific services you will be offering. For example, in addition to a lawn care business, you may offer to trim trees, bushes, and hedges.

Price : Document your business’s pricing strategy including the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your marketing plan, you are presenting the services you offer and their prices.

Place : Place refers to the location of your service business. Document your location and mention how the location will impact your success. Discuss how your location might provide a steady stream of customers. 

Promotions : the final part of your service business marketing strategy is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will drive new customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods and marketing materials you might consider:

  • Advertising in local papers and magazines
  • Reaching out to local bloggers and websites 
  • Social media advertising
  • Local radio advertising
  • Pay per click advertising
  • Banner ads at local venues

Client Retention

Your service business plan should discuss not just how you will find clients, but how you’ll hold on to them and discourage them from switching to one of your competitors. After all, it should be much less expensive to keep a client than to market and sell services to a new one. Some methods of retaining customers involve creating the perception of switching costs; that is, that they will lose money and time when switching to a new service company. Others involve fine-tuning your customer service skills into a system designed around retention.

Loyalty Program

Creating a loyalty program is a positive way to retain customers. This could involve a punch card system where customers receive a free service after a certain number of visits, or it could involve a points system where customers accumulate points that can be redeemed for discounts or free services. Other loyalty programs offer exclusive deals and privileges to members, such as special access to new services before they are made available to the general public.

Premium Customer Levels

Another related retention strategy is to reward the frequency and/or the amount of money that customers spend with your service business. This is often done by creating different customer levels and providing perks to customers who reach a certain level. The higher the customer level, the more exclusive the perks. Common perks include discounts on services, express service, access to unique services or products, and early notice of promotional deals.

Referral Program

A referral program is a great way to keep customers happy and encourage them to refer their friends and family members. This could involve rewarding customers with a discount or free service for every new customer they refer, or it could involve giving customers a set amount of credit for each referral. Either way, the referral program should be designed to be as simple as possible for customers to participate in.

Customer Testimonials

Finally, customer testimonials can be a powerful retention tool. As potential customers research your service business, they will likely come across your website and online profiles. Seeing positive customer testimonials on your website and across the internet will help convince them that you provide outstanding customer service. You can create a separate page on your website that is dedicated to client testimonials, or you could set up a separate social media profile that features client testimonials and allows customers to provide feedback through a special email address.

Tracking Retention

Simply tracking the numbers and percentages involved in your customer retention can yield valuable information about what you’re doing right or wrong and how successful new initiatives are over time. Statistics to track may include client complaints, the average speed of complaint resolution, the percentage of customers in a given month who were using your services last month, 3 months ago, 6 months ago, a year ago, etc, and so on. When your staff is aware of these statistics and is given targets to work towards, the message that customer service and retention is a priority is heard loud and clear.

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your service business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your service business such as serving customers, procuring supplies, etc.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to serve your 100th client, or when you hope to reach $X in sales. It could also be when you expect to hire your Xth employee or launch in a new city.

Management Team

To demonstrate your service business’s ability to succeed as a business, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company. 

Ideally, you and/or your team members have direct experience in the service business. If so, highlight this experience and expertise, but also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act as mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in a service business and/or successfully running small businesses.

Financial Plan

Your plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statements.

Income Statement : an income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenues and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you serve 20 customers per week or 50? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheets : While balance sheets include much information, to simplify them to the key items you need to know about, balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. For instance, if you spend $50,000 on building out your service business, that will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a bank writes you a check for $50.000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement : Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and make sure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt. For example, let’s say a company approached you with a massive $100,000 damage restoration contract that would cost you $50,000 to fulfill. Well, in most cases, you would have to pay that $50,000 now for supplies, equipment rentals, employee salaries, etc. But let’s say the company didn’t pay you for 180 days. During that 180 day period, you could run out of money.

In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a service business:

  • Cost of equipment to perform the service
  • Cost of maintaining an adequate amount of supplies
  • Payroll or salaries paid to staff
  • Business insurance
  • Taxes and permits
  • Legal expenses

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include any insurance company affiliations or remediation licenses.

Service Business Plan Summary

Writing a business plan for your service business is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will really understand the service business, your competition, and your potential customers. You will have developed a marketing plan and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful cleaning services business.  

Service Business Plan FAQs

What is the easiest way to complete my service business plan.

Growthink's Ultimate Business Plan Template allows you to quickly and easily complete your Service Business Plan.

What is the Goal of a Business Plan's Executive Summary?

The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of service you are providing and the status; for example, are you a startup, do you have a service that you would like to grow, or are you operating a chain of service locations?

Don’t you wish there was a faster, easier way to finish your Service business plan?

OR, Let Us Develop Your Plan For You

Since 1999, Growthink has developed business plans for thousands of companies who have gone on to achieve tremendous success.   Click here to see how our professional business plan consultants can create your business plan for you.

Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates

Business Plan Template & Guide For Small Businesses

How to Create a Customer Service Plan

Digital library > defining and serving a market > customer service, “how to create a customer service plan”.

The fight for market share grows ever fiercer. How can you win and keep customers when the price wars never end? Provide better service! To do it most effectively, you’ll need a plan.

What is Customer Service?

"As the Interactive Age arrives, every enterprise will have to learn how to treat different customers differently." — Enterprise One To One , by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers (Currency Doubleday, 1997).

How does your company meet a customer’s needs?

If you started a business 10 years ago, you’d probably give an indirect answer. You might say that by gaining market share and managing sales and distribution, you could satisfy your customers. If buyers’ needs were met, your business would presumably grow and prosper.

Today, however, meeting the needs and expectations of customers requires that you know your customers — as individuals. That means consistently collecting their input, removing barriers to communicate with them, and taking steps to foster a long-term relationship with them rather than just a limited, transactional one. If potential customers grow overwhelmed, confused, or simply can’t find what they want, your high level of service is the "ace in the hole" that’ll keep them from fleeing.

In creating and evaluating your customer service plan, avoid too much internal analysis. Instead, defer to customers’ perceptions of efficiency, responsiveness, and courtesy. Your own hunches, biases, or interpretations shouldn’t interfere with the unfiltered knowledge that your customers can provide. They are your ultimate judges.

Customer Service as a Competitive Advantage

With even small businesses investing heavily in technology — from database software to Web site development — traditional feature and cost advantages no longer provide a sustainable competitive advantage. More fast-growth companies are focusing on quality of service to distinguish themselves from the rest. They are talking to their customers to determine what’s important to them and how they can further add value. Smart companies now strive to be an extension of their customers, thereby fostering more loyal buyers who’re less apt to change vendors.

Benefits of an Effective Customer Service Initiative

Here’s how you and your business can benefit from a customer service plan:

5 STEPS TO CREATE YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE PLAN [ top ]

While there’s no single blueprint for an effective customer service program, here are five steps that you can take:

Step 1: Assess Your Customer Service Quotient

In order to establish an effective customer service plan, you need a starting point. Use this self-assessment to map out your strategy. For each statement, rate your business based on the following scale:

        1—Are you kidding?         2—Hardly ever         3—Sometimes         4—Usually         5—It’s our way of life!

Source: Adapted from Forum Corporation’s Self-Test for a Customer-Driven Company

Now evaluate how well your organization focuses on customer satisfaction. Low scores suggest opportunities for improvement.

Step 2: Understand Your Customers’ Requirements

Sources of Customer Information

Once you launch a business, you might assume you know your customers’ requirements. You figure that your company’s small size lets you stay close to your buyers. But as you grow, you may need to conduct a more thorough analysis. Here’s how to tell:

If you answered no to any of these questions, that shows you may want to gather customer information more aggressively. Here’s where to look:

Surveys and focus groups are popular methods for gathering information on customer needs. Surveys are written questions given to individuals; focus groups are oral questions posed to groups. A broad questionnaire or focus group may give you lots of information, but you need to devise clear objectives from the outset so that you’re ready to act on what you learn.

As you review your internal data, your employees’ input, and the feedback you collect from vendors, identify the top three customer service issues that arise and compare them with the top three questions, comments, or complaints you’ve heard directly from your buyers. Do you find any overlap? Any surprises?

The Best Kind of Data

More is not necessarily better when it comes to customer data, but getting the right information is critical. Seek these elements in the data you measure:

Step 3: Create Your Customer Vision and Service Policies

When a Washington Post reporter returned from the 1999 PhoCusWright conference on the Internet travel business, he wrote about his experience watching a panel of 12 executives who run big online travel sites. When these CEOs were asked to declare his or her company’s "key distinguishing asset," only two of the 12 mentioned something they deliver to customers.

That’s a stark reminder of how few Internet executives understand and appreciate the role of the customer. An effective customer service plan must be built on a customer-centered vision for your company.

A vision consists of a vivid picture of an ambitious, desirable future state that’s linked to the customer and improves on the status quo in some important way, according to Richard Whiteley, an author and management consultant.

Your vision is what you want your company to become, what you want it "to grow up to be." A client-centered vision takes its direction from the customer and performs two critical functions:

When you craft a vision that spells out what the company seeks to become, you guide all your employees to make better decisions. After all, an employee who knows where the business is headed will probably make more effective decisions that reinforce that goal.

How do you create a vision? It’s easy. Vision statements need not be elaborate. Two examples:

Keep your vision concise. The shorter, the better. That helps you reduce the odds of misunderstanding. In their startup excitement, many entrepreneurs mistakenly write wordy paragraphs that run so long, no one really knows what the vision really means.

When creating a vision, you must decide how you want your company to evolve over time. Use this exercise to "see" the future:

  Customer-friendly Policies

Clear, straightforward customer-friendly policies should accompany your vision. While some bigger, bureaucratic companies use their policies as a weapon ("I’m sorry, Mr. Customer, but that’s our rule"), entrepreneurial firms can and should show more flexibility to please buyers.

Some well-intentioned entrepreneurs fall into the trap of adopting policies that clash with customer needs and expectations. If you left a job at a large organization, for example, you may enact certain rules or safeguards in your new business because "that’s the way I’ve done it before."

Take an inventory of your company’s policies. Do they facilitate customer satisfaction or do they only erect barriers and cause customer frustration? If you’re having difficulty identifying these "unfriendly" policies, review your customers’ comments and complaints.

A quick scan of the feedback will direct you to some of the most troublesome policies. Reassess whether such rules are necessary. What would happen if you eliminated such policies? As long as such a move wouldn’t jeopardize legal compliance or cause some other severe problem, then toss it out!

In some cases, you’ll discover some necessary policies that your customers may not like, but that you’re legally bound to keep in force. You can’t do much about these except make them as "friendly" as possible. For instance, if you’re cleaning health-care facilities, and your insurance company restricts you from disposing of certain medical wastes, let your customers know.

At the same time, investigate if there’s a compromise you can make, such as disposing of the waste once it has been properly contained.

Meanwhile, keep your "friendly" necessary policies and strengthen them, if possible. Use customer-friendly policies as a competitive edge to retain your current customers and attract new ones.

Step 4: Deal Effectively With Your Customers

Once you’ve established your customer-centered vision and created customer-friendly policies, you’re ready to sharpen your skills in dealing with your customers. These skills can be segregated into two areas: communication skills and problem-solving skills.

Communication Skills

How you communicate to your customers is just as important as what you say. Follow these guidelines:

Every time a customer interacts with your company, the message should be consistent: you want to provide top service. If a customer calls and gets lost responding to dozens of touch-tone commands (think of the I.R.S. help line), you must simplify the system. Testing a customer’s patience gives them a reason to leave and never return.

It all begins with the proper mind-set: A customer-focused organization is not in business to deliver a product or service, but to enable people to enjoy the benefits of its product or service. A temporary employment agency is in business not to fill job vacancies with temporary personnel, but to help their customers enjoy the benefits that their service provides — immediate placement of highly-skilled individuals. It’s a subtle but vital difference.

Here are some questions you can ask customers to show your eagerness to help:

To ensure you communicate effectively with customers, list three specific steps you and your employees can take to improve in each of these areas:

Build rapport with customers:

Show appreciation:

Seek ways to help customers:

Listen attentively:

Establish a long-term relationship:

Problem-solving Skills

Your customer service plan should include guidelines for your employees to problem-solve. When you take responsibility for a snafu, you can turn a negative customer into a raving fan. Studies show that if a problem is resolved quickly, 98 percent of your customers will buy again and even tell others of their positive experience.

But the longer the problem drags on, the more frustrated a customer becomes. So how do you address problems quickly? Use this four-step process:

Gather the facts. Let the customer speak without interrupting. Listen without getting defensive. Repeat your understanding of the problem to ensure you’ve got it right. Examples:

After you understand the problem, you’re ready to identify what triggered it. First, find out what actions the customer took. Then review with the customer what should have happened had everything run smoothly. Conclude by isolating what went wrong.

Before you suggest possible solutions, ask your customer for ideas. You may learn exactly what you need to do to fix everything. Agree on a course of action by hashing out options and working together to finalize the best one.

Step 5: Educate Your Staff

Now that you’ve learned to assess your customer service quotient, understand your customers’ requirements, create a customer-centered vision, and communicate well with customers, you need to educate your staff on how to carry out your customer service plan.

This involves two steps: communicate and train.

Don’t make this the only time that you talk to your staff about the importance of customers. Work it into your everyday management of the business.

THE FINAL PIECE OF YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE PLAN [ top ]

When finalizing your plan, step into your customer’s shoes. Imagine what it’s like for a buyer who does business with your company.

Like an airline pilot preparing for take off, create a checklist so that you can confirm you’re ready to "fly right" and provide the kind of positive experience that will please your customers.

Here’s an example:

RESOURCES [ top ]

Sprint’s Customer Service Plan Pro software walks you through the steps to create a customer service plan.

Market-Based Management: Strategies for Growing Customer Value and Profitability , 3rd edition, by Roger J. Best. (Prentice Hall, 2002).

What Customers Value Most: How to Achieve Business Transformation by Focusing on Processes That Touch Your Customers by Stanley A. Brown. (John Wiley & Sons, 1996).

Enterprise One to One: Tools for Competing in the Interactive Age by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D. (Doubleday, 1999).

Customers.Com: How to Create a Profitable Business Strategy for the Internet & Beyond by Patricia B. Seybold. (Times Books, 1998).

The Customer Driven Company: Moving from Talk to Action by Richard C. Whiteley. (Perseus, 2000).

Best Practices in Customer Service by Ron Zemke and John A. Woods. (AMACOM, 1999).

--> Web sites

" Developing Effective Customer Access Strategy ," by Brad Cleveland. Customer Interface 15:10 (November-December, 2002), 16+.

" Make No Mistake? " by Michael Schrage. Fortune 144:13 (December 24, 2001), 184.

" Cleaning Up the Customer Experience with Online Knowledge Bases ," by Ramesh Jayaraman and Rohit Kumar. Customer Inter@ction Solutions 20:4 (October 2001), 28.

" Tough Customers ," by Chris Penttila. Entrepreneur 29:5 (May 2001), 94-97.

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How to Set Customer Service Goals (+ 9 Example Goals)

Sarah Chambers

I’ve always been a goal-driven person. When hiking, I look for the next mile marker and search for signs that I’m nearing the summit. Whoever said that the journey is the destination must never have felt the satisfaction of achieving their goals.

I kid, of course: Even when you don’t achieve 100% of your goals, the process of setting them and working toward them offers tangible benefits.

Customer service goals are no exception. There is no better way to deliver consistently great customer service and challenge your team members to grow than by setting smart goals.

Below, we offer a framework for setting effective customer service objectives, as well as a number of specific, measurable goals you can put into practice right now to improve your customer experience.

Why you need customer service goals

Taking the time to set goals for your team and for yourself is like taking the time to check the map: You’ll know where you are heading, and you’ll be much more likely to get there.

Goals give your team direction and focus. This can lead to more independence; when everyone knows the plan, they can make their own decisions and act more autonomously.

Goals help to manage team performance. Stated goals help facilitate feedback opportunities and provide a benchmark for agents to measure themselves against.

Goals align everyone’s actions. Everyone from agents to managers to the entire team can work together for the company’s success. By showing how individual actions generate success for the business, goals motivate action.

Goals gradually improve your customer service. By drawing attention to areas of opportunity, you ensure that everyone on your team is thinking about improving the same thing. A boat moves faster when everyone is rowing in the same direction!

How to set effective goals

Not all goals are created equally. In order for them to be motivating, they need to follow the SMART philosophy: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

For example, you could say that you want to achieve 100% customer satisfaction on all tickets in 2024. While it’s an ambitious goal, it’s not achievable. As soon as that first bad satisfaction response comes in, your team members will feel like they have failed. 

Unattainable goals usually look really good on paper, but they don’t actually foster better customer service. An achievable goal might instead be that you want a 20% increase in customer satisfaction in 2024. 

Keeping your goals specific and measurable will help you understand when you’ve met them. Relevant goals align with your organization’s mission. Finally, setting a time limit will help you evaluate your progress and encourage momentum. SMART goals for customer service are an easy framework to use to ensure that your goals meet all of the requirements to be most effective.

For each of the examples of customer service goals below, we provide an example of a SMART goal format to help you create your own strategic goals for your customers.

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Examples of customer service department goals

Customer service department goals should be directly related to the goals of the wider organization. They should be easily trackable and frequently discussed within the team. Every individual can contribute to these goals, so ensuring that the entire team is on board is crucial to achieving them.

1. Increase customer satisfaction

One of the primary reasons to offer customer service at all is to improve your customers’ happiness.

Most, if not all, customer service teams will use customer satisfaction (CSAT) as one of their key performance indicators (KPIs). After all, if your customers are not satisfied with your service, it’s time to change what you’re doing.

Increasing customer satisfaction is a worthy goal for the company’s growth as well:

Salesforce found that 71% of those polled have made a purchase decision based on experience quality .

Qualtrics XM found that customers who’ve had a very good experience are 3.5 times more likely to repurchase and 5 times more likely to recommend the company to friends and relatives.

Setting customer satisfaction goals puts your team’s focus on providing a consistently great customer service experience. This feeds back into the customer experience of your product as a whole.

To measure customer satisfaction , use a simple customer survey to gather feedback on whether customers are happy with their service. Subtract the percentage of customers who respond positively from 100% to get an overall CSAT percentage.

SMART goal example: We will increase our rolling 7-day CSAT score from 82% to 87% in the next three months.

2. Improve net promoter score

While CSAT represents the customer’s reaction to the customer service that your team provides, net promoter score (NPS) reflects their relationship with your brand. While customer service is just a small piece of your brand as a whole, it has an outsized impact.

Like CSAT, when you set a goal to improve NPS, it does the heavy lifting of refocusing your entire team. Not only does NPS light a fire under your customer service team, it also reflects the work of the company as a whole.

Including NPS as part of your customer service strategy is an excellent complement to other work that your team is currently doing, such as lowering response time or implementing a new social media service channel. As you work toward other goals, you are also able to measure the correlative impact that they have. For instance, when you work to improve response time, you notice an increase in NPS. This type of correlation gives you good data for what you might use for future goals, too.

SMART goal example: We will increase our quarterly NPS from 80 to 90 before the end of Q4.

3. Reduce customer wait time

In the mission to provide great customer service, speed is your best friend. Customers consistently rate quick answers as the most important aspect of their customer service experience .

Responding quickly is a full team goal. Not only do agents have to be focused and treat customer conversations with urgency, but they also need to be supported with the right tools and properly staffed.

There are many ways to measure customer wait time, depending on the experience you want to provide over different channels. For phone support, you may measure the amount of time customers spend on hold. For emails, you could measure the time to first reply or total resolution time. For social media and chat, two of the quickest possible channels, you could measure by response time as well.

To measure first reply time (FRT), look at the amount of time that passes from when the customer first contacts you until they get their first human response. FRT is calculated as an average across all tickets.

SMART goal example: We will decrease average first reply time for email support from 11 hours to 8 hours by October 31st.

4. Reduce cost per contact

If you had an unlimited budget, reducing customer wait time and increasing customer satisfaction would be straightforward — just hire more people and give all of your customers a puppy! Unfortunately, you always need to balance your desire to grow the team with your budget restrictions.

Reducing the cost of supporting customers (while keeping quality high!) is an important business goal and something the entire customer service team can contribute to. If it costs more to support your customers than they are paying you, your business will not be profitable. However, if your customers pay you well and you provide crummy support, your customer experience will suffer.

To measure cost per contact (CPC), divide the total cost of providing support (labor, tools, and other costs) by the number of contacts received. You can segment this calculation by a number of different criteria, including the contact channel and the type of users.

CPC is impacted by a number of things. To reduce CPC, you can try to direct customers to lower effort channels (for example, chat and social media are more cost-effective than phone support) or become more efficient at answering tickets.

SMART goal example:  We will reduce cost per contact by 10% for free plan users by the end of Q1.

5. Channel-specific metrics

While the goal of setting up a specific channel doesn’t necessarily fit the SMART goal framework, your team could set up goals around specific channels. 

For instance, even if your team doesn’t currently offer social media support, customers certainly reach out for your assistance there. In order to create the best customer experience, your customer service team should be the one responding to inquiries. Getting your customers directly to the best source for help allows your team to lower response rate and boost key metrics like NPS and CSAT.

So, to create a goal for social media, you might focus on something like the number of responses directly from your support team.

SMART goal example: We will staff a social media customer service team and respond to 85% of social media service inquiries within 25 minutes by the end of Q3.

Examples of customer service manager goals

Customer service managers need to take care of customers and their teams of agents. Their goals reflect the dual nature of their responsibilities — to both the people on their teams and to the people who purchase from their businesses.

6. Increase quality of customer service responses

Customers frequently rank consistency as a primary driver of good customer service. To monitor the quality and consistency of your team’s replies, consider implementing quality assurance or conversation reviews . Providing ongoing feedback through reviews can ensure that your entire team is delivering excellent customer service.

To measure quality, you first need to define what quality means to you. What kind of tone do you use? Do agents need to provide additional resources in their responses? Klaus has a great guide to developing a quality assurance rubric on their blog.

Once the rubric has been developed, you can grade a random selection of conversations to determine your quality score. Taking the time to provide feedback on each review will help your agents know what they can do to improve their own quality, thus boosting the team’s quality (and your customer experience) as well.

SMART goal example: We will increase the average quality score from 3.5 to 4.2 by the end of the year.

7. Improve agent happiness

Happy employees equal happy customers. Or, at the very least, unhappy employees will make it a lot harder to provide empathetic, thoughtful service to your customers. Improving the experience of your customer service team should be a top priority for all customer service managers.

Measuring agent happiness can take a number of different forms. One of the most direct ways is to just ask your agents how they feel.

Employee NPS uses the same question as net promoter score to ask employees how likely they are to recommend your company as a place to work. This survey can also provide some qualitative feedback on what you’ll need to do to accomplish your goal.

Alternatively, you can measure agent happiness by looking at employee churn and retention rates. If agents are staying around for longer, they are likely happier.

SMART goal example: We will increase employee NPS by 20% between the September and December employee surveys.

Examples of customer service representative goals

Individual goals help agents expand their skill sets and develop their careers. While all agents might share some goals (such as achieving a certain CSAT), setting individual goals that are tailored to each agent’s professional goals will provide more motivation.

8. Improve troubleshooting skills

All customer support agents need to have a strong grasp of how to troubleshoot issues . Fortunately, just like other skills, troubleshooting is a muscle that you can strengthen over time. If you are struggling to quickly and accurately diagnose problems, improving your troubleshooting skills may be a great goal.

Troubleshooting skills can be measured in multiple ways, including as part of quality assurance reviews or as part of another metric. For example, improving troubleshooting may reduce the number of responses it takes for tickets to be resolved. It may also improve time to resolution and the number of tickets the agent is able to resolve.

SMART goal example: I will increase my troubleshooting criteria score on quality assurance reviews from 2.4 to 4 by December 31st.

9. Improve leadership skills

Whether you want to become a people manager or just take on more responsibility in your individual contributor role, leadership skills are a key part of growing as an agent . By including leadership skills as a goal for agents, they stay motivated and challenged with new opportunities.

Leadership skills aren’t necessarily measured by metrics and quantitative results. Instead, leadership goals are often represented as projects and tasks that require new skills to accomplish. Providing feedback on the execution of these tasks will help cement new capabilities.

SMART goal example: I will lead two product training meetings in Q4 and meet with my manager for feedback and review on sessions.

Use customer service goals to keep your team motivated

Setting great goals will keep your team moving forward. Use the examples above to set your own SMART goals to elevate your team’s performance.

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Sarah chambers.

Sarah is a customer service consultant and the founder of Supported Content . When she’s not arguing about customer service, she’s usually outdoors rock climbing or snowboarding. Follow her on Twitter to keep up with her adventures.

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The Ultimate Guide to an Awesome Customer Service Strategy

business plan for customer service department

With more and more brands for potential customers to choose from every day, how can you make sure you stand out from the crowd? A well-thought-out customer service strategy may well be the answer. 

The quality of service you provide can mean the difference between a customer becoming a brand advocate or leaving unhappy to take their business elsewhere. 

To help you to reap the rewards of customer loyalty and improved business performance, we’ve put together this customer service strategy guide.

What is a customer service strategy?

A customer service strategy is a plan of action to deliver the standard of customer care you strive for, including the process and methods used to achieve that level of customer support.

An effective customer service strategy plan focuses on customer happiness and includes specific steps for dealing with customer interactions throughout the customer journey.

The best customer service strategies start with understanding what customers want, need, and expect from your business and then ensure all service and support initiatives, as well as the interactions themselves, align with that.

The benefits of adopting a customer service management strategy

Customer service is an integral part of a broader customer experience approach and strategy . And it needs to be, because 82 percent of consumers are willing to abandon a brand after a negative or rude support experience. 

The good news is that when you do implement successful customer service strategies, they come with a wealth of benefits for your business and your customers. Here are the most prominent.

Consistent customer experiences

Clearly established guidelines for how your support team deals with customer interactions, as well as measurable benchmarks to track the effectiveness of your customer support strategies, help ensure consistent service across the whole customer journey — regardless of the channels or team members involved.

Increased customer satisfaction

When agents have a customer support strategy to refer to and concrete processes to follow, they can solve customer issues faster without having to reinvent the wheel each time. 

And that’s crucial, because efficient service is a prerequisite to satisfaction when it comes to customer support — 27 percent of customers point to lack of effectiveness, with an additional 13 percent citing lack of speed, as the most common cause of customer service frustration.

Enhanced customer loyalty

Developing practical strategies to improve customer service quality leads to increased engagement and higher levels of trust in your brand. In turn, that means more customers who are happy using your product or service and a loyal customer following. 

In time, these loyal customers may even become brand advocates — 59 percent of which are willing to refer a brand to their friends and family, driving up your revenue.

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How to create a customer service strategy

Every business’ customer base and needs are different. So, there’s no single customer service strategy template that works for every brand. But, there are common elements of customer service strategy that will increase your chances of achieving success. 

Here, we’ll explore some of those key factors along with customer service strategy examples.

1. Define your vision for customer service

Your vision is an overarching principle that sets the tone for the experiences your customers have with your brand and the lasting impressions you want these interactions to create. Company leaders put this together based on the organization’s goals, values, and mission. It’s usually expressed in the form of a statement for the sake of clarity.

For L. L. Bean, the outdoor clothing and retail company, this means to “Sell good merchandise at a reasonable profit, treat your customers like human beings and they will always come back for more.”

2. Promote a customer-centric company culture

Quality customer service means putting customer expectations and needs at the heart of everything you do. 

From the top-down, every employee should understand your customer support goals and how they can contribute towards them.

Shep Hyken, customer service and experience expert and Chief Amazement Officer at Shepard Presentations, says, “A brand is defined by the customer’s experience. The experience is delivered by the employees.”

Unifying under the same vision is an important factor in this, helping remove silos and encouraging the kind of cross-department communication and collaboration required to achieve better customer service and support.

To reinforce a customer-focused mindset across your organization, make use of rewards, incentives, and recognition for employees who embody customer-first principles in their work. For example, you can give these employees bonuses or shout-outs through company-wide email or social media.

3. Create a customer journey map

Successful customer service improvement strategies hinge on a deep understanding of your customer journey. The best way to achieve that is by creating a customer journey map that outlines all the interactions and touchpoints your customers will encounter. 

You can start with a general customer journey map template and add details from stakeholder interviews, customer feedback, data, and first-hand purchasing experiences to fill in the specific customer touchpoints, emotions, and points of friction.

With this holistic view of the customer journey in place, you can identify processes to simplify, opportunities for automation , or pain points to address for improved customer engagement .

As an example, if this exercise shows that customers are constantly having the same product issue after purchase, you can proactively reach out to new customers with a solution before they even contact you.

4. Set measurable customer service goals

To make sure your service strategy hits the right marks, you want to set objectives that allow you to track progress. This way, you can see where and how to adjust and optimize your approach.

Some metrics you can use include:

  • Customer satisfaction score (CSAT). CSAT can gauge how your customers feel at multiple points in their journey and help you pinpoint where any issues are occurring. It can be particularly useful after customer support interactions. Use a customer satisfaction survey to gather this type of data.
  • Net promoter score (NPS). NPS asks customers to rate the likeliness of recommending your company to a friend, effectively measuring customer loyalty. This can alert you to emerging trends in customer sentiment.
  • Customer effort score (CES). CES gives you insight into the customer experience by measuring the difficulty level of using your product or service.

If you want to improve your customer service strategy using these metrics, set specific goals to improve by a certain amount each quarter and regularly check to see if you’re on track to meet those goals. 

5. Build your customer service team

A high-performing customer support team starts with hiring the right team members. 

So, when hiring, make sure to look for the appropriate skills and personality that will help deliver positive customer service interactions . 

Proper onboarding and training are also extremely important. The idea is to prepare team members to successfully meet the everyday challenges they will face in customer service and support exchanges. It’s also crucial the team understands your standards and processes, how they fit into the organization’s bigger picture, and the customer expectations they need to meet. 

Developing your team is a continual process and will require managing their performance, providing feedback, and honing skills to support their success over time. 

For instance, you can hold quarterly training to review the team’s progress, trends in customer support, common issues to troubleshoot, and approach and process updates. Activities such as role play scenarios can also be used to sharpen their communication skills.

6. Use the right tools

Today, there are plenty of tools out there offering the kind of features and capabilities that make streamlined customer support more achievable than ever. 

Live chat offers ready service with support agents at the click of a button. And in other support situations that require more of a visual or interactive element, video chat and cobrowsing can make for easier communication and faster resolutions. 

Sometimes, though, customers want to be able to find their own answers. This is where self-service customer support comes in. One increasingly popular method is through the use of chatbots to provide automated customer support for common issues around the clock. But you can offer self-service through a number of other channels too, such as help centers, knowledge bases, FAQs and how-to videos and tutorials. 

The biggest gain comes from bringing all this functionality together in a single platform. That way you can manage all your requests, automate workflows, and collect insights through feedback and analytics in one centralized space. 

Unifying your interactions and customer data in this way gives agents context — including customer history, preferences, and previous interactions — meaning all interactions can be stitched together into one continuous omnichannel conversational experience.

7. Empower your customer service agents

Giving your customer support team scope to take action based on their reading of a situation can really help personalize customer service. To facilitate this, set up policies and processes that increase agency and accountability. For example, agents could be given the power to offer bespoke solutions, such as discounts and bonus offers, or granted flexibility with returns and exchanges. 

Simplifying the approval processes agents have to go through to address customer issues may also help smoothen things. So, when a customer calls about a product or service complaint, reps can issue them a refund and a discount on their next purchase on the spot. 

8. Take advantage of feedback

Customer feedback is an invaluable source of information for improving your business, products, and services. There are a number of different places you can turn to — comments and suggestions from surveys, polls, as well as other places like social media and review websites, for example. 

Another source of feedback that is sometimes overlooked is your own customer service team. They’re perfectly placed to see any potential issues and areas to improve — they spend their whole time on the front line communicating with customers, after all.

Once you’ve gathered this information, use it to identify where you can refine your customer service strategy. And make sure to communicate feedback to your team as well — especially when it’s positive. 

Feedback is also a great opportunity to nurture customer relationships. Thank your customers for positive feedback and propose solutions to address any negative comments. In doing so, current and potential customers can see that you truly value them. This type of engagement, particularly on social media, has become a growing trend in customer service .

Customer service strategy is a marathon, not a sprint

When putting together your service strategy, it’s important you take into account the long term.

And that’s because, with time, your business and customers’ needs and expectations will naturally evolve, so your approach to customer support will have to as well. 

Whatever those changes may bring, though, there’s one thing that should always remain the same — keeping customers front and center of everything you do.

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Small-business owners can maintain their customer bases and increase sales by creating proactive customer service plans to keep buyers happy. Just because you’re not receiving complaints or returns doesn’t mean your customers are 100 percent satisfied with what you offer. Developing a customer service implementation plan is an inexpensive way to keep customers and boost sales and profits.

Look at Internal Data

To determine where you might be falling short of meeting customer expectations, look at internal data that can help you. For example, look at the number of returns you have and identify any patterns. Find out how many calls you’re getting for support issues and if there are any patterns there.

If possible, track same-customer or repeat sales. If you have to spend marketing dollars to attract new customers for each sale, your customer-acquisition costs will be a burden. If people who buy from you aren’t buying again, that’s a sign you might have customer-satisfaction issues.

Talk to Your Staff

Talk to your employees who either work directly with customers or have insight into how they are purchasing. Find out what questions customers ask before and after they buy. Don't overlook involving staff in customer service planning. You might hear great ideas for developing customer-service programs you hadn’t considered.

Perform Customer Research

The customer service industry creates many of its programs after researching what motivates customers to buy and what causes them to leave, explains UpCounsel . Use tried-and-true methods to find out where you can improve your customer service.

Use focus groups, online surveys, email questionnaires and phone calls to clients to determine where your customers are satisfied and where they’d like to see improvements. Ask them about their experience with your competitors and see if you can find out your competition’s strengths and weaknesses in the eyes of your customers.

Create Support Materials

Using the information you gather during your research and employee interviews, create customer service materials and tools you send customers or post on your website or social media channels. For example, create a Frequently Asked Questions page customers can use after hours.

Create instructional videos for your website, YouTube channel or other platforms. Provide written support materials you include in your packaging to help customers better understand how to use and troubleshoot your product.

Provide In-Person Support

If possible, provide human support for your customers. It’s often the quickest and most satisfying method for buyers to get help. If your budget allows, use a call center or a tech contractor to provide telephone support 24/7.

Appoint one or more employees as customer service representatives or agents and assign them to big clients. Have them call and introduce themselves before problems arise to let customers know they have support available and who to contact. The Edward Lowe Foundation recommends building a rapport with customers so that buyers have a personal relationship with you.

Monitor your online reviews and assign your marketing staff to respond to negative reviews and offer personal support to disgruntled customers. With many online review platforms, you can challenge reviews and have them removed.

Assess Your New Plan

After your new plan has been in place for 30 days, meet with your staff to determine the response, or meet sooner if you have a large customer base and many responses within the first week or so. Find out what types of emails and phone calls you have been getting. Compare the return rates to your pre-customer service plan rates. Check the analytics to see how much traffic you’re getting at your customer support pages, videos and posts.

  • Edward Lowe Foundation: How to Create a Customer Service Plan
  • UpCounsel: Customer Service Business Plan Template
  • Gaebler: Customer Service Tips
  • Develop new customer service plans at regular intervals to ensure that your company remains at the top of its industry in customer satisfaction.

Steve Milano is a journalist and business executive/consultant. He has helped dozens of for-profit companies and nonprofits with their marketing and operations. Steve has written more than 8,000 articles during his career, focusing on small business, careers, personal finance and health and fitness. Steve also turned his tennis hobby into a career, coaching, writing, running nonprofits and conducting workshops around the globe.

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14+ Customer Service Plan Examples in PDF | MS Word

Customer Service Plan Examples

Happy and satisfied customers equate to a flourishing business. Your company’s customer service is a significant factor in determining your success. Developing a rapport with your clients can be a lengthy and arduous process. To avoid losing your customers’ support, you need to start devising a detail-oriented customer service plan along with your business plan . 

14+ Customer Service Plan Examples

1. customer service improvement plan template.

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2. Customer Service Development Plan Template

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3. Customer Service Operational Plan Template

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4. Customer Service Action Plan Template

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5. Customer Service Plan

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6. Customer Service Action Plan

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7. Customer Service Improvement Plan

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8. Accessible Customer Service Plan

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9. Administration Customer Service Plan

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12. Sample Customer Service Plan

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15. Simple Customer Service Plan

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What Is a Customer Service Plan?

A customer service plan is the summary of strategies a company or organization follows. It aims to reach the highest possible level of customer satisfaction. This plan mainly focuses on the details of how the company keeps their clients interested, as well as how they resolve complaints that come their way.

How To Devise a Beneficial Customer Service Plan

They say a good business follows the motto, about how the customers are always right. Despite that, you should know not to take that too literally. It simply means prioritizing their needs. Of course, there are times when they are wrong, and that’s when you should know how to handle the situation. Although you should dedicate your customer service plan to your clients, you should still consider how your strategy can prove to be beneficial to your business and employees. 

1. Ask For Feedback

The best first step to take in writing a service plan is to ask your customers for feedback. Ask them to give positive and also constructive feedback. That way, you know what they enjoy with your service, as well as their problems with it. To do this, you can give out a questionnaire or let your guests answer a survey online or by letting them answer a website survey.

2. Formulate a Strategy

After gathering and analyzing the data, it is now time to start your strategic plan. Adjust your business development strategy in a way that it can cater to the demands of your clients. Remember that it is destructive for your business to set your goal to please everyone. Come up with a more realistic aim that doesn’t strain and negatively impact your company. Focus on the issues that take top priority. After coming up with a strategy, compose an outline of your action plan .

3. Consult Your Employees

Your employees spend a great deal of time dealing with customers. Given that fact, they have the most experience in that area. Therefore their opinions should matter in the development of your plan. Your representatives will be directly affected whether your service plan turns out to be beneficial for your management or put you at a disadvantage.

4. Construct a Diagram

To avoid leaving out any details, creating a diagram would be helpful. A well-organized flow chart would help you determine the exact course of your plans. As a result, you can take into account all the details. Also, it will make it more comprehensive for both you and your customer representatives. 

What are the benefits of having a customer service plan?

One of the purposes of having a customer service plan is to minimize the confusion of your employees regarding how they should deal with customer issues. Besides, it would also help them understand the extent of their power and their limitations in dealing with the situation. Another benefit of the service plan is, it will benefit the maintenance of a good relationship between your clients and your company.

What are the essential skills of a customer representative?

Customer service representatives should be competent in persuading and communicating with clients. Some required skills in the job description of a representative include skills in practicing reflection, adapting to changes, decision-making, and empathizing with clients. Exercising patience towards problematic people is also a requirement for customer service representatives to implement.

What are the principles of customer service?

The first and most significant principle of customer service is to have a great extent of services and product knowledge . Another one is to listen to their concerns and respond to them respectfully. You also have to be honest and take accountability for your mistakes and the things you don’t know.

Sustaining and preserving stability in your relationship with clients, similar to other relationships, involves a careful process. A single mistake can end the relationship you tried so hard to maintain and cherish. As a person in the business profession, you need to consider a lot of factors. To achieve great heights in your business, compose a customer service plan that would satisfy your clients, protect your employees, and benefit your company all at the same time.

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8 SMART Customer Service Goals [With Real Business Examples]

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The right customer service goals can help your brand boost customer satisfaction, increase loyalty, and create new conversions. 

But where do you get started?

Which metrics should you be tracking, and what strategies should you put in place? 

In this article, we’ll be looking at 8 SMART customer service goals championed by real companies. We'll cover:

  • SMART framework for customer service goals
  • 8 examples of critical customer service goals
  • The next step to achieving your customer service goals

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  • What is a SMART goal in customer service?

One of the worst mistakes companies make when setting customer service goals is creating vague or unrealistic objectives. 

The SMART framework helps you avoid this. 

By setting goals that are S pecific, M easurable, A ttainable, R elevant, and T ime-bound, you can make sure you’re on the road to customer service perfection. 

To show you how you can put this framework into action, we’ve included examples in our customer service goals list below.  Customer service goals examples

Graphic detailing the SMART framework

  • Key customer service goals

Whether you’re an established customer service manager or just starting to focus on your customer service efforts, take a look at the following goals and question which will work best for your business.

1. Reduce customer wait times

KPI: First Response Time (FRT) and Average Response Time (ART)

There’s many customer service goals and performance metrics to track, but one hugely important goal for your customers is reducing how long they wait for a response. 

The longer you keep customers waiting, the more frustrated they are going to get. 

In fact, a slow response time is one of the biggest indicators of poor customer service overall. 

So, how do you tackle this customer service goal and improve you response times? 

Solution:   One of the best ways to reduce customer waiting time is to get serious about your contact channels . 

By adopting an omnichannel customer experience , you’ll be able to respond to your customers quickly and efficiently - however they get in touch. 

You should also focus on how you’re measuring the improvements made to your response speed.

Mark Daoust at Quiet Light suggests using flow charts to track the company’s average response time, and they’ve seen some very impressive results.

From using these tracking methods, the company has gone from an average of 1.5 business days down to 0.8 FRT.

‘Our customers are consistently impressed with the speed at which we get back to them.’ 

Another smart way to reduce your customer wait times is to actually display your average wait time to your customer.

‍ It's the same with your open and close times too.

Doing so will allow you to manage customer expectations and give them the chance to choose a different channel if their query isn't urgent - lowering wait times once more.

Thankfully, with Talkative, you can do this automatically from your no-code chat widget designer .

Graphic of waiting customers and timer icons

2. Improve turnaround times

KPI : Average Handle Time (AHT)

Much like long response times, slow turnaround times are another huge digital customer service mistake . 

Customers hate having to endure unnecessarily long interactions, especially when they’re kept on hold for a quick query. 

It’s why improving your AHT is another crucial customer service goal. 

The problem with this goal is that customers can be incredibly demanding: they want their answers fast. 

So, how do you effectively tackle this challenge and improve your AHT? 

Solution: Like improving your FRT, one of the best ways of improving your AHT is to take a look at the communication channels you use. 

From there, you can start to examine how your staff use these channels, and how you can incentivise them into delivering a stronger performance .  

Austin Fain from Perfect Steel Solutions took this double-headed approach and saw some great results: 

‘Most of the companies in our industry provide customer support primarily through email or phone calls - which means long waiting periods. We shook things up by adding a live chat feature onto our website.’ 

Next, the company introduced a bonus for their contact centre agents, offering incentives for the staff with the lowest AHT. 

Thanks to this strategy, the company has seen a 55% improvement in their turnaround times, and a much happier customer base overall.  

Smiling contact center agent on laptop

3. Improve employee skill and satisfaction ‍

KPI: AHT, Employee Feedback, & Staff Turnover  

This customer service goal and it’s solution is closely linked to improving turnaround times. 

While improving your AHT can be achieved by adopting new contact channels, improving your employee’s troubleshooting skills and overall job satisfaction will also make a big difference too. 

Despite what you might be thinking, the answer doesn’t just lie in training.

Solution: Achieving this customer service goal requires a multifaceted approach once again.

While staff training is incredibly important for a reliable and capable customer service team, employee satisfaction and wellbeing are also paramount. 

Thomas Fultz recognised this in his role as CEO at Coffeeble .

He notes that the company’s entire customer experience hinges on staff wellbeing: 

‘The best tools I found to support proper customer service & retention were the ones that supported the lives of our staffers.’ 

To make sure staff were working to their best ability, the company hired a wellbeing manager and treated their staff to meditation app subscriptions and more regular breaks. 

In turn, their revitalised staff were better equipped to tackle their workloads with skill and focus, helping the company to further their online success. 

It’s proof that when it comes to acing your customer service goals, supporting your staff is just as important as supporting your customers. 

Happy call center agent

4. Improve customer satisfaction  ‍

KPI: Customer satisfaction (CSAT) and Average Review Ratings 

Achieving this customer service goal offers a whole host of benefits to your company, from improving customer retention and loyalty to creating customer advocates. 

The hard part about improving your CSAT score is that customer satisfaction can be fickle.  

In fact, every step of the customer experience can affect how the customer feels overall. 

So, how are you supposed to know which areas of customer experience are succeeding and which are failing? 

Solution:   The fastest way to achieve this customer service goal is by using website engagement tools to survey and monitor your customers. 

For instance, Todd Ramlin of Cable Compare notes that they’ve had great success from using CSAT surveys and social listening tools.

CSAT surveys allow direct feedback from their customers while they are on their site. 

Social listening tools allow the company to monitor social mentions and direct feedback. Todd explains: 

‘This tactic also gives us an opportunity to interact with these customers again, either to thank them for positive comments or offer to resolve any negative issues they have with our service.’ 

To further improve on this strategy, you could also take things one step further by reviewing public rating sites too. 

This is just what Maddy Brown from Spacer did to improve their customer service efforts.  

By checking in on these sites, you’ll be able to develop an average review rating from truly unbiased feedback.

Customer on laptop

5. Increase customer advocacy  ‍

KPI: Net Promoter Score (NPS) & positive survey feedback

What separates improving customer satisfaction from this customer service goal is the metrics and indicators you use to measure success. 

CSAT scores can measure your customers’ satisfaction during their time on your site.

On the other hand, NPS scores  allow you to understand which of your customers are most likely to recommend your business to others in the future. 

The better your NPS score, the more proof you have that you’re offering the best customer service possible. 

But how do you really make sure you’re improving your NPS and turning your customers into advocates?

Solution:   To achieve this customer service goal, there’s two main actions you’ll want to take. 

Firstly, implement NPS surveys throughout your site. 

Secondly, it’s a great idea to start ongoing conversations with your current customer base. Ask them what is working for them and what could be improved.

Andrea Barnhill of Socratik Agency took this approach when seeking to improve their customer service. 

She notes that the company conducts an annual feedback survey with their clients to understand what they appreciate about their partnership, and where they can improve. 

Barnhill says  that some of this feedback has proved so important, it’s become a core part of the company’s mission moving forward. 

In turn, their customer service has always remained on point, earning more repeat business and more customer advocates in the long run. 

Happy customer on smartphone and laptop

6. Increasing customer loyalty

KPI : Customer Retention Rate (CRR) & Customer Churn 

One of the best ways to know if your customer service efforts need improving is by measuring how many customers are leaving you for your competitors. 

If you’re seeing a low CRR and a high amount of churn, chances are that you need to focus on this customer service goal the most. 

But how do you make sure your customers want to keep coming back for more? 

Solution: One of the best ways to increase your customer’s loyalty is to ensure that your company follows a customer-centric philosophy. 

This is what Roy Morejon from Enventys Partners suggests for improving low CRR and decreasing churn.

He notes that a double-headed approach works best:

Firstly, companies should always strive to offer as much value to their customers as possible. 

Secondly, companies need to show appreciation for their customers whenever possible. 

For instance, if a customer has a complaint, Morejon suggests ‘actively listening and offering value back to the customer with your resolution (a free deal/service, a thorough explanation of the problem, and how you can solve it, etc.).' 

Next, when it comes to showing appreciation to your customers, strive to create real and lasting relationships with them:

‘Offer special deals for birthdays, loyalty points, free surprise items, etc. These are all great ways to remind the customer that you are always appreciative of their support.’ 

However you go about providing value and showing your appreciation, creating a customer-first approach means you’ll achieve higher levels of customer loyalty with ease. 

Magnet attracting customers

7. Promote self-service and increase efficiency 

KPI:  Interaction Queues & Abandonment Rates 

Sometimes, customers just want to help themselves. They know the problem they are looking to solve is a simple one. 

This is where self-service tools like chatbots , knowledge bases, and FAQ pages come in. 

The only problem with this approach is knowing which tools are going to be the most effective for your customers. 

So, how do you tackle this customer service goal and increase your team’s efficiency? 

Solution: The best approach to promoting more self-service amongst your customers is to take a look at your website’s digital journey . 

By doing so, you can identify the pain points your customers will face along the way. 

For instance, say you offer live chat, but your live chat queues are clogged by customers with simple queries. 

You could deploy a chatbot to deflect queries that don’t require a human response to solve this problem

Once you’ve done so, check your chatbot analytics to review just how much more efficient your customer service efforts have become. 

Another tip is to start anticipating customer needs by putting more information at your customer’s disposal. 

For example, Francesca Nicasio of Payment Depot took this approach when considering how best to curate the company’s marketing content. 

After coming to the realisation that the site’s content should be as helpful to customers as a customer service representative, Nicasio made sure to double down on their site’s offering. 

She notes that, ‘ultimately, content should serve to help meet the goals of your business and give people the best customer experience possible.’

So make sure your content offers as much useful information as possible, right up front. 

Couple this approach with smart contact channels, and completing this customer service goal will be a breeze. 

Chatbot graphic

8. Humanize the customer experience 

This customer service goal might not come with an easily defined metric, but taking a holistic approach to humanizing your customer experience can yield some fantastic customer service results. 

Websites are no longer a static brochure for your products or services. They are now an integral part of the customer journey. 

As such, not only do you need to offer a seamless customer experience , you also need to bring a human element to your online customer service efforts. 

But how do you make sure your customers receive the same experience online as they would in store? 

Solution: One of the best ways to humanize the customer experience is to start prioritising personalization and convenience for your customers. 

For instance, Laura Blackwell from Vape Town has recently seen a boost in sales after providing local customers with a click-and-collect service - a tactic that bridged the gap between the company’s in-store and online experience. 

That said, there are many other tactics you can use to offer your customers sterling service - wherever they’re based. 

One of your best options is video chat . 

The use of video chat for customer service has exploded by 400% over the last few years, and there are some good reasons why. 

Not only does it provide your customers with a convenient and personalized way to engage with your company, it’s also proven to be more effective than live chat as a communication tool. 

For instance, while video chat immediately helps to create a personal connection between customers and advisors, it also allows you to give customers instant answers. 

In fact, video sessions tend to last around 6 minutes - which is actually shorter than the 10 minute average length of live chat! 

It means that video chat is not only the smart choice in terms of humanizing your website, but also in terms of achieving customer service efficiency too. 

Video chatting customer and store assistant

  • The takeaway

Undoubtedly, working to improve customer service is an important endeavor for any business.

In an increasingly saturated market, offering outstanding service is the only sure-fire way to stand out from your competitors.

A positive customer experience is also proven to increase customer retention, brand loyalty, and conversions.

With the SMART customer service goals covered in this article, you can take your brand’s customer experience to the next level.

But in order to achieve these goals, you also need the right customer service technology to facilitate them.

And that's where Talkative comes in.

With our innovative digital engagement platform, you can provide superior service and personalized experiences through all of your customers' favorite channels.

Want to learn more? Book a demo with Talkative today and discover how we can help you exceed all your digital customer service goals.

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15 essential strategies to improve customer service performance in 2022

Improving customer service performance

Continually improving customer service performance is vital as it’s one of the definitive drivers of company profitability. In fact, it’s not unrealistic to expect sales increases of 20% or more of total company revenue by delivering excellence in customer service. 

Fortunately, there is an abundance of tactics you can try to improve your team’s performance. From implementing a quality assurance strategy to asking for honest feedback from your customers, these will help provide a seamless customer journey from prospect to post-sale.

Having the tools to show your team their performance and impact on the customer experience can help them improve their performance. The right tools will help you take corrective action before it is too late. Genuine, continuous conversations with your team will help them improve their performance and  increase your customer retention rate. 

In this article, you’ll learn 15 strategies to improve customer service performance in 2022, so let’s dive in. 

strategies to improve customer service performance

15 surefire ways to improve your team’s customer service performance 

Your customer service team is the front line of your company. They will be the ‘face’ of what customers see as representing your brand. Agents will provide the impression each of your customers has about your company, so it’s important to make sure the quality of service is up to company standards. There are a number of actionable ways to improve customer service performance in your team.

Let’s take a look at the strategies for providing excellent customer service here: 

1. Understand customers needs

When asking yourself how to provide good customer service, this tip is first for a reason: it’s the most important. Everything your customer service team does should be based on the customer’s needs. Understanding exactly what those needs are will help guide your customer service strategy. 

The best way to learn your customers’ needs is to ask them. Use a survey, an email, a phone call, or whatever resources you have available to ask them about their needs specific to your industry.

business plan for customer service department

2. Train empathy

Understanding your customer’s specific need is just the first step. What, and often more importantly, how you interact with them is vital to ensure the success of your customer service performance strategy. 

Often, when companies look at improving their performance management systems they are driven by the business’ bottom line, yet customer support teams should understand that how a customer feels after their interaction with you, will increase customer loyalty. 

Including empathy in your performance coaching initiatives will help you focus on increasing customer satisfaction – which will, in turn, affect your bottom line. 

empathy scale in customer service

3. Encourage honest customer feedback

Having a culture of honesty and integrity means more than just putting it on a poster around the office. It means promoting it in each meeting, email, and call that you and your team have with each other and the customer.

Listening to your customer’s feedback makes them not only feel valued, but also leaves them feeling positive about your brand. Good customer feedback generates positive reviews. Bad customer feedback generates opportunities for improvement. 

Even difficult conversations with customers will be easier and more productive if the customer feels more comfortable. Encourage your agents to uphold this culture and you’ll receive the real feedback that will help you and your team learn and improve performance. 

4. Set up a framework to measure your team’s performance

Having customer service performance metrics to work toward is the perfect way to set your team up for success. The only way to determine the right key performance indicators (KPIs) is to create a solid framework to guide you. 

Depending on the core competencies of your teams, you could decide to track:

  • Customer Satisfaction Scores (CSAT), 
  • Negative Response Rate  (NRR), 
  • Reopen Rate
  • First Contact Resolution (FCR)
  • Average Resolution Time (ART)
  • Employee engagement

Work with your team to determine which KPIs you’ll track , and use these numbers to provide direction on which activities to focus on. 

5. Set individual and team goals

Once you have your framework, you can determine what both your team and each individual need to accomplish. Allow your agents to determine and track their individual goals based on what the team agreed on together. 

Having your agents set their own goals empowers them to take true ownership and achieve them. This feeling of accomplishment translates into more engagement and higher productivity. Your team’s customer service performance goals then align with the company’s goals naturally.

But, this doesn’t necessarily mean that they will reach the goals you’ve agreed. Tracking their performance (and having a culture of honesty and integrity), can help you to support your team when any issues arise, so you can overcome them together. 

business plan for customer service department

6. Streamline manual processes

In many cases, optimizing processes can save you and your team time and reduce errors. One option is to use software built to reduce tedious tasks, calculate trends, or automate your reports. 

With the extra time you’ll gain, you can focus on more important things like training your team, evaluating data, or solving customer problems. Cutting out these manual processes can also encourage agents to embrace technology that increases their productivity. 

7. Set and communicate service standards

Simply setting goals isn’t enough to accomplish them. Create a customer service quality assurance framework and make sure your team is aware of your expectations. Provide agents with a quality assurance checklist to detail what’s most important when helping customers. 

However you choose to give quality feedback to your team, ensure it’s consistent, on a regular basis, and clear. This kind of transparency (see number ten below) will do wonders for your team’s overall success and motivation.

8. Establish a coaching environment

Providing your customer service teams with quality feedback is only half the battle. Sure, you can measure their performance — how long did it take to answer a call or resolve an issue.  But when issues crop up, having the ability to flag them, and immediately feed back on any issue can help your teams improve their customer service. Often, the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ of your feedback is what makes it useful. 

Giving your teams advice on how to improve , rather than just telling them that they are not reaching their goals, helps to motivate change. It provides clarity. 

Coaching is also vital to stop those issues from occurring in the first place. Continuously coaching, advising, mentoring your customer support agents, and giving them the tools to anticipate your customer’s needs, quite simply enhances your customers’ experience.  

9. Use an omnichannel customer service strategy 

Creating a sense of accessibility in today’s digital world is important, but it’s also crucial to make sure you don’t overstretch your resources to be everywhere.  You can consider options like email, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter to make the customer’s experience easier and faster. The first step to creating this accessibility is to find out where your customers prefer to seek out help and focus your efforts on those channels. 

You can also create a place for customer self-service (CSS) to reduce your teams’ customer contact rate . For example, an FAQ page, a help center, or a community forum can help customers resolve issues without having to contact your CS team.

Omnichannel customer service

10. Be transparent and provide feedback

Transparency amongst your team combined with providing regular, quality feedback will solidify the communication you have with each other. Allowing each team member to see their numbers in real-time will not only motivate them but provide a sense of ownership.

Open communication also results in more efficient 1:1 meetings as agents are no longer blind to their performance. This insight allows them to be more productive, make faster tweaks to their performance, and be prepared for conversations about their results.

11. Use customer service performance management software

Technology can be intimidating for some. What’s most important with customer service performance management software is to ensure it’s effective as well as user-friendly. Choosing software can seem daunting at first, but once your team is up and running it will be a massive time-saver.

Of course, connecting it with Kaizo’s Platform will ensure you’re set up for success. You’ll be able to create gamified tasks, monitor performance, provide corrective direction, and improve quality assurance with ease.

Kaizo Performance Management Platform

12. Create an engaging company culture

Creating an environment where your team members feel engaged can help boost employee happiness and reduce agent turnover. One way to do this is to gamify your training and performance management.

By using gamification, providing productive feedback, and maintaining great relationships and communication with your team, you can ensure your employees are engaged. This type of company culture leads to improved team spirit which translates to better performance and more satisfied customers.

13. Set up an employee recognition and rewards program

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs states that our fourth need after food, safety, and love is esteem. This includes feelings of recognition, attention, confidence, and the ability to achieve.

Create an employee rewards program to help your employees feel appreciated. Anything from a $5 gift card to announcing someone as the employee of the month can boost confidence in themselves and the company. Don’t underestimate non-material and non-monetary recognition either. For some, it could mean the difference between the bare minimum and a stellar results month.

14. Hire the ‘right’ candidates

When thinking about how to improve customer service skills in your team, the starting point is to hire people best suited for the job. One way to do this is to look for personalities and aspirations in interviews in addition to skills because motivated people can learn what’s needed.

It can be difficult to identify the best candidates, but evaluating their empathy and problem-solving skills is essential in finding great customer service agents. The key? Look for people who live to help other people.

15. Get it done the first time

One of the best ways to achieve increased performance is to solve all the customer’s problems the first time. Calculating and tracking your First Contact Resolution score (FCR) will help you understand the importance of spending extra time upfront to provide a quality reply the first time. 

Oftentimes leaders spend more time focusing on the speed of resolution than actually solving the problem. This ultimately leads to a much higher reopen rate, thus negating all of your efforts.

Further reading: 12 essential customer service metrics & KPIs + how to apply them

Get started with improving your team’s customer service performance 

There is no single answer to the question, ‘ what is the key to great customer service?’, but combining these strategies will empower your team to work together and help each other which can drastically improve your bottom line. Creating a strategy, setting customer service goals, and involving your team in the process helps encourage the teamwork necessary to succeed. Make it part of your culture and lead by example to motivate agents.

No matter the process you choose, the KPIs you measure, or how you motivate your team, your company expects the best. You can come prepared with Kaizo’s solutions to save the day and make sure your team is aligned all at once.

Kaizo customer service

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More From Forbes

3 steps to master customer service in 2024.

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Customer Service

In the dynamic customer service landscape, the stakes are higher than ever. In fact, ​​ 80% of organizations expect to compete mainly based on CX. Customers today have lofty expectations for how they would like to be treated, and it doesn’t take much for them to walk away. No matter how stellar your product or service may be, no company can afford to lose customers because of bad service– and survive in today’s environment.

As companies finalize its customer service strategies for 2024, they want to do everything in their power to win big. To do so, they must align their approach and supporting technology with the evolving needs and expectations of customers. Unsurprisingly, AI will be instrumental in helping companies earn the CX credibility they’re seeking. In turn, companies can focus on harnessing the winning formula for customer service: efficiency + automation + personalization = success.

1.Personalization

Personalization will be more important than ever in 2024. One McKinsey survey found that over 70% of customers expect personalized service and Twilio TWLO research found that 60% of consumers will become repeat buyers after a personalized purchasing experience. But personalization isn’t just addressing customers by name. Customers crave a personal, emotional connection and experience with your brand, one that prioritizes their unique wants and needs.

To deliver that tailored experience, businesses must make the most of the wealth of customer data they have – everything from behavior and sentiment to intentions and actions. The best CRM systems utilize advanced data analytics and AI-driven algorithms that help businesses gather and interpret customer data to create highly personalized services and recommendations. Through the power of AI, businesses can understand and respond to customer needs in real time, helping them feel more understood and valued. This will yield more dynamic and responsive customer interactions in the long run.

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Remember that customer expectations aren’t just shaped by previous experiences with your brand. They’re shaped by their experiences with other businesses across a variety of industries. One study found that nearly half of customers who left a brand they’d been loyal to in the past year said it was due to poor CX. On the flip side, customers are 2.4 times more likely to stick with a brand when their problems are solved quickly.

Businesses continue to do more with less to compete, and efficiency is often the key. Rapid response times, reduced wait periods, and swift issue resolution are crucial for building and sustaining customer satisfaction. When interactions between brands and customers are optimized, both parties win. Customers benefit from faster and high-quality service, and customer service professionals streamline their workloads by removing redundancies.

When you’re choosing your CX technology, keep efficiency top of mind. Look for tools that give your agents the opportunity to focus on higher-level interactions without having to worry about repetitive tasks. Advanced communication and AI-enabled tools can optimize response workflows, ensuring that customers experience quick and hassle-free interactions. Importantly, implementing data analytics can help you identify patterns, forecast service demands, and proactively address potential issues, enhancing operational efficiency and reinforcing your commitment to customer satisfaction in the process.

3.Automation

Automation has been a CX game-changer, allowing businesses to handle routine tasks swiftly and more effectively allocate resources. Amidst the rise of generative AI, chatbots, virtual assistants, and automated ticketing systems will make it easier for CX departments to handle routine queries so that human agents can focus on more complex and personalized customer interactions. It’s time to take advantage of these advancements.

Keep in mind that half of today’s workforce is millennials and gen Zers — generations that have come of age constantly learning and adapting to new technology. They are comfortable with generative AI and motivated to do work that matters to the customer. The right modern CRM can make all the difference. Look for a CRM with automation that offloads tedious and repetitive actions and that uses AI-fueled process guidance and guides users through the best actions and conversations. This will help your customer service arm deliver a more seamless, efficient and strategic customer experience.

The Winning Formula In Action

For CX to meet rising customer demands and expectations, efficiency, automation and personalization must play a pivotal role. It’s no longer about just answering customer questions or resolving customer problems. Today, companies must have the tools to understand customer needs and business interactions more holistically so that they can anticipate what customers want now, next month and even next year.

Luckily, thanks to AI, there’s no shortage of data to work with to make this a reality. But businesses must make use of real-time, customer-first data to connect with customers like never before, leveraging a complete and single view of the customer to deliver more personalized service experiences from day one. How well a company can drill down on the specific needs of their customers– with context and insight– is what will separate the customer service winners from the losers.

The right technology will maximize the winning CX formula, delivering value to both sides– your business and your customers. At that point, everybody wins big.

Brad Birnbaum

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How to Write a Cleaning Service Business Plan + Free Sample Plan PDF

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Elon Glucklich

7 min. read

Updated February 17, 2024

Free Download: Cleaning Service Business Plan Template

With busy schedules and job demands, not everyone has time to clean up after themselves. 

That’s why nearly 10 percent of Americans hired residential cleaning services as of 2020, and the demand for cleaners is rising. And despite a resistance to return to the office, commercial cleaning remains a $100 billion industry . Building owners still need pristine spaces if a lease or sale opportunity arises.

If you’re getting into the cleaning industry, or trying to grow your existing business, you’ll need to do some upfront work. That’s where a business plan comes in. This article will help you ensure that you’re meeting the right market opportunity, and that your business brings in enough revenue to be profitable long-term. If you need a bank loan or investment , a business plan will be crucial.

Are you looking for a free, downloadable cleaning service sample business plan PDF to help start your own business plan, Bplans has you covered.

  • What should you include in a cleaning service business plan?

Keep your plan concise, and focus only on the most important sections for your business. Your plan will likely include some or all of these sections:

  • Executive summary
  • Market analysis
  • Products and services
  • Marketing and sales strategy
  • Company overview
  • Financial plan

It’s especially important for a cleaning service business plan to consider the wide range of services and related products you may offer. Your business might provide specialized cleaning services, or sell eco-friendly cleaning products along with cleaning homes or office spaces.

You’ll need to detail your strategies for promoting each of these products and services to maximize the revenue you generate from each client.

Here’s an example of a cleaning service business plan outline.

A sample outline for a cleaning service business plan.

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  • The 8 elements of an effective cleaning service business plan

1. Executive summary

The executive summary is a broad overview of your plan. Without going over one to two pages, outline all of the components of your cleaning service business. 

Include a mission statement in your executive summary. This simple, action-oriented statement explains your company’s purpose. Maybe your goal is to grow into your area’s leading residential cleaning service. Or to expand the market for eco-friendly cleaning solutions. It summarizes what your company does for customers, employees, and owners. It also helps someone reading your business understand in greater detail what sets your business apart from competitors, and how it will be profitable.

If you’re writing your plan for a bank or investor, they will start with the executive summary. So it’s where you’ll want to make a good first impression. Try to draw them in right away by showing you have a clear value proposition.

2. Market analysis

The market analysis section is where you make the case that your business can generate enough demand to be successful. To do that, you’ll need to thoroughly assess your market, identifying key trends in the region’s home or commercial real estate sectors that might indicate a need for your services.

Evaluate the size of your potential market , including residential and commercial segments. You should also analyze the competition . Start by identifying the number of existing providers and their service offerings, and highlight any gaps you observe in the market that your business can fill.

3. Cleaning services and products

This section should detail the cleaning services and products you offer. These may include various residential and commercial cleaning services, like standard cleaning, deep cleaning, specialized disinfection services, or eco-friendly cleaning options.

If you plan to use specific cleaning products or specialized equipment, also detail these. Emphasize any services or products that set your business apart from the competition, like allergen-free cleaning services for homes or exclusively green cleaning products.

4 . Marketing and sales strategy

Your marketing and sales strategy is how you put your market research into action to attract and retain customers for your cleaning service.

Start by identifying the most effective marketing channels for reaching your target market, such as online advertising, social media , local flyers, or partnerships with real estate agencies.

To reach the broadest customer base possible, outline your digital and traditional marketing strategies. Discuss the importance of a strong online presence, including a user-friendly website and active social media profiles to build brand awareness and credibility. 

You should also provide information about your pricing strategy , and whether you’ll offer special promotions or loyalty programs to encourage repeat business and referrals.

5. Milestones

The milestones section is where you outline the key objectives for your business and timelines for achieving them. This section can be short, with individual milestones listed as bullet points.

Milestones could include securing initial funding, acquiring necessary licenses, launching your marketing campaign, reaching a certain number of clients, or hitting revenue targets. Be sure to list when you expect to achieve each milestone, and which members of your team will be responsible for reaching them.

6. Company overview

The company summary gives a brief overview of your cleaning business. Include the legal structure , target service area, and history of your business if it already exists.

If you’re writing your plan because you’re seeking funding for your business from a bank, clearly state how much you’ll need, how you plan to use it, and how it will benefit the business. Funding uses could include purchasing new equipment to expand your services, or hiring additional staff to widen your service area.

You can also include a brief management team section covering your key employees, their roles, responsibilities, qualifications, and experience. 

If you plan to contract with cleaning crews instead of hiring employees, describe how this arrangement will work and why you think it will benefit your business.

7. Financial plan and forecasts

Your financial plan should present detailed financial projections, including revenue , costs , and profitability .

If you’re a new business, list your startup costs , including initial equipment, supplies, licensing, and marketing investments. Also, outline your funding sources, such as loans, investments, or personal savings going into the business.

Include a cash flow statement , income statement , and balance sheet . The financial statements and projections should demonstrate your cleaning service’s potential to generate sustainable profits over the long term.

8. Appendix

The appendix is an optional section for you to add supporting information or documents that don’t fit within the plan. This could include market research data, lease agreements, employee contracts, or licensing and permit documents.

  • Writing an effective cleaning service business plan: Key considerations

When writing your cleaning service business plan, focus on these areas to increase your likelihood of success.

1. Offer diverse service offerings

The cleaning industry caters to a wide array of customer needs, from residential homes with regular upkeep, to commercial spaces that need specialized sanitation. Offering services to the broadest customer base you can manage will help you expand your share of the market .

2. Pricing strategy  

Your pricing strategy is vital to balance attracting and retaining customers to ensure your business remains profitable. 

Extensive market research into competitors should help you understand what represents a competitive pricing structure in your target area. Offering flexible pricing models, like flat rates for certain services or discounts for recurring appointments, can also appeal to a broader customer base. Just make sure your forecasts show that you’ll generate more revenue from repeat business through any discounts you decide to offer.

3. Protect your reputation

Trust and reputation are crucial in the cleaning service industry, where small mistakes can cost you customers. Consider in your marketing plan whether your branding and customer feedback policies emphasize your commitment to quality work and reliable service. And make sure to check how your business is being reviewed online.

4. Professional training and standards

To achieve a reputation as a high-quality cleaning service, your standards as a business owner need to trickle down to your employees. The operations section of your plan should include training your workers on the latest cleaning techniques, customer service best practices, and safety protocols to ensure your team meets those high standards you’ve set.

5. Online marketing and presence

We touched on this in the marketing and sales strategy section, but strong online and social media presences are fairly low-cost tactics for reaching new customers. Consider how much a professionally designed website that’s search engine optimized, active social media engagement, and strategic online advertising might increase your visibility.

  • Download your cleaning service sample business plan PDF

Download this cleaning service sample business plan PDF for free right now, or visit Bplans’ gallery of more than 550 sample business plans if you want more options.

Don’t get hung up on finding a sample business plan that exactly matches your cleaning service. Whether you’re setting up a boutique eco-friendly cleaning service or a broad-scale commercial cleaning operation, the core elements of your business plan will largely be consistent.

There are plenty of reasons cleaning service business owners can benefit from writing a business plan — you’ll need one if you’re seeking a loan or investment.

Even if you’re not seeking funding, thinking through every aspect of your business will help you ensure you’re not overlooking anything critical as you grow.

See why 1.2 million entrepreneurs have written their business plans with LivePlan

Content Author: Elon Glucklich

Elon is a marketing specialist at Palo Alto Software, working with consultants, accountants, business instructors and others who use LivePlan at scale. He has a bachelor's degree in journalism and an MBA from the University of Oregon.

Check out LivePlan

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U.S. Department of the Treasury

Treasury publishes 2024 national risk assessments for money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing.

Reports Confirm and Update Key Illicit Finance Concerns in Response to Evolving Threat and Risk Environment 

WASHINGTON –  Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury published the 2024 National Risk Assessments on Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Proliferation Financing. These reports highlight the most significant illicit finance threats, vulnerabilities, and risks facing the United States. 

The reports detail recent, significant updates to the U.S. anti-money laundering/counter-financing of terrorism framework and explain changes to the illicit finance risk environment. These include the ongoing fentanyl crisis, foreign and domestic terrorist attacks and related financing, increased potency of ransomware attacks, the growth of professional money laundering, and continued digitization of payments and financial services. These assessments also address how significant threats to global peace and security—such as Russia’s ongoing illegal, unprovoked, and unjustified war in Ukraine and Hamas’s October 7, 2023 terrorist attacks in Israel—have shaped the illicit finance risk environment in the United States.

Today’s publications are the fourth iterations of the money laundering and terrorist financing risk assessment, and the third update of the proliferation financing risk assessment, in less than a decade. The public and private sectors can use these updated risk assessments to better understand the current illicit finance environment and inform their own risk mitigation strategies. 

“Whether it’s terrorism, drug trafficking, Russian aggression, or corruption, illicit finance is the common thread across our nation’s biggest national security threats,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson. “Treasury, through our National Risk Assessments, is at the cutting edge of analyzing the global risk environment to protect the U.S. and international financial systems from abuse by illicit actors. We urge both the public and private sectors to engage with these reports, as well as our forthcoming National Strategy for Combatting Terrorist and Other Illicit Finance.”

Key findings:

  • Money Laundering : Criminals use both traditional and novel money laundering techniques, depending on availability and convenience, to move and conceal illicit proceeds and promote criminal activity that harms Americans. The crimes that generate the largest amount of illicit proceeds laundered in or through the United States remain fraud, drug trafficking, cybercrime, human trafficking and human smuggling, and corruption. The United States continues to face both persistent and emerging money laundering risks related to: (1) the misuse of legal entities; (2) the lack of transparency in certain real estate transactions; (3) the lack of comprehensive AML/CFT coverage for certain sectors, particularly investment advisers; (4) complicit merchants and professionals that misuse their positions or businesses; and (5) pockets of weaknesses in compliance or supervision at some regulated U.S. financial institutions. 
  • Terrorist Financing : The United States continues to face a wide range of terrorist financing threats and actors, both foreign and domestic. Consistent with the 2022 risk assessment, the most common financial connections between individuals in the United States and foreign terrorist groups entail individuals directly soliciting funds for or attempting to send funds to foreign terrorist groups utilizing cash, registered money services businesses, or in some cases, virtual assets. The 2024 report also discusses Hamas and the ways they exploit the international financial system, including through solicitation of funds from witting and unwitting donors worldwide. Additionally, domestic violent extremist movements have proliferated in recent years, posing an elevated threat to the United States and continued challenges for law enforcement.
  • Proliferation Financing : Russia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) presented heightened risk since the 2022 assessment. To support its unlawful war in Ukraine, Russia has expanded efforts to illegally acquire U.S.-origin goods with military applications using a variety of obfuscation techniques, such as the use of front companies and transshipment points around the world. Networks linked to the DPRK increasingly exploit the digital economy, including through hacking of virtual asset service providers and the overseas deployment of fraudulent information technology workers.

Treasury’s Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes led the assessment process and coordinated closely with offices and bureaus across the Department, relevant law enforcement and regulatory agencies, staff of the federal functional regulators, and across the intelligence and diplomatic communities.

In the coming weeks, Treasury will release the 2024 National Strategy for Combatting Terrorist and Other Illicit Finance, a strategic plan directly informed by the analysis contained in the risk assessments. In the strategy, Treasury will share recommendations for addressing the highlighted issues. This valuable feedback has aided Treasury in assessing and addressing illicit finance risk identified in prior iterations of the strategy to support improvements to the AML/CFT regime, including the launching of the new beneficial ownership reporting requirement that went into effect on January 1, 2024, and informing forthcoming proposed rules to address illicit finance vulnerabilities in the residential real estate sector and for certain investment advisers.

The 2024 National Money Laundering Risk Assessment

The 2024 National Terrorist Financing Risk Assessment

The 2024 National Proliferation Financing Risk Assessment

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Select the tab below for the type of account you're signed in with.

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Have questions about filing taxes? How to call Arizona's tax office and talk to a real person

business plan for customer service department

Filing taxes with the IRS can feel like a maze. Individuals who prepare their taxes may get stuck or have a question and there is no one around to talk to for help.

Previous tax seasons have been difficult for taxpayers seeking agency customer service support. Phone numbers have led to dead ends due to a lack of personnel at the IRS. The most recent National Taxpayer Advocate's report to Congress noted a 2% increase in tax callers being able to reach an IRS employee – a total of only 13% of all calls.

A recent push to hire IRS workers seems to be having a positive effect as more people are talking to representatives on the main helpline.

Here is what to know if you are trying to contact the IRS to speak to a live person:

When can I file my taxes for 2023? What you need to know about tax brackets, deadlines

What is the IRS phone number and call center hours?

There are multiple lines to reach the Internal Revenue Service tasked to handle an array of tax filer questions. The phone services are available Monday through Friday.

  • For  individual  tax return inquiries call  800-829-1040 . The line is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Arizona time.
  • For  business  tax return inquiries call  800-829-4933 . The line is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Arizona time.
  • For  nonprofit  tax return inquiries call  877-829-5500 . The line is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Arizona time.
  • For inquiries regarding  estate and gift taxes  call  866-699-4083 . The line is open from 6 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Arizona time.
  • For inquiries regarding  excise taxes  call  866-699-4096 . The line is open from ​​​​​6 a.m. to 4 p.m. Arizona time.

For hearing-impaired individuals, dial  800-829-4059 .

For help in all other languages, call  833-553-9895 .

Do you have to pay taxes on crypto? What to know about bitcoin, digital assets when filing

What is the IRS phone number to the Spanish line?

For help in Espanol, call  800-829-1040 .

What is the IRS payment plan phone number for a live person?

Though no line is dedicated to calling about installment agreements with the IRS, the agency recommends that those seeking help call 800-829-1040  (for individuals) or  800-829-4933  (for businesses) for assistance.

What is the IRS offset phone number?

For those who might owe money to the IRS and are due a refund for the current tax year, that refund money will likely be automatically put toward paying down the debt.

If this sounds like something that may have happened with your refund, you can call  800-304-3107 .

How do I use the IRS live chat?

The agency's live chat function services general questions and can assist with frequently asked questions. However, it is not a remedy for more individualized questions.

How do I call the IRS to find out where's your refund?

Those seeking to know the status of their tax refund can use the agency's "Where's my refund tool?" on the IRS website by visiting https://www.irs.gov/refunds . If calling is your preferred method of contact an automated line can help find that information, by calling 800-829-1954 .

Have a question you need answered? Reach the reporter at  [email protected] . Follow him on X, formerly Twitter  @raphaeldelag .

NBC New York

Here's what's open and closed on Presidents Day 2024 and why we celebrate the holiday

Here's a look at what presidents day is, when it takes place and what will be open and closed, published february 16, 2024 • updated on february 17, 2024 at 1:40 pm.

The U.S. is celebrating Presidents Day Monday and while many will be off work for the federal holiday, they'll also be wondering where they can go and what they can do.

Here's a look at what Presidents Day is, when it takes place and what will be open and closed:

What is Presidents Day and why do we celebrate it?

The earliest iteration of Presidents Day dates back to the 1800s, when the life of first U.S. President George Washington was celebrated each Feb. 22, which was his birthday, according to History.com . In 1885, Washington's birthday became the first to be designated as a federal holiday.

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Then, in 1971, the holiday was moved to third Monday in February as a result of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which was designed to give workers a number of three-day weekends throughout the year. According to the National Archives , the position of the holiday between Washington's birthday and Abraham Lincoln's birthday, which was Feb. 12, "gave rise to the popular name of Presidents Day."

Since Lincoln's birthday wasn't a federal holiday, Presidents Day has become a day to honor both presidents.

When is Presidents Day?

U.s. & world.

business plan for customer service department

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Officials identify two victims found shot and killed in Colorado student dorm

In 2024, Presidents Day falls on Monday, Feb. 19.

What's open and closed for Presidents Day 2024?

Because Presidents Day is a federal holiday, many facilities will be closed.

Banks: Mostly closed

Presidents Day is a holiday for the Federal Reserve Bank, meaning most bank locations will be closed. TD Bank stores will be open, though.

Post office: Closed

Because Presidents Day is a federal holiday, USPS offices will be closed.

UPS: Locations open

UPS says "pickup and delivery services are available," on Presidents Day. The company notes that UPS SurePost and UPS Mail Innovations deliveries "will require one additional business days’ time in transit due to the Federal (USPS) holiday."

The UPS Store locations are open, however.

FedEx: Modified service

Though most routes will operate normally, FedEx says it will employ modified service for FedEx Express and Ground Economy for the holiday.

Schools: Mostly closed

Most schools across the country are closed on Presidents Day, with some districts even having off the Friday before the holiday as well.

Grocery stores: Mostly open

Stores like Trader Joe's, Costco and more have said they will operate regular hours. Check your local store for hours.

Retailers and restaurants: Mostly open

While most government functions will not be operating on Monday, most big box stores and restaurants will remain open.

Many major chains will be offering a number of holidays sales in celebration of the day.

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business plan for customer service department

IMAGES

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  2. 5 Steps for Creating a Customer Service Strategy (+ Worksheet) (2023)

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  3. Business Plan Template For Service Company

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  4. FREE 14+ Service Plan Samples & Templates in PDF

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  5. Customer Service Plan Examples

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  6. Customer Support Plan Template

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COMMENTS

  1. Customer Service Business Plan Template

    1. Create a Customer Service Vision It's important to begin by understanding the vision and customer service goals of the organization. This information should be communicated to the employees in order to help them provide the best customer service.

  2. 9 steps to create a customer service plan

    1. Create a customer service strategy The customer service strategy should include the development of a vision and policy. The vision should identify the type of customer service the organization will use, while the core policies direct how the customer service department operates.

  3. How to Create a Customer Service Strategic Plan

    Gartner Customer Service Strategic Planning Template helps customer service leaders define the roadmap for executing the key actions required to meet their customer service strategic goals in alignment with the enterprise business model and goals.

  4. What is a customer service plan? + Template, tips, and examples

    It benefits both businesses and customers: Customer service agents get a blueprint to follow when navigating interactions toward a successful resolution. Customers get a consistent experience every time they interact with your business, no matter where they are in the customer journey.

  5. Customer Service Business Plan Examples

    Learn More Call Center Business Plan Vashon Solicitation Services is a start-up business providing clients with top quality call center services 24 hours-a-day. Personal Shopping Services Business Plan Buy the Time is a start-up personal shopping service based in Seattle, Washington.

  6. Business Plan Template for Customer Service

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    Create a solid plan for dealing with issues. You also need to create a solid structure and procedure for solving customer complaints, feedback and questions. Structure is important because it generates more coherence and confidence within the department, which in turn will help result in better customer service.

  9. 7 Steps to Build a Thriving Customer Service Team

    1. Define "great customer service" for your company Nearly every company claims to provide great customer service. But not all customers have a great experience, so clearly there's opportunity for improvement. That improvement begins with defining "great."

  10. Establishing a Customer Service Department

    Whether you're new to running customer service or at a growing company that is just building out a formal customer service department, preparing a customer service plan for your company should start with what you already know. Like any journey, the secret to creating an effective Customer Service department is starting with a compass and a map - and refining as you move forward. In this 2nd ...

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    Service Business Plan Template. Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 10,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their service businesses. On this page, we will first give you some background information with regards to the importance of business planning. We will then go through a service business ...

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    Here's how you and your business can benefit from a customer service plan: Minimize stress — If you're dealing with customers directly, especially unhappy ones, some stress will naturally result. You can reduce it if you develop a systematic way of dealing with your customers.

  15. How to Set Customer Service Goals (+ 9 Example Goals)

    How to set effective goals Not all goals are created equally. In order for them to be motivating, they need to follow the SMART philosophy: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. For example, you could say that you want to achieve 100% customer satisfaction on all tickets in 2024.

  16. 22 Customer Service Goals to Strive For in 2022 [Updated]

    22 customer service goals to strive for in 2022. 1. Improve how you measure customer service. One of the most common questions about customer service is on how to measure its success and value to your business. There are many ways to do this.

  17. Customer Service Strategy: The Ultimate Guide

    January 20, 2022 - 12:00 am EST Katrina Santa Ana Writer Stay updated on the latest Acquire news With more and more brands for potential customers to choose from every day, how can you make sure you stand out from the crowd? A well-thought-out customer service strategy may well be the answer.

  18. How To Improve Customer Service In 2024

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  19. How to Create a Customer Service Plan

    Create Support Materials. Using the information you gather during your research and employee interviews, create customer service materials and tools you send customers or post on your website or ...

  20. 14+ Customer Service Plan Examples in PDF

    1. Customer Service Improvement Plan Template. 2. Customer Service Development Plan Template. 3. Customer Service Operational Plan Template. 4. Customer Service Action Plan Template. 5.

  21. 8 SMART Customer Service Goals [With Real Business Examples]

    Thanks to this strategy, the company has seen a 55% improvement in their turnaround times, and a much happier customer base overall. 3. Improve employee skill and satisfaction. KPI: AHT, Employee Feedback, & Staff Turnover. This customer service goal and it's solution is closely linked to improving turnaround times.

  22. 15 best strategies to improve your customer service performance ...

    Use a survey, an email, a phone call, or whatever resources you have available to ask them about their needs specific to your industry. 2. Train empathy Understanding your customer's specific need is just the first step.

  23. What Is a Customer Service Plan? (Definition and Tips)

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  25. How to Write a Cleaning Service Business Plan

    Download your cleaning service sample business plan PDF. Download this cleaning service sample business plan PDF for free right now, or visit Bplans' gallery of more than 550 sample business plans if you want more options. Don't get hung up on finding a sample business plan that exactly matches your cleaning service.

  26. Treasury Publishes 2024 National Risk Assessments for Money Laundering

    Reports Confirm and Update Key Illicit Finance Concerns in Response to Evolving Threat and Risk Environment WASHINGTON - Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury published the 2024 National Risk Assessments on Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Proliferation Financing. These reports highlight the most significant illicit finance threats, vulnerabilities, and risks facing the United ...

  27. Manage your Microsoft 365 subscription or Office product

    If you selected My Microsoft account, the Microsoft account dashboard will open.This is where you manage your Microsoft account and any Microsoft products associated with this account. On the Microsoft account dashboard, select Services & subscriptions to view all Microsoft products associated with this account. For non-subscription versions of Office (such as Office 2013 and later):

  28. What's the IRS customer service phone number?

    For individual tax return inquiries call 800-829-1040.. The line is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Arizona time. For business tax return inquiries call 800-829-4933.. The line is open from 7 a.m. to 7 ...

  29. Here's what's open and closed on Presidents Day 2024 and why we

    In 2024, Presidents Day falls on Monday, Feb. 19. What's open and closed for Presidents Day 2024? Because Presidents Day is a federal holiday, many facilities will be closed.