Improve Customer Service by Holding Staff Accountable

By Kristina Evey • February 19th, 2010

Dear Manager,

Managing the customer experience and my ability to improve the customer service I deliver will now be my main focus in the upcoming year. My supervisor just gave me my annual performance evaluation and I noticed that 50% of the review focused on customer service and a customer centric culture.

At most companies, the statement “Focus on the Customer” is usually just a lot of talk. Sure, it’s addressed once in a while, but rarely have I seen a performance appraisal that stresses customer focus so heavily. What you are really telling me is how well I treat our customers is just as important as my daily job responsibilities. Since my compensation is directly tied in to my performance evaluation, you can bet that I’m going to pay more attention to that.

When we went over the customer centric culture last month, we did spend a lot of time discussing how each of our teams could improve the customer relationship. During my review, my supervisor started asking me how I had implemented some of those ideas. I was embarrassed to say that I hadn’t actually done any of it, just thought about it from time to time. Now, I’ll really have to make sure I follow through.

I have to admit, this change is going to be a bit of a challenge. Before, you were pretty hands off. Now that you are more focused on the customer service and satisfaction levels, it’s going to take some getting used to. Don’t get me wrong, I can rise to the challenge. It might not happen overnight, but with you making me accountable for the service levels you expect, if my job is important to me, I’ll do it.

Sincerely yours,

Your staff