What does it mean to engage customers in the digital age. Not just customer service when things go awry, but to really engage customers to become allies and advocates of the company. It seems common sense for any business that relies on customers to make customer service a top priority, but many are losing long-term customers because they are missing a key link: employees. We’re entering a new ‘Age of Customer Service,’ and the companies who survive the shifts will be the ones who began with smart hiring. You have to build a team of people who want to talk to customers and are personable, friendly, caring and thoughtful. These are things you can’t always teach on-the-job.

Smart hiring is one among many tenets of customer service top-performing companies focus on. Here are four fundamental tips that to help spur phenomenal growth in your company.

FOUR TIPS TO BUILD A UNIQUE DREAM TEAM IN CUSTOMER SERVICE

1. Build a team of ambassadors. Find and foster the people who are passionate about the business. They don’t have to be able to know your business front and back at first, but they should enjoy talking with customers and solving problems. If that isn’t in their DNA, they are not going to help your customer service. Assemble a team that wants to get things done and keeps moving forward. No one wants to be in an environment where people are lazy or careless, yet many companies create environments where teams aren’t working to make the culture any better let alone inspire each other. Find the people who know the responsibility that each team member carries: leave the ego behind, care for the customer and do what’s best for the company. That is the foundation for fostering the passion, the genuine vested-interests, and most importantly the positive team-player attitude that builds companies of lasting value.

2. Hire for attitude. Most hiring decision-makers have at one time or another been more impressed with a candidate’s resume than his or her attitude. Skills can be taught, but the attitude is inherent and it affects everyone on a team. If one person shows up to work with a negative attitude, it brings everyone down. One bad attitude can have a ripple effect on an entire company. It’s akin to watching what happens when you put a single drop of black ink into a clear glass of water. The drop may only be one-half-percent of the size of the entire glass, but you can watch how quickly even the smallest contamination can pollute the entire glass. It is the same with teams. It’s not always easy to detect in the hiring process, but what careful selection may not prevent, a vigilant response can root out.

3. Create a solid pre-hiring strategy. How many decision-makers consider the sources from where the best applicants originated? Many companies prioritizes tracking the ROI and communication strategies of marketing and sales departments. The analysis allows you to pinpoint inefficiencies. Not many companies dedicate the same level of attention to hiring. There is a tremendous benefit to tracking which sources bring the best candidates – whether that’s LinkedIn, internal recruiters, or referrals. If you’re not tracking it, you can’t know where you should be dedicating more resources. Focusing on the sources that bring in the candidates who match and improve your culture will pay great dividends.

4. Pay close attention to the hiring experience for each applicant. Companies need to look at how they keep in touch with candidates, how they communicate with a candidate if he or she is a good fit of or a bad fit for the company, etc. This dedication has helped VDT improve its internal culture. By making smart hiring a fundamental part of customer service, it seems businesses can be well on their way to get customers exactly what they are asking for: an excellent experience, and an excellent experience right now.

VDT doesn’t boast an overly complicated process, but focuses on value and simplicity. This seems counterintuitive in a world of automated replies where there can be a large gap between listening to customers and doing something about their feedback, but VDT continues to find success with these principles.