Customer Service Directors

When customers are not happy they have the option of going someplace else. They may purchase a competitor’s products or use competing services. Worse than that, unhappy customers can negatively affect a company’s bottom line by posting negative comments about their experience on social media. Customer satisfaction is extremely important to companies. Most companies therefore take customer service very seriously.

Customer service directors manage and oversee an organization’s customer service policies, objectives, and department. They are upper level executives. Directors establish and implement the strategy for the way an organization interacts with their customers. They are expected to develop and establish policies and procedures for handling customer complaints, calls, and correspondence to assure the highest level of customer satisfaction. They determine the customer service standards for their company as well as how they will resolve various customer problems.

Customer service directors do a great deal of research. They gather and analyze data from customers, keep track of feedback, determine customer’s concerns, and influence perception of the company. This may be done in house or with third party market and research companies.

As part of the job, customer service directors evaluate current policies within the company regarding customer service. They may recommend improvements in the system or implement changes.

Customer service representatives interact with customers on a day-to-day basis handling complaints, processing orders, and providing information about an organization’s products and services. However, there are often times when customers are not pleased with the answers representatives are giving them or do not feel as if an issue has been satisfactorily resolved. When these situations arise, the customer service director will be called upon to intercede.

The customer service director is responsible for making sure the customer service team is the best it can be. He or she may be expected to recruit, select, hire, and train mid-level managers and supervisors to assure that employees adhere to the company’s customer service policies. The individual may also be responsible for hiring representatives. He or she will additionally be expected to develop training methods and procedures for customer service. He or she will then personally train workers or delegate the task to others.

Customer service directors must evaluate the overall customer satisfaction of their company. This is often done with surveys, interviews, or by reading customer comments on the company Web site or on social media. They may also utilize social media to respond to customers. Directors also use data analytics to determine which areas of the company's Web site are the most popular, and which are infrequently visited by customers. Data analytics techniques may be also used to gather and assess information about customers in real time on the sales floor (e.g., clothing store, supermarket, drugstore).