Customer Service & Retention Checklist

Creating a customer service system and retaining customers can be overwhelming. Having a good checklist will make the world of difference for you and your team. This checklist covers everything you need to create a successful customer service and retention program.

Customer Service FAQ Template

Having an FAQ is important because it can eliminate customer service requests and enables your customers to find instant answers.

This template includes 30 of the most common questions, typical for an online business, and suggested answers. You can modify the answers to fit your business needs.

Getting Customer Feedback Templates

Asking for customer feedback is important, but it’s not always easy to do. We are making it much easier for you buy providing an email template asking for your customer’s feedback on their experience with your business. We’ve also included a sample customer survey template you can customize to get valuable information back from your customers.

As you can see these templates and tools will help you with all aspects of setting up your customer service and retention program, so you can continue to grow your business with more and happier customers.

Customer Service Best Practices

Use this template to train your customer service team. You can choose which of the best practices apply to your business and customer service preferences.

• Respond in a Timely Manner: Respond to all tickets/emails/phone calls within TIMEFRAME, (for example, 24-hours). Be clear when communicating with customers that this is the timeframe and expectation. If, for some reason, it is going to take longer, explain why and tell them when they can expect a response.
• Speedy Response: Ensure that all tickets/issues are resolved within TIMEFRAME, (for example 48 hours or two business days). Tickets and issues should not drag on and should be resolved promptly. If the issue cannot be resolved within this timeframe, explain why and give them a time when they can expect a response. (For example, if a product is currently out of stock but you expect to have it in stock next week.)
• Update the Progress: If the customer issue requires more than one ticket or email to resolve, update the customer of the progress within TIMEFRAME, (For example, 24 hours). Let the customer know that we’re working on resolving their issue.
• Use Their Name: Always address customers by their name. Whether responding to a ticket, via email or on the phone, address them by their name. It personalizes the communication. If you’re speaking on the telephone, ask for the correct pronunciation of their name and the spelling.
• Suggest an Alternative: If the customer is looking for a product or promotion that is no longer available, always suggest an alternative. Look in the product catalogue and find a product/promotion that is close to what they need. If there are no comparable products, offer one from another company. The goal is to be helpful and to provide value. Use language similar to, “I’m sorry, we don’t carry that product, but we do have this one which may suit your needs,” or “we don’t carry that product, you might try PRODUCT-X from NAME OF OTHER COMPANY.
• Minimize Refunds: To minimize refunds, offer store credit instead of a refund. If the customer is generally happy but the product isn’t what they needed, ordered mistakenly, or some other reason, try to offer credit rather than a refund.
• Feedback: Always provide the customer with a resource to provide feedback. If communicating via email or ticket system send them a link to a feedback survey to assess their satisfaction. If communicating on the telephone, ask (are you satisfied with RESOLUTION/OUTCOME, or as “on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest, how satisfied are you with this outcome? If the number is below 8, ask what you can do better next time or why they gave that number.) Collect feedback data and responses.
• Recognize, Empathise, and Apologise: Always recognize the problem the person is dealing with, empathize with them, and apologize for their situation. For example, “I understand that you’re having trouble accessing your download. This must be frustrating for you. I’m sorry for this frustration.”
• Always Thank Them: Thank the customer for their time/feedback/input. Close each communication with a thank you.

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