Manage your customer service

Providing a high level of customer service means finding out what your customers want. Once you have found your most valuable customers, you can target them with higher levels of customer service.

Collect information about your customers

Information about your customers and what they want is available from many sources, including:

• their order history
• records of their contacts with your business - phone calls, meetings and so on
• direct feedback - if you ask them, customers will usually tell you what they want
• changes in individual customers' order patterns
• changes in the overall success of specific products or services
• feedback about your existing range - what it does and doesn't do
• enquiries about possible new products or services
• feedback from your customers about things they buy from other businesses
• changes in the goods and services your competitors are selling
• feedback and referrals from other, non-competitive suppliers
• social listening - track and analyse conversations on social media
• website tracking tools - using programmes such as Google Analytics

Manage your customer information

Develop a clear plan for gathering and using customer information while complying with data protection laws, including GDPR. Assign a senior manager to champion your customer-care policy and ensure all staff are involved.