Structuring Your Customer Services Department - Fleximize

Structuring Your Customer Services Department

What management structure should my customer service department have?

By Emma Meakin

Your customer service structure needs to let staff take ownership – and ensure that your customers are handled in the most effective way possible.

Many businesses are abandoning traditional command and control management in favour of more open structures. This can help to break down borders, letting ideas and concerns flow more freely throughout the organisation.

In customer service, too much hierarchy can lead to customers being passed to supervisors and managers in search of someone who’s ‘job it is’ to deal with their particular question. Instead, your front line staff should be able to take ownership of every call. Managers will always be needed, of course – just make sure they’re not too close to the coal-face so that their staff can take control of the majority of situations.