Build a customer service system that never forgets a request

The lessons

1. Lesson 1

   Map your customer contact

   For seven days you record every customer contact, count how many unique requests you receive and how many are left waiting, and carefully work out what that might be worth. You finish with a worksheet listing your three biggest communication bottlenecks.

   19 min read

   Putting it into practice: 7 days of record-keeping (allow 5 to 10 minutes a day, depending on the number of requests), then about an hour for the analysis and the worksheet.

2. Lesson 2

   Build a professional phone and callback system

   You lay out how your team answers the phone, who returns missed calls and who takes over difficult calls. You create scripts, a callback list, an escalation plan and a short training session for your team.

   21 min read

   Putting it into practice: About 2 hours to adapt the scripts, callback list and escalation plan to your business, a 15-minute team training session, and then about 10 minutes a day for the callback list

3. Lesson 3

   Set up WhatsApp Business professionally

   You set up the free WhatsApp Business app so that customers see a complete profile, get an honest automatic message and then quickly reach a person. You create quick replies for the questions that keep coming back, five labels that show what is still open, and clear agreements on who answers when.

   17 min read

   Putting it into practice: About 2 hours, one time, to set up the profile, automatic messages, quick replies and labels; then about 10 minutes a day for the end-of-day check.

4. Lesson 4

   Build an appointments and follow-up system

   You set up one shared list that holds every appointment request, with its status, the person responsible and a follow-up date. You get messages for confirming, rescheduling, canceling, reminding and following up, and a daily routine of ten minutes.

   19 min read

   Putting it into practice: About 45 minutes to set up the list and adapt the messages, then about 10 minutes a day

5. Lesson 5

   Measure results and improve every week

   You set up a weekly scorecard with a handful of key figures, hold a fifteen-minute improvement meeting every week and write down your way of working in a service standard. That keeps the system from the previous lessons working.

   16 min read

   Putting it into practice: About 45 minutes to set up the scorecard and the definitions, then about 15 minutes each week to fill it out and a 15-minute meeting. Writing the service standard is a one-time job of an hour or so, plus about 20 minutes to discuss it.

What you can download

• Customer contact audit (spreadsheet)Record every customer request for seven days. The Summary tab automatically counts your unique requests, the response rate and the average response time.
• Missed requests calculatorWork out with your own assumptions what unanswered requests could hypothetically be worth. Every formula is shown; nothing is stored.
• Phone scripts and callback processGreeting, asking questions, calling back, complaints and transferring: ready-made scripts, a decision tree for escalations, a callback list and a handoff checklist.
• WhatsApp Business: quick replies and labelsReady-to-copy quick replies, a set of labels, agreements on who answers what and an escalation policy for messages.
• Appointments and follow-up list (spreadsheet)Every request, appointment and follow-up in one place, with status, person responsible and follow-up date. The overview counts what needs following up today or earlier.
• Weekly customer service scorecard (spreadsheet)Fill in a few counts each week; the percentages work themselves out. With the definition of every KPI, so everyone counts the same way.
• 30-day plan for your customer serviceWeek by week: what you introduce, who does it and how you can tell it works.

Frequently asked questions