In today’s fast-paced corporate world, customer experience isn’t just reserved for external clients—it’s just as crucial when working with colleagues and internal teams. Whether you’re in IT, HR, Finance, or any service-driven role, creating a positive experience can boost productivity, foster collaboration, and build lasting trust.
I’m Lisa Baker, host of the Customer Care Channel Podcast, and in this post, I’m sharing 15 actionable tips to help you elevate both internal and external customer interactions. Let’s dive in!
This post includes 15 Tips for Corporate Employees to Provide a Great Customer Experience.
Workplace Customer Care
Why Customer Experience Matters (Even Internally)
When we talk about customer experience, we’re not just talking about the end-users who buy products or services from you. Every interaction within your organization however big or small —whether it’s supporting a colleague with a technical issue or helping a client resolve a problem—this all contributes to the overall experience of your brand and how people feel.
What I found in the corporate world is that its hard to gain the buy in from teams other than the customer service teams that the customers experience is important and that is needs to be thought about. Most believe delivering a good customer experience is easy and can be provided by anyone. But, this is infact not true. Having the right skills to be able to keep a customer happy even when dealing with an issue is a skill on its own accord. So why is it so important?
A strong internal customer service culture improves:
- Employee communication – lack of communication can impact projects negatively and cause duplication of work between employees.
- Team collaboration – A team which is helpful, empathetic and listens will create a successful team that helps each other, completes work and resolves problems together quickly and efficiently.
- Service desk efficiency – Find out here how service desk software can help with customer communications.
- Client satisfaction – Faster and more consistent responses, better morale means a better service, fewer mistakes gives much smoother processes, unified front, plus problem-solving is more collaborative.
15 Tips for Delivering an Outstanding Customer Experience
1. Treat Every Interaction as a Customer Touchpoint
Every email, call, or chat reflects your company’s values and reputation. Consistency builds trust, even in internal communications. Use your manners, listen and be helpful every time.
2. Listen Actively Without Interrupting
Before jumping into resolving someones issue, listen and fully understand the issue at hand. People feel valued when they’re truly heard. There is nothing worse than someone offering a solution to a problem you don’t have. It shows they haven’t been listening at all.
3. Respond Promptly — Even if You Don’t Have an Answer Yet
Acknowledge the communication to manage expectations. Quick responses reduce frustration and build confidence. It also lets your customer know that you have received their message, even if you don’t yet have the answer for them. Its polite, do not leave them hanging wondering if you have received the message or not.
In Service Desk Management this is known as the initial response time. How long it takes to answer the customer initially.
4. Use Clear and Simple Language
Skip the jargon. Whether you’re talking to a client or coworker, clarity prevents misunderstandings and streamlines problem-solving. Especially if you are a technical person explaining yourself, there has been many times I have seen developers speak to non-technical individuals and there has been no understanding due to terms and jargon used. Complete time wasted and all this does is make someone feel horrible as they don’t know what you are talking about. You want your customer to feel positive, therefore be relatable, explain things simply and be professional to make a good impression.
5. Empathize with the User’s Situation
Put yourself in their shoes. Showing empathy builds rapport and helps calm stressful situations. It also builds your relationship with your customer and let’s your customer know you are approachable and you understand.
6. Take Ownership of the Issue
Avoid passing the buck. Take responsibility for seeing the issue through to resolution, even if you need to involve other teams. By owning the issue this builds trust and prevents your customer from being passed around trying to find the best person to talk to.
7. Follow Up Without Being Asked
Proactively provide updates. It reassures others that their issue is being handled and demonstrates professionalism. This can be done by dropping them an email with a quick update, it does not need to be over complicated.
8. Customize Your Communication Style
Adapt to preferences—some people prefer emails while others appreciate a quick call. Personalized communication leads to better results. In order to know your customers preference, you need to know your customer of course. Download here a template to learn more about your customer – it’s free!
Think about whether the person you are speaking to prefers straight to the point or more of a social conversation and adapt as needed.
9. Document and Share Solutions
Knowledge-sharing prevents repeat issues and improves service desk support. Plus, it empowers your colleagues with helpful resources.
Creating a knowledge base which is kept up to date not alone helps issues to be resolved quickly to keep customers satisfied, but allows for colleagues to learn how to deal with the same issues in the future if they occurr again.
Encourage your team to share, this may be via documentation as a user guide or through a meeting or presentation showing how to fix a certain issue or apply a specific workaround.
Push back: Some can push back sharing knowledge as they are worried this will mean they are replaceable, which is understandable. However, if you want your team to thrive and be able to free up more time to do the more fun projects knowledge sharing is key in order to resolve issues as quickly as possible.
10. Stay Calm and Professional Under Pressure
Challenges happen, but maintaining composure keeps situations from escalating and preserves trust. Remember to breathe, listen and then react as needed without rising to any heated conversation. Be empathetic, supportive and realistic with setting expectations.
11. Celebrate Small Wins and Positive Feedback
Share successes! Recognizing positive outcomes boosts morale and encourages continued excellent service. Making a point of mentioning positive outcomes can be the difference between a deflated team and a motivated team.
12. Be Transparent About Limits
If something isn’t possible, be upfront about it. Transparency builds credibility and avoids setting unrealistic expectations. This includes if you are too busy to take on a project that you have been asked to do, make it clear to the person requesting the work. Be kind, clear and specify, do not leave it until last minute as they could have potentially asked someone else to complete the work.
13. Seek Feedback Regularly
Ask how you’re doing. Constructive feedback helps you continuously improve the customer experience you provide. Whether this is from colleagues or customers its good to ask for feedback to improve your performance. Without asking you will never know how you are truely doing. Here find out more about gathering customer feedback.
14. Be Solution-Oriented
Shift conversations from problems to solutions. A positive, proactive mindset keeps progress moving forward. It also means you will not get stuck in a negative conversation with no solutions being mentioned. Its key to listen and then think of solutions to resolve any problems to move forward and stay proactive.
15. Keep Learning and Stay Updated
The customer care landscape evolves year by year as customer demands change. Staying ahead of the game by investing in training and staying up-to-date on best practices is key.
Why not try my customer experience course which teaches you a method to apply to improve your customers experience. Find out more here.
Final Thoughts
Delivering a top-tier customer experience starts with a mindset focused on empathy, accountability, and continuous improvement. If you would like a process to follow, check out this course here. Whether you’re supporting customers or colleagues, these tips will help you foster stronger relationships, improve communication, and enhance service delivery across your organization.
For more strategies on customer care and service desk management, be sure to check out my podcast and visit www.customercarechannel.com. You’ll find more tips, tools, and resources to help you build a culture of service excellence.
About Lisa Baker
Lisa Baker is the host of the Customer Care Channel Podcast, where she shares insights on improving customer service, internal communication, and service desk operations.
Ready to transform your customer experience approach? Let’s keep the conversation going—subscribe to the podcast and explore more resources at www.customercarechannel.com.
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