How to become “Customer Service of the Year”?

You are proud of the quality of service you provide to your customers, and you have been eyeing an award for some time: the “Customer Service of the Year” award, or ESCDA.

This competition, which assesses the quality of customer services of candidate companies, rewards organisations that deliver an excellent customer experience each year.

What if you were the next Customer Service of the Year? This short guide gives you all the tips and steps you need to take to win this coveted award.

Why do you want to become “Customer Service of the Year”?

The reason why the “Customer Service of the Year” competition receives so many entries each year is because the winners of this great prize see real benefits for their company.

Indeed, being elected Customer Service of the Year means :

• Improving your brand image, by showing your customers that their expectations are taken into account in a strong way, and that you offer a careful and innovative customer service.
• Reassure your potential customers about the quality of the services you offer them.
• Boost sales: a logical consequence of the two previous benefits.
• Retain existing customers: there’s nothing like prizes and awards like this one to develop the attachment of your satisfied customers to your brand.

It’s enough to make you want to be one of the big winners of this award, isn’t it?

How does the ESCDA competition work?

The “Customer Service of the Year” competition promotes one company each year in different categories, corresponding to different sectors of activity: online banking, insurance, IT, telephony, etc.

The ESCDA competition is not based on a jury’s decision, but on the precise analysis of the candidates’ customer services. Between May and July, for 8 weeks, mystery shopper tests are carried out on all the companies’ communication channels: web contact forms, social networks, telephone, online chat, etc.

Each of the contacts that these mystery shoppers have with the companies are evaluated on several very fine criteria, to determine who wins the prize in each category.

4 key criteria to become an ESCDA

Before diving into the different steps that will help you to be “Customer Service of the Year”, remember the following 4 criteria, which your customer relationship must meet to be a winner:

• Quality of service: a must-have, which implies that you pay attention to each step of your customer journey, to establish personalised and pleasant contacts with your customers.
• Honesty: when a concern arises, today’s consumers prefer a company to be transparent, rather than trying to hide it.
• Empathy: your customers want to develop a fundamentally human relationship with
  relationship with the touch points they have with your company – not with robots.
• Consistency: it’s not just about developing excellent customer relations before you enter the competition, it’s about maintaining that level of excellence throughout the 8 weeks of the assessment… and throughout the year afterwards!

7 steps to Customer Service of the Year

Want to win this award of excellence?
Follow these 7 steps to improve your customer service from start to finish.

1. Analyse the state of your current customer relationship

To become “Customer Service of the Year”, everything starts with an analysis of your company’s current situation. This allows you to identify areas of improvement to be developed in the future.

To do this analysis, start by :

• Mapping the different points of contact you have with your customers, and identifying the elements that could be optimised. Is your message consistent throughout the customer journey? How long does it take you on average to respond to incoming requests?
• Collect key metrics related to your customer satisfaction, such as your first contact resolution rate, your Net Promoter Score, or your customer retention rate.
• Ask your loyal customers directly about their satisfaction, if necessary. Don’t hesitate to send them a questionnaire to ask for qualitative feedback, which will provide interesting avenues for improvement.

2. Get all teams on board with your project

To succeed in being elected Customer Service of the Year, you need the support of your entire team. From marketing and sales upstream, to your logistics, transport and after-sales service departments, everyone must be committed to the success of this project.

Start by explaining to your employees why you are taking part in this competition and what your company stands to gain from it. Insist on the fact that this will be a collective success, which will benefit the company, its customers and the teams themselves.

Don’t hesitate to get their opinions on how to improve the quality of the customer service your company provides. Then, throughout their efforts, recognise the quality of their work and congratulate them.

3. Work on the services related to your sales channels

While the ESCDA competition will focus on the analysis of your after-sales service, it is important to start from the very beginning of your customer journey to improve it.

As you know, the customer relationship starts at the first point of contact of the consumer with your company, on a sales channel. So, the more positive the relationship is at the beginning of the customer journey, the fewer inbound enquiries your service department will have to deal with – the more they can focus on delivering a good quality of service!

So be sure to include in your approach :

• A marketing plan that highlights your commitment to the quality of service you offer your customers.
• A sales strategy that focuses on customer satisfaction and makes this quality of service visible from the purchase phase.

4. Improve your logistics strategy to boost your service quality

To enable your customer service to focus on its core business, you also need to ensure that your logistics strategy reduces picking errors and delivers a quality customer experience.

To do this, take the time toimprove your picking chain. Overhaul your picking method to limit the rate of order errors (for example, by using a Warehouse Management System). Make sure that your operators pack goods quickly and well, for example by using time-saving packaging.

Packaging can significantly improve your logistics strategy. It should be both protective, to limit worries about breakage during delivery (and therefore customer dissatisfaction), but also highlight your commitment to the relationship you are building with your customers. For example, why not opt for personalised packaging, where you print out the different ways your customers can contact your service department if they need to?

Finally, make sure that your delivery phase is also optimal. You must offer your customers several possible modes of transport(click-and-collect, home delivery, consignment, relay point, etc.) that are fast, flexible and ensure real traceability of your orders.

5. Take care of all your channels for handling customer requests

As you have read above, the mystery shoppers in the competition will analyse every channel through which your customers can contact you. Hence the need to put maximum effort into all your channels.

While many consumers still call for service via the traditional telephone channel, having a digitalized customer service can greatly improve your overall contest score.

So make sure you improve the quality of service offered via :

• Your website and its support request forms
• Your customer relations centre
• Your social networks
• Your online chat

Check in particular that all digital channels are accessible via all possible media (mobile, tablet, desktop).

6. Provide the same customer service experience across all these channels

In the age of omnichannel, your customers want consistent customer experiences, regardless of the channels through which they come into contact with your business.

To be “Customer Service of the Year”, make sure that all your company’s communication channels are aligned around the same best practices:

• Minimum waiting time for customers seeking answers to their questions
• An optimalproblem resolution rate at first contact
• Consistent sales pitch across all channels
• Friendly and sympathetic advisors
• No spelling mistakes in writing

Don’t hesitate to create standard answers, which advisers can then personalise according to the customer’s request: they will ensure a consistent and coherent discourse throughout your customer journey.

7. Formalize an optimal customer return policy

The last step in becoming “Customer Service of the Year” is to look at your customer returns strategy. When it is well organised, it limits contacts with your after-sales service, and therefore helps it to focus on actions where the human element has real added value.

To set up an effective returns policy, make sure that the conditions for returns are clearly explained on all your sales channels and that you propose acceptable return times. This will limit potential customer complaints.

You can also integrate return packaging into your logistics strategy. These packages allow customers to safely send their return order in the same package in which they received their goods, after printing out their return form on your website for example.

With these 7 steps and smart tips, you are ready to submit your application to the ESCDA competition website!

Want to find out how RAJA was voted Customer Service of the Year 2023?

* Category Business Supplies and Equipment BVA Study – Viséo CI – More info on escda.fr