10 Customer Service Principles to Guide Your Customer-Facing Teams

I recently had a great customer experience. I ordered a limited edition hardcover book from a local bookseller. 

The delivery? On-time. Timely communication? Check. The best part? I reached out to them for a late change to my order, assuming they wouldn’t be able to accommodate it. But the agent went out of his way to make it possible.

The result? They earned a loyal fan. And probably ten others because I raved about the seller to my friends.

That’s the power of great customer service. 

And I am not alone. Hundreds of people flock over to X and LinkedIn to share customer experiences – good or bad. Here’s an example.

This raises the question: How can companies repeatedly create excellent customer experiences? One way is by prioritizing customer service principles.

In this article, we’ll explore 10 customer service principles and how you can implement them in your organization.

Table of Contents

• What are Customer Service Principles?
• 10 Key Customer Service Principles
  •  1. Knowledge: Know Your Products and Services
  • 2.  Empathy: Show Customers You Understand Them
  • 3. Speed: Act Quickly and Efficiently
  • 4. Accessibility: Make Contacting You Easy
  • 5. Autonomy: Empower Customers
  • 6. Personalization: Create High-Touch Experiences
  • 7. Channel Choice: Meet Customers Where They Are
  •  8. Transparency: Be Honest
  • 9. Consistency: Follow Standard Processes and Procedures
  • 10. Proactivity: Anticipate Problems Before They Arise
• Build a Customer-Centric Culture With Customer Service Principles

What are Customer Service Principles?

Customer service principles are guidelines that dictate how businesses approach customer service. They influence how customers perceive your brand and impact purchasing/retention decisions.

For example, if you priortize empathy as a core customer service principle, your service managers, support reps, and other service professionals are expected to use empathy statements and approach customer issues in an understanding manner. 

10 Key Customer Service Principles

Each organization approaches customer service differently. Some may prioritize speed, while others focus on providing a personalized solution. 

Below are 10 common principles most of our clients at Hiver adopt. You can implement them as they are or tweak them to suit your requirements.

 1. Knowledge: Know Your Products and Services

What’s the first thing you expect when talking to a customer service agent? They would know the product, service, and the company inside out. 

When talking to such an agent, you automatically trust the information they provide is authentic and error-free.

Such agents can resolve queries quickly and effectively. But they can also promote customer success by guiding customers in using the product correctly, directly impacting retention. 

How to achieve this?

• Ensure your team is given a product tour while onboarding. Give them access to utilize the product and learn on their own.
• Have a detailed knowledge desk with information on common FAQs and how to resolve them.
• Use AI tools that assist with information wherever necessary. 
• Enable automated assignments so the right representative is assigned to their area of specialty. For example, all emails with the word “payments” can be auto-assigned to finance specialists.

2.  Empathy: Show Customers You Understand Them

According to a study covering 1500 customer service agents and 3000 customers, 96% said empathy is a crucial factor in customer service interactions. Think about it. Would you be willing to talk to someone who does not understand your problem? Worse yet, who blames it all on you?

On the other hand, wouldn’t this response be better – “Hi Mary, I experienced a similar problem recently, so I understand what you’re going through. Let’s follow some quick steps together to solve your issue.”

Read more: 25 empathy statements for customer service

To focus on empathy as a core customer service principle:

• Provide proper training on how to handle various customer interactions
• Give information on how to deal with gender, cultural, and social differences
• Provide access to some of the best historical customer interactions to create standards
• Provide feedback on real interactions. Offer praise when they demonstrate empathy, reinforcing the behavior.

Here’s what Carren Haudar, tech support engineer at Zoom, has to say on empathy, “The key is taking time. You have to understand their level of understanding of how things work. Delivering happiness isn’t easy. But look at them as humans. Look at them as you and it really would give them a whole lot better experience.”

3. Speed: Act Quickly and Efficiently

Customers don’t want to wait long to get their questions answered. Statistics show the same.

The best way to reduce response times is to implement automated workflows. These workflows could include generating tickets from emails, sending automated email confirmations, and triggering alerts. 

For example, when I contacted Stripe about an issue, they quickly generated an automated ticket and sent me this email.

Just a few minutes after receiving this email, their support team contacted me. 

We also recommend using Hiver to track metrics like average first response time and compliance. This data lets you know how long your team takes to resolve customer requests and how you can optimize that number.

💡Pro-tip: Encourage agents to get on call if there’s a lot of back-and-forth communication with a customer. This is sometimes the quickest way to reach a resolution.

4. Accessibility: Make Contacting You Easy

Have you ever surfed a website from top to bottom just to find a way to reach them? Frustrating, isn’t it? 

If contacting your business isn’t easy, there are high chances you’ll not only lose out on customers but create a bad reputation for yourself.

Three ways to nail this customer service principle:

• Provide a “Get in touch” or “Contact option” on the homepage or navigation bar.

• If you have resources available like FAQs or knowledge desk, let customers know about it.

• Offer live chat support and make that option accessible on key pages of your site. 

You can also set automated email replies and have chatbots so customers can reach you outside of your traditional working hours.

5. Autonomy: Empower Customers

As a customer, I like the immediate help I get from businesses. But more than that, I love businesses that make it easy for me to solve problems on my own. 

Turns out, this is not just me. 61% of consumers prefer using self-service options to solve simple issues.

The best part is you keep your customers happy but also your team less occupied. One customer solving their issue independently is one less call/email to stress about. 

For example, IBM adopted a self-service AI platform called “Watson Assistant” to handle routine customer inquiries. This step reduced call center traffic by 40% and saved costs.

Some self-service options you can provide are FAQs, knowledge desk, AI assistants, and chatbots.

6. Personalization: Create High-Touch Experiences

66% of customers expect brands to understand their wants and needs. This means understanding demographics, preferences, and purchase history. Based on this data, they expect brands to deliver high-touch experiences.

One brand that caught my attention was Whole Foods, a supermarket chain by Amazon. They create a personalized shopping experience across all channels. For example, they keep a record of every purchase the customer has made and organize them so that it’s easy to search and reorder. Based on this history, they send recommendations for new products and recipes.

This also makes it easy for their team to review customer data and provide personalized service.

Here’s our detailed guide on how you can motivate your team to deliver personalized customer service.

7. Channel Choice: Meet Customers Where They Are

Customers reach out to you on channels where they are most comfortable. This could mean calls, emails, social media, or even WhatsApp. 

Some customers may even choose different channels based on how quickly they need their questions answered or how complex their problem is.

This is where a multi-channel helpdesk becomes crucial.

It helps agents quickly switch channels, provide fast support, and have all the interactions in one place. Hiver lets you take calls, deliver WhatsApp support, and track emails, all from your inbox. 

You can even assign tasks to teammates through our platform for easy management and accountability.

When Align Brooklyn, a boutique wellness studio, faced an inefficient email management system, they turned to Hiver. While responses were always delayed earlier, Hiver helped them get complete visibility on customer queries and provide quick responses.

The team saved over 50 hours every month with email notes, tags, and a multi-channel help desk.

“Hiver lets me oversee the queries and their replies. We ensure that our customers always get a prompt response. Emails never go unattended.”

 8. Transparency: Be Honest

Customers want transparent communication. This means letting them know when you do not have sufficient knowledge to resolve their problem.

For example, if you’re on a call with a customer facing a complicated problem, instead of going around in circles with them, say, “Hey Lucy, I actually have limited information on this. Give me a couple of minutes while I escalate this to my manager/colleague.”

One way to avoid this is by providing your team with a detailed handbook on different problems so they can easily search for information and guide customers. A more popular approach is to follow a tiered system, which involves assigning issues based on complexity to different reps.

9. Consistency: Follow Standard Processes and Procedures

78% of customers use multiple channels to start and complete a transaction or communication. You need to make it easy for customers to switch channels without repeating information.

One way to do that is by having standardized processes and procedures. This also ensures that customers get the same experience regardless of the channel or rep they are talking to.

Here are three ways to adopt this customer service principle:

• Identify core processes like issue resolution. Document these processes from start to finish. For example, from creating tickets to assigning reps to resolution.
• Develop SOPs for communication protocols, response times, and issue resolution methods.
• Conduct regular training sessions and emphasize consistency in delivering customer experiences.

10. Proactivity: Anticipate Problems Before They Arise

Proactive customer service involves anticipating and addressing customer needs before they arise. Here’s how it differs from reactive customer service.

Here are a few of my favorite proactive customer service examples to get you inspired:

• Send helpful notifications and reminder messages. For example, instead of waiting for the customer to contact you about a delayed delivery, preemptively send them a simple email like the one below.

• Ask for feedback and collect information about your customers. For example, if you launched a new feature or revamped your product, don’t wait for customers to contact you. Share a simple survey within your app/tool.

• Nudge customers in the right direction. For example, when customers are looking for options and are confused, sharing a promo offer can do the trick. 

Build a Customer-Centric Culture With Customer Service Principles

The definition of excellent customer service is constantly evolving. While it used to be reactive, with minimal emphasis on creating memorable experiences, it’s completely opposite today. You need to solve problems proactively and use tech to deliver personalized experiences.

These customer service principles can be your guiding light to achieving these goals. 

If you want a tool that takes your customer service to the next level, take Hiver for a spin by activating the 7-day free trial.