Customer Service Objective: How to Set Measurable Goals

We talked about the importance of offering excellent customer service in the past and how it can directly influence customer satisfaction. The question remains, how do you know your customer service department is thriving? Today we are tackling the topic of how to set measurable customer service goals and objectives. 

In this article, you’ll gain valuable insight into how well your representatives are performing and what are the key areas that need to be improved.

Why would you bother listening to us? AnswerHero has a proven track record of delivering five-star customer service to clients all around the world. We cover various industries and offer our bilingual service around the clock. Here’s our advice on how to improve your business and grow your brand through flawless customer care.

The Definition of Good Customer Services

When discussing what makes customer service exceptional, it all comes down to being proficient at ensuring that unhappy customers are provided with fast solutions to their problems and that unpleasant situations are resolved quickly and with a positive outcome. So efficiency, expertise, and overall experience altogether play a crucial role in achieving excellence in the customer service department. Luckily, all three can be improved by setting adequate goals and objectives.

What Are Effective Customer Service Goals?

Alright, let’s get into the meat and potatoes of this article and talk about what are effective customer service goals and how to set them.

• Measurable goals make sense

The first rule of setting the right goals is making sure they are measurable. 

What is a measurable goal you might ask? Simply put, it’s a goal that is quantifiable in some way or form and allows you to keep track of progress. If you can’t keep track of your goals, gaining valuable insight will be impossible. Always use metrics to compare previous results with current ones, measure success, or figure out why your team hasn’t achieved its target. 

By implementing measurable goals, you’ll have a streamlined way of telling whether you’re on the right track or if you need to change something.

• They need to be relevant and meaningful

Goals need to be set according to different job roles. That being said, you want to make sure they intertwine and work together. In layman’s terms, your customer service representative should not have the same goals as your customer care director. However, the success or failure of the customer care representative should impact the goals of his team leader, which in turn should impact the goals of the upper management. 

This goal structure represents a symbiotic relationship between all job roles, however, differentiates specific goals according to relevancy. It’s just a matter of understanding what is important for each role.

For example, while support agents will have precise, customer-centric goals, their team leaders will have more broad, operational objectives that are set in place to ensure that everything is working correctly and that their team members are on the right track. Determine what are the most meaningful customer support goals for each position and set them accordingly.

• Ambitious yet attainable

Setting unrealistic goals is one of the most common mistakes managers make in an effort to motivate their staff. Yet unattainable goals are the main reason why customer-facing professionals lose their motivation and drive. Ensure that the objectives set for your customer care team are ambitious but realistic. It’s in the company’s best interest that the goals are met on each level of the customer service pyramid, so make sure there’s enough opportunity for that to happen.

That being said, setting expectations low can also have a negative effect on the overall performance of your customer care team. Find a happy medium, and your company will be on the right track.

• Clear and concise 

Another thing to keep in mind is the way a customer service objective is presented. Make an effort to explain what are the goals on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis, and do it in a well-worded and concise manner. Always double-check if everything is clear before putting them in place.  

Also, it’s a good idea to display them in a visible area somewhere in the workspace. You can even have your customer service representatives write down their own goals in order to visualize them.

Helping Your Customer Service Department Grow and Succeed

With the goals in place, it’s not up to your personnel to step up and meet all your expectations. However, there are a couple of things you can do to help them in that assignment. 

• Communicate the appropriate steps that need to be taken to reach the objective.
• Motivate them on a daily level and check if they are struggling with a specific goal.
• Explain the meaning behind every goal, how it impacts the entire business, and why it is important to achieve it.
• Challenge your team to go beyond but remember the happy medium we mentioned above.
• Track both individual and team progress to get a better understanding of how to improve the entire department.
• Work closely with the team to come up with efficient and quick solutions.
• Organize team meetings regularly and evaluate goals and objectives.
• Don’t always make your goals set in stone. Flexibility can go a long way in helping your customer care department thrive, consequently guaranteeing customer satisfaction.

And there you have it, a clear and concise guide on how to set measurable goals and improve your customer service. As a company that’s been at the forefront of service excellence for so many years, we love sharing our experience with others, so if you liked this article, make sure to check out our blog section. Also, we suggest checking our service page where you have all the information about what we do and why clients all over the world hire us to take care of their customers.