Greet every customer promptly. Ask open-ended questions. Follow up with prospective customers. These are all perfectly reasonable customer service standards. You may have some version of them in your own employee handbook or training materials, or even have them printed on poster hanging in the breakroom.
But there’s an important question worth asking: Do your employees understand why you want them to do these things?
A checklist tells an employee what to do, but it can’t prepare them for every customer, every conversation, or every unexpected situation they’ll encounter if they don’t understand the reasoning behind your standards.
A Prompt Greeting Says, “We See You”
Suppose your policy says every customer should be greeted within 30 seconds. But why 30 seconds? That seems so arbitrary to get graded on. And the truth is, there isn’t anything magical about that number. The real objective is to make sure a customer never walks through your door and wonders whether anyone has noticed.
Think about how uncomfortable the opposite experience can be. You enter a business. Employees are nearby, but nobody looks up, or they’re engrossed with other customers who seem more important than you. So, you stand there for a while, unsure whether you’re supposed to wait, find someone, or simply start wandering around on your own.
It doesn’t take long before you begin to feel like an interruption rather than a customer. A prompt acknowledgment changes that.
Even when an employee is busy helping someone else, eye contact and a quick “Good afternoon! I’ll be right with you” can accomplish the real purpose of the standard. The employee hasn’t technically begun serving the new customer yet, but they’ve already communicated something important: **We see you. You’re welcome here. **
That’s why a good mystery shopping program shouldn’t be satisfied with checking a box beside “Customer was greeted.” You want to know whether the shopper was acknowledged promptly and whether that acknowledgment actually felt welcoming. If there was a wait, did the employee communicate any kind of estimate?
When employees understand the reason behind the standard, they’re better equipped to accomplish its purpose even when circumstances don’t fit neatly into the handbook.
Good Questions Say, “What You Need Matters”
Now consider another familiar standard: ask questions and listen carefully to their answers. That instruction is easy to follow mechanically. But an employee can ask a question, receive a brief answer, and move on without learning anything useful if they’re not really engaged. Consider this exchange:
Employee: “What brings you in today?” Customer: “I’m just looking.” Employee: “Okay. Let me know if you need anything.”
Question asked. Box checked, right?
The purpose of a discovery question isn’t to satisfy a requirement. It’s to show the customer that their situation matters enough to understand.
Imagine a customer shopping for a lawn mower. A salesperson could immediately point out the models on sale or recommend the one with the most horsepower. A more thoughtful conversation would begin by learning about the customer’s yard. How large is it? Is the ground flat or hilly? Are there narrow areas to navigate? Where will the mower be stored?
Those questions do more than help the salesperson make a better recommendation. They show the customer that the recommendation will be based on their actual needs rather than on whatever product the employee happens to be promoting.
That distinction matters. Customers can usually tell when an employee is steering them toward a predetermined pitch. They respond differently when the employee listens carefully, asks relevant follow-up questions, and explains how the recommendation connects to what they’ve shared.
Mystery shopping can help you evaluate that difference. Don’t ask only whether the employee asked questions. Look at whether the questions were useful, whether the employee listened to the answers, and whether the eventual recommendation reflected the customer’s circumstances.
Your goal isn’t simply to produce employees who know how to ask questions. You want employees who use questions to understand the customer and serve them more thoughtfully.
That’s how you make someone feel respected.
Follow-Through Says, “Your Business Matters”
Some customer interactions end at the cash register. Plenty of others don’t. Maybe the employee needs to research a solution and call the customer later, or email an estimate this afternoon, or let them know when a shipment comes in because they’re currently out-of-stock.
The customer walks away expecting something to happen next.
When it does, you’ve reinforced the impression your employee made during the original interaction: We care about your business.
When it doesn’t, that impression can unravel surprisingly quickly. Following through tells customers that they didn’t stop mattering the moment they walked out the door or hung up the phone.
And there’s a useful distinction here between follow-through and follow-up.
- Follow-through means keeping your word. If you promised an estimate by Friday, send it by Friday.
- Follow-up goes a little further. The salesperson who contacts a prospective customer a few days later to see whether they have questions is demonstrating continued interest in earning their business. Or even chooses to check on whether a customer who already made a purchase is satisfied.
That’s why, when appropriate, we recommend adding a follow-up section to mystery shopping surveys. Don’t necessarily end the evaluation when the shopper leaves the store, hangs up the phone, or submits an online inquiry. Give the experience time to play out.
Did the promised email arrive? Did someone make the callback? How long did it take? Did the salesperson ever follow up with a customer who had expressed genuine interest?
You may discover that your employees make excellent first impressions but lose opportunities after-the-fact.
Give Your Employees Something Bigger Than a Checklist
At their heart, many of the best customer service practices accomplish something remarkably simple. They make your customers feel welcomed, respected, and appreciated.
That’s why customer service standards matter. Without clear expectations, employees are left to decide for themselves what good service looks like, and your customers may receive a very different experience depending on who’s working that day.
Not only must you teach the standard, make sure you’re teaching the reason behind it.
A greeting should make someone feel welcomed. A thoughtful conversation should make them feel respected. Reliable follow-through should make them feel appreciated.
Once employees understand what you’re trying to accomplish, they can make better decisions when the situation in front of them doesn’t resemble the example from the training manual.
For more than 30 years, The Brandt Group has helped businesses like yours measure whether their customer service standards are creating the experience they intended. Our mystery shopping programs can show you what your customers actually encounter, while our leadership training can help your managers turn those findings into stronger habits throughout your organization. We’re also proud to maintain an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.
If you want your employees to do more than memorize the rules, partner with The Brandt Group. Help them understand what those rules are really there to accomplish
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