Five to Thrive: Customer Service

Retailers work hard to win every customer. But the moment that determines whether someone comes back often happens when they need help. Too often, businesses see customer service as a cost center, but a closer look reveals the opportunity to make it a growth driver and profit center.

1. Treat every service moment as a chance to keep a customer

When a customer contacts you with a problem, you have a chance to do more than make it right. A great response gives them another reason to choose you again. Make help easy by listening before jumping to a solution and give whoever handles customer questions the information and authority to solve problems. Don’t rush an unhappy customer just to close the ticket faster. The goal isn’t simply to resolve the issue. It’s to leave the customer confident in buying from you again.

2. Look for patterns, not just problems

One unusual customer interaction may be just a one-off, but when the same signals start appearing again and again, they may be telling you something bigger. Keep a simple record of why customers contact you and review it regularly. Look beyond the number of complaints to what they have in common. Are customers asking the same question? Is one product generating more returns? Are similar claims suddenly appearing? Don’t just resolve the interaction in front of you. Ask what all your customer interactions are telling you together.

3. Share what you hear across the business

Customer service can be one of the richest sources of customer intelligence, revealing new product ideas, unmet needs, better ways to communicate and opportunities to improve customer experience. Make sure what you’re hearing reaches the people who can act on it.

Create a simple habit of sharing the top reasons customers are contacting you, what they’re saying and what has changed. Get that information to whoever handles your website, marketing, products and operations.

4. Pair your people with AI

You don’t have to choose between people and technology. The best customer service uses each for what it does best. Routine requests such as order status, return labels and basic policy questions may be good candidates for AI. When the situation is complicated, emotional or unusual, make sure there’s an easy path to a person.

AI can also make your people better. It can instantly surface product information, policies and what has worked in similar situations, while a person brings judgment, context and empathy. And what they learn together shouldn’t disappear when the interaction ends. Capture it so the next similar problem is easier to solve. The goal isn’t to automate most interactions. It’s to build a service operation that gets smarter with each one.

5. Measure service by what it grows

Response time, handle time and cost per contact can tell you whether customer service is running efficiently. They don’t tell you whether it’s helping your business grow.

Look at what happens because of the interaction. Did you save an order? Keep a customer from leaving? Generate another sale? Reduce repeat problems? As you grow, consider measures such as contacts per order, customer effort, retention among customers who contacted service and revenue connected to service interactions.

What you measure shapes what you optimize. Measure customer service only as a cost and you’ll optimize for efficiency. Measure the customers and revenue it helps retain and grow, and you’ll start managing it as an investment.

The views expressed in this content are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the National Retail Federation. This content is provided for educational purposes only and does not imply endorsement by NRF.

Questions? Contact Erin Armendinger, CEO, Compass Growth