Updated: July 28, 2023
A customer service vision is shared definition of outstanding service that gets everyone on the same page.
This guide will help you quickly write one.
You can also use this process to write other corporate statements:
Mission
Purpose
Vision
I'm going to show you how to write a customer service vision (or mission, purpose, etc.) that your team can memorize instantly. It will act as a compass to constantly point your team in the right direction.
Generally speaking, it's best to have fewer of these statements. Employees can get confused when they have too many statements to memorize.
So you can also use this guide to combine several statements that you already have into a single customer service vision.
Most customer-focused organizations use their mission or purpose statement in place of a separate customer service vision.
You can see some of my favorite examples here.
While customer service and customer experience are different, I often use the terms “customer service vision” and “customer experience vision” interchangeably.
That’s because the process I follow creates a broad vision for customer experience, but can easily be applied to customer service.
Finally, if your employees work remotely, you can use this supplemental guide to facilitate the process via a virtual meeting.
Prepare to Write the Vision
You'll want to do a little prep work before you actually sit down and write the vision.
First, take a moment to explore what constitutes a customer service vision statement if you aren't familiar with one already. Here's a short primer that can help.
Key questions:
Can you use an existing statement (mission, purpose, brand promise, etc.)?
Are you writing a new statement or updating an existing one?
What one corporate statement is most important for employees to know?
Answering these questions up front can save you a lot of headaches. Generally speaking, you want fewer corporate statements.
Next, determine your scope.
Is the vision for an entire organization or just one team? (A word of caution for teams.)
Who is your primary customer? The vision should focus on them.
The next step is to identify any existing work that might influence the new vision. This way, you are building on your existing culture. I like to gather any examples of current mission statements, customer service slogans, service standards, etc.
For example, if you're writing a customer service vision for your team, you might want to get ahold of your company's mission statement to help guide you.
Finally, you want to get your employees' input. Unless you work on a very small team, it's unwieldy to involve everyone in writing the actual vision statement. I've found the optimal group size for that is 7 - 10 people (more on that in a moment).
I get around this with a single survey question that goes to every employee:
What do you want our customers to think of when they think of the service we provide?
It's an open response question, so participants can type in whatever they please. Many survey programs (Survey Monkey, Google Surveys, etc.) make this very easy to do. Using a survey allows everyone to weigh in with minimal effort.
I then put all of the responses into a word cloud, which is a graphical representation of the words that people use most often. (You can use free software like FreeWordCloudGenerator.com to help.)
Here's an example from the Center For Sustainable Energy's Clean Vehicle Rebate Project. This team supports people who buy a car in California that qualifies for a rebate from the state. Take a look at their word cloud and see what phrases jump out at you.
Writing the Vision
Once you gather data, the next step is the write the vision.
The first step is gathering the right group of people to help you.
I've learned through trial and error that the optimal group size is 7 to 10 people. This is similar to the two pizza rule, which suggests that you should limit groups to the number of people that can be fed with two pizzas.
The group's composition is important. You can read my guide on selecting the team, but in general here's who I like to invite:
At least one frontline employee. They keep it real.
At least one senior leader. They provide authority.
At least one mid-level manager or supervisor. They're the link between execs and the front lines.
It may also be helpful to use a professional facilitator.
There's an art and science to keeping a group like this moving efficiently. You have to create a safe space for people to share their ideas, while challenging the entire group to think outside the box. (Use this guide to determine if an outside facilitator is right for you.)
In the meeting itself, the goal is the write a simple customer service vision statement that meets these three criteria:
It's simple and easily understood.
It's focused on customers.
It reflects both who you are now and who you aspire to be in the future.
Meeting Agenda
Here’s how I like to structure the meeting:
Clarify objectives. Define a customer service vision and share examples.
Review data. Look at the word cloud and any relevant cultural artifacts.
Draft the vision. I find it’s best to split the group into two teams.
Capture examples. Share real work stories that represent the vision in action.
You can download this toolkit and find a complete agenda on page 4.
Real-Live Example
Let's go back to the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project team. They help their customers through the clean vehicle rebate process. As a group, they understood that customers expected things to be easy when they applied for a rebate.
Here's what they came up with:
Make it easy to join the clean vehicle movement.
I also like to spend a part of this meeting discussing specific behaviors, examples, and stories that align with the vision. These will come in handy later when you explain it to people.
For example, after writing this customer service vision statement, the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project team redesigned their website and some of their processes to make it even easier for customers to apply for a rebate.
Caution: I’ve read a lot of uninspiring, generic vision statements. Here’s how to avoid that.
Sharing the Vision
You still have a few things to do once you write your vision.
First, you want to share it with a few key stakeholders to get their buy in. You aren't looking for any additional word smithing here, just a gut check that the vision makes sense and hasn't left anything out.
Here's where you want to get a mix of leaders and individual contributors to weigh-in since each group will have a different perspective. You know you've got a good statement if it immediately resonates.
Occasionally, this second group will spot something the initial group didn't. It might be a key word that's missing or needs to be replaced. This doesn't happen often, but it's good to be open to the possibility.
Next, it's time to communicate the customer service vision to the rest of the organization or team. My suggestion is to make sure that everybody can answer three questions:
What is the vision?
What does it mean?
How do I contribute?
It's helpful to have concrete examples to help people learn about the vision and remember it.
Get Help
Do you have questions or need extra guidance? Here’s how I can help:
Schedule a free, one hour call with me and I’ll walk you through it.
You can hire me to facilitate the process.
I suggest starting with a call first. Click below to get it scheduled.
Bonus Resources
You are welcome to download my customer service vision worksheet to use as a guide.
The vision is just the starting point to developing a customer-focused culture. You can get a full plan from my book, The Service Culture Handbook. It’s a step-by-step guide to getting your employees obsessed with customer service.
Finally, see how creating a customer service vision is just the first step in your journey to a customer-focused culture by watching this short training video.