Customer Service Level: Definition, Standards, Measuring

Customer service level, if established correctly, can become a defining feature of any call or contact center. It embraces it all: the level of customer experience, the performance of both the team and each separate agent as well as customer service overall. Even a business model can determine how high a customer satisfaction will be. 

What is customer service level, what defines it and how to keep it on the same high and consistent level? 

Definitions

Customer Service Level (CSL)

To give a ‘customer service level’ definition is to talk for hours about the quality of service and various ways to ensure it. To put it short, a customer service level is how many times customers got services of different quality. It is usually expressed as a percentage and has immense influence on a contact center’s reputation. 

Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

Key performance indicators are a set of numbers demonstrating the efficiency of business performance and the quality of service it provides. Businesses tend to track several KPIs across the board such as customer satisfaction, pickup rate, first response time and so on. 

Customer Service Levels

There are 5 different customer service levels. Each of them is assigned to a team based on how good their performance has been. 

❌ Customer Service Level 1 — Unacceptable 

It hides under many names — poor, bad, horrible, low — its nature is the same. Customers who experience this service level rarely come back to a provider or a vendor. A whopping 91% of customers will abandon a provider after one bad experience. Fix it or leave it — the only correct approach to this level of customer service. 

➖ Customer Service Level 2 — Basic

Minimum standards — the best way to describe this customer service level in a supply chain. Minimal interest, minimal care and minimal effort spent on satisfying the customers. How long can a business paying minimal effort survive? A rhetorical question.

Basic customer service level is the least a business can do to satisfy its customers.

✅ Customer Service Level 3 — Good

This service level is reached by a business only when its customers deem it “satisfactory”. What does this mean?

• The team talks to the customers for as long as needed;
• The customers get their answers quickly;
• The consultants use empathetic language;
• The customers are satisfied enough to leave a good review and tell their friends and family about their good experience.

🌎 Customer Service Level 4 — World-Class

A business becomes one of the leaders of customer service. The experience it provides is one of the top in the world and it starts to compete with the giants in their industry. There are several ways for a business to reach this customer service level:

• Constant training of the professionals;
• Strict corporate culture;
• Creating a customer-centric approach.

Make customers feel special, make communication with your team an asset and make sure your customer service stays on the highest level. This is the only way to reach the highest rank of customer service.

™️ Customer Service Level 5 — Trademark

Customer service level becomes a benchmark for other businesses to be compared with. This customer service level’s examples include, among others, world class hotels and restaurants, premium airlines and other luxury services. 

The Importance of Customer Service Level in Customer Support

Customer support plays a pivotal role in customer retention — the ultimate goal of any business. 

What can a customer support team do to increase customer satisfaction and elevate customer service level?

✅ Use positive and empathetic customer service language. Replacing the word ‘no’ with positive alternatives can help a support team find new ways of approaching the customers. It will influence both: the resolution rate and customer satisfaction rate. 

✅ Conduct regular and constant quality assurance (QA). A dedicated professional or a team lead should conduct it at least once every month. It should include reading email listings, chat iterations and listening to the calls conducted by each team member. This ensures: 

• The quality and correctness of the written and spoken languages;
• Timeliness and relevance of the information given to the customers;
• High level of empathy and customer service level overall. 

✅ Encourage training and professional development. Setting a professional goal can help increase the quality of work by 27%. Reaching for task completion can elevate the performance by at least 15%. 

✅ Ensure customer participation in the evaluation process. Customer integration into the evaluation process is a good way to see and eliminate all bottlenecks of your business. As customers rarely leave their feedback, asking them for their opinion is a good practice. Surveys and post-service emails can help a business establish whether its customer service level is high enough. 

✅ Establish high security standards. Watch out for cybersecurity certificates like PCI DSS, ISO and HIPAA. Obtaining them is a difficult process that requires high standards for the entire team, including a customer service one. 

✅ Make the most of latest technologies and AI. At SupportYourApp, we’ve managed to automate up to 70% of common customer inquiries, while still engaging human consultants for more complex, personalized requests. With AI, you can reduce response times and improve operational efficiency.

Good customer support is a sure way to establish your company’s reputation at a trademark customer service level. 

Reach for the Stars — Set the Highest Customer Service Level Possible

A lot of businesses hesitate to set high customer service standards because they require additional resources. Setting them on the same consistent and high level will make sure a business performs at its best.

That is exactly what we at SupportYourApp have been doing for more than a decade. We have set the highest customer service level and KPIs for our teams. It helps us reach the highest points of customer satisfaction every day. 

If you want to make sure your customers get the best service, get your quote now. 

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