Measure your customer service levels

Where possible, put systems in place to assess your performance in business areas which significantly affect your customers' satisfaction levels. Identify Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which reflect how well you're responding to your customers' expectations.

For instance, you might track:

sales renewal rates

the number of queries or complaints about your products or services

the number of complaints about your employees

the number of damaged or faulty goods returned

average order-fulfilment times

the number of contacts with a customer each month

the volume of marketing material sent out and responses generated

time taken from order to delivery

Your customers and employees will be useful sources of information about the KPIs which best reflect key customer service areas in your business. Make sure the things you measure are driven not by how your business currently runs, but by how your customers would like to see it run.

There are important areas of customer service which are more difficult to measure. Many of these are human factors such as a receptionist's telephone manner or a salesperson's conduct while visiting clients. In these areas it's crucial that you get feedback from your customers about their perceptions of your customer service.

Customer surveys, feedback programmes and occasional phone calls to key customers can be useful ways of gauging how customer service levels in your business are perceived.