A chief executive affects the direction of a company's customer service, even if this task is not part of his or her prior CEO experience. This doesn't mean they have to cold call and answer phones, but rather that they should be mindful of the larger mission of the business and how they can steer a company toward higher satisfaction ratings.
This can mean putting initiatives in place that spur better practices. Forbes contributor Grant Martin recently conducted an interview with the CEO of Spirit Airlines, Ben Baldaza, and one of the topics touched upon was how the negative attitudes of employees can communicate the wrong state of mind to customers.
In response to these comments, Baldaza said that Spirit plans to focus on more "customer education" for the representatives who work for the company. Although the specifics are not detailed, this does seem to proceed from the CEO's specific concerns.
An example of another, more direct way that an executive can assuage customer service concerns comes from specialty glasses maker Warby Parker's General Counsel Anjali Kumar.
As luck would have it, Kumar was in the right place at the right time and recovered a lost pair of spectacles on a train. She had the company send two replacement pairs to the man who lost them, along with a copy of Jack Kerouac's novel "On The Road," a reference to the company's literary roots and attitude.
Whether your company has a previous record of high satisfaction or is in need of improvement, boards should know that their c-level staff can make or break the customer service experience. Choose the right candidate with the help of an executive search firm.
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