Simon Sinek, the renowned New York best-selling author, once said — “It’s not what you do, it’s why you do it.”
It’s a testament to how modern-day customers make purchases too — tending to go for certain products and services, despite a cheaper option being on the shelf.
Big or small, service or product-based, new or old — companies should be willing to figure out values and causes they want to stand for.
These often get reflected in their customer service vision statements.
What is a customer service vision statement, why is it important, and how can you build one? These are the questions we’ll tackle in this post.
We’ll also share some of the top vision statement examples from around the world.
Let’s get started!
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What is a customer service vision statement?
A clear vision statement has one goal — to provide a shared direction to an organization.
Ideally, a vision statement describes the future of an organization and helps everyone figure out its ambitions and aspirations.
It is generally boiled down to a sentence or a short paragraph and makes sure the teams working in the organization do not lose sight of the purpose behind all operations.
An outstanding customer service vision statement provides direction to all missions, strategies, and activities happening in a company.
How does a vision statement differ from a mission statement?
A vision statement is often put forward in conjunction with a mission statement. This is because both these statements cater to the organization’s beliefs and principles.
However, mission and vision statements are quite different and should be approached differently.
The primary difference between mission and vision statements is that the former shows where you want to be while the latter signifies what you would do to get there.
In other words, both vision and mission statements are interdependent and give purpose and direction to each other.
Again, as we mentioned earlier, while a company mission indicates “what” and “how,” a vision focuses on the “why.”
Importance of building a company vision statement
A vision statement is an effective tool to bring all teams and departments in the organization on the same page.
It keeps them on track and makes them function as a unit — serving a shared purpose and aiming for a better everyday life. If not developed, a vision statement turns out to be a missed opportunity.
The numbers make that quite evident —
- Employee engagement levels shoot to 68 percent in organizations with a meaningful vision.
- Organizations with aligned mission and vision grow faster by 58 percent and tend to be 72 percent more profitable. (Study)
Characteristics of an excellent vision statement
What are the qualities of a great vision statement? Here are some of the key characteristics you would like to maintain across your vision statements.
1. Contains clarity
The vision statement should put forward a stable and transcendent goal and that is only possible if it is drafted with much clarity
Ditch the jargon and buzzwords and use terminology that is understandable across the organization when writing a vision statement.
2. Statement should be purposeful
Your vision statement should be built on the concept of “why,” i.e., it should present the general idea of why your company exists as well as its core values.
To make it more purposeful, you can add specifics like products, services, market, and the overall impact on customer experience or customer satisfaction you wish to have.
3. Focuses on a desirable goal
Different companies may have different goals and core values.
When drafting a vision statement, one should focus on setting desirable goals by stating the fundamental value, the organization’s uniqueness, collective identity, and potential.
In other words, your vision statement should ideally be goal-oriented.
4. Involves key success indicators
It’s important that the customer service vision statement caters to the qualities and metrics you want to achieve.
These are indicators that provide a window into what success means to the organization.
The idea is to write a vision statement that can be used to evaluate an organization’s success.
5. Should be long-term
You can never go wrong with a future-focused vision statement.
This is because a long-term vision statement can involve the organization’s ambition five or ten years down the road.
A future-oriented vision statement can effectively describe the company’s idea of growth and success.
6. Statement should be challenging
The vision statement should put forward a challenging goal for your organization, achieving which can be a significant accomplishment.
However, the goal should be presented in the vision statement with much abstraction.
This makes it easier for the statement to be relevant to all employees, teams, and departments in the organization.
7. Concise and abstract
Conciseness should be the order of the day when drafting a vision statement. Indeed, IBM does it differently with its overarching vision.
But ideally, companies should keep from writing long, convoluted vision statements. One way to test a vision statement for conciseness is how easily an employee can memorize it and use it in everyday life.
How to write a customer service vision statement?
Now that you are well-acquainted with the ins and outs of a vision statement, it’s time we dive deeper and figure out ways to write an effective customer service vision statement.
1. Create a team to come up with a vision statement
If you have just started out, you might only have your partners to come up with a vision statement.
As you grow, you can make a team to develop the company’s vision statement — asking managers and employees for their contributions to creating a compelling statement that speaks to the organization.
2. Identify and focus on long-term goals (5-10 years from now)
As discussed earlier, the vision statement should be essentially future-focused.
This can be achieved by projecting your goals for the future.
Members responsible for drafting a vision statement should identify and focus on goals that will be relevant to your company five or ten years down the line.
It should succinctly capture your organization’s dream.
3. Build a vision statement specific to your company
The magic lies in the specifics. You cannot expect your vision statement to have a great impact if it has been drafted with a general sense of purpose.
Such vision statements can be applied to any company. An effective vision statement is one that sticks to the company specifics and speaks of goals that are relevant to your organization.
4. Stay away from jargon
Eliminate the need to add jargon to your vision statement. This is important because you don’t want the vision statement to function like a marketing pitch.
There should be no technical terms involved in the statement.
Also, keep the statement from any catchy claims. The best way to approach a vision statement draft is by aiming for clarity and keeping it simple and memorable.
5. Revisit the vision statement once in a while
A stagnant vision statement is of no use as companies tend to change, grow, and evolve.
Your vision statement should follow suit and must be revisited every now and then to adjust it for relevancy.
Regularly update your vision statement to match it with the changing organization’s purpose.
6. Communicate it back to the company
Lastly, put sincere efforts into making the most of the vision statement. Communicate the vision statement to all employees, teams, and departments in the organization.
Your quest to make the company take the vision statement to heart will prove effective only if the employees are pushed to provide their input and suggestions.
Top vision statement examples from around the world
Here are some of the best vision statement examples — straight from the top companies around the world.
- BBC: “To be the most creative organization in the world”
- Google: “To provide access to the world’s information in one click”
- LinkedIn: “Create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce”
- Microsoft: “To help people throughout the world realize their full potential”
- Nike: “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world”
- Sony: “To be a company that inspires and fulfills your curiosity.”
- Tesla: “To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy”
- Amazon: “Our vision is to be earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”
- Ford: “People working together as a lean, global enterprise to make people’s lives better through automotive and mobility leadership.”
- IBM: “To be the world’s most successful and important information technology company. Successful in helping our customers apply technology to solve their problems. Successful in introducing this extraordinary technology to new customers. Important because we will continue to be the basic resource of much of what is invested in this industry.”
- Starbucks: “To establish Starbucks as the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world while maintaining our uncompromising principles while we grow.”
Wrapping up
A vision statement, although small or short, can provide your company with a lot of value. After all, it does an excellent job of outlining the organization’s desired outcomes, intentions, and future purpose.
Moreover, an effective vision statement is one that keeps evolving as your company changes and accomplishes the set vision.
Once updated, a vision statement can successfully open your company to better goals and possibilities. Did you find this post helpful? Stay tuned as we share more such informative posts in the future.