"I need help creating a customer service plan."

That's an email I've received several times over the past few weeks. It's always some opportunity for improvement that triggers the request:

• Customer complaints are rising.

• It's time for annual business planning.

• The customer service leader is new to the role.

In any event, they're looking to give their team some direction. The challenge is knowing where to start.

So I'm writing to share the same advice with you that I've shared with all of these leaders. The most important tool you'll need is a gap analysis.

A gap analysis looks at the gap between where you are now and where you want to be, and analyzes the reasons you aren't there already. It's deceptively simple, yet highly effective.

Here's how to conduct one.

Step 1: Set customer service goals

Your customer service plan should have goals that are tied to the overall business strategy. We'll need those goals to perform a gap analysis and ultimately write the plan.

I've seen the examples below in many plans. These are definitely not goals:

• Improve customer service.

• Conduct customer service training.

• Explore new customer service channels.

• Reduce customer churn.

• Deliver world-class customer service.

These statements are too vague to be clear goals that change behavior and drive performance. Some, like "conduct customer service training," aren't even goals at all. They're activities.

Your customer service plan should be based on at least one SMART goal. This gives you and your team a specific target to focus on achieving.

Here's an overview if you're not familiar with the model:

• S = Specific

• M = Measurable

• A = Attainable

• R = Relevant

• T = Time-bound

You can use this primer to learn more about SMART goals if you get stuck.

The focus of your SMART goal should be something critical to your business. Think about how your team creates value. Here are some questions to help you create that link:

• How does your team increase revenue?

• How does your team decrease costs?

• How can your team improve overall company efficiency?

One client approached me to ask for customer service training. I asked the CEO some probing questions and learned what he really cared about was sales conversion.

Customers would contact customer service with questions about the company's products. The customer service rep could convert the call into a sale if they successfully answered the customer's questions.

The CEO wanted the team to covert 35 percent of customer inquiries into sales. He explained that was the level that made the team profitable once you subtracted marketing and operating costs.

So that became the SMART goal: Achieve an average sales conversion rate of 35 percent by the end of each month.

Step 2: Identify where you are now

The GPS on your phone or in your car needs two things to give you directions. The first is a destination. The second is your current location.

A gap analysis relies on the same information. Setting a goal is essential. Once you have a goal, you need to identify your current position. Only then can you create a step-by-step plan to bridge the gap.

This is another common failure point for customer service plans. The leader sets a goal, but doesn't have any data to measure where they are in relation to the goal.

For example, let's say you wanted to reduce customer churn. Great! What's your customer churn rate right now? It's pretty hard to reduce it if you don't have a specific measurement already.

My client wanted to achieve a 35 percent sales conversion rate per month. The team was currently averaging 33 percent.

Why is this important?

Because our strategy to get to 35 percent would be wildly different if we were at 10 percent versus 33. This second step in the gap analysis told us we were really close, and it would likely take just a few small tweaks to close the gap.

Step 3: Analyze the reason for the gap

Now that you have concrete data on where you are now, and the SMART goal you're trying to achieve, you need to analyze the gap between those two numbers.

I like to approach this step like a detective trying to solve a case. You might have some hunches, but you'll need solid evidence if you want to convince people your hunch is right.

One of the easiest things you can do is spend time observing your team and talking to them. Discuss the goal and ask them to share barriers they encounter that currently make it difficult to achieve it.

It didn't take long to help my client analyze the gap between the 35 percent conversion rate goal and the current 33 percent average. The team already knew most of the answers and readily shared them with me.

Scheduling. The team's schedule didn't match demand. Customers had to wait on hold an average of 30 minutes on Monday mornings, making it much harder to sell to people who called. By contrast, the team had very little to do on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon, when call volume was much lower. 

Rapport. Several of the team members admitted they sometimes struggled to uncover customer needs. They knew their products fairly well, but didn't always know the right questions to ask customers.

Leadership. The team leader hadn't been spending much time with the team. As a result, the team members weren't exactly sure what they were doing well and where they needed to improve.

All of these were easy fixes:

• Schedules were adjusted to better meet demand.

• The team attended a 30-minute training session on rapport skills.

• The leader agreed to hold a monthly team meeting to keep everyone informed.

This gap analysis quickly touched on several key areas such as staffing, skills, and metrics. And it gave the team a clear strategy for improving their sales conversion rate, which is what the CEO cared most about.

Just one month into the new plan, the team achieved a 45 percent sales conversion rate, far higher than the 35 percent goal.

Conclusion

A gap analysis is an essential first step when writing a customer service plan. You can use a gap analysis for many other situations, too.

• Reducing customer complaints.

• Identifying your team's training needs.

• Creating a customer-focused culture.

Feel free to contact me if you get stuck. I'd be happy to walk you through one.

If you have a LinkedIn Learning subscription, you can also use my Quick Fixes to Attain Excellent Customer Service course to walk you through more sophisticated gap analysis techniques.

Here's a short preview.