Making Top-Notch Customer Service A Priority
Customer satisfaction has always been a key metric for measuring the success of any business, and for good reason. Satisfied customers tend to remain more loyal to the company’s brand and its products, and great customer service forms the cornerstone to keeping your customers and clients happy.
It has been found that up to 55% of customers eventually decide not to make a purchase when faced with poor customer service. Conversely, a competitor’s reputation for good service can actually cause 40% of customers to switch to buying from them instead.
Customers today are more savvy than ever before. The rapid proliferation of technology and social media has led to an increase in consumer touchpoints and, correspondingly, customer service expectations. Customers these days expect a lot more from brands in terms of service, and while it may be more difficult to keep them satisfied, it’s an unavoidable issue for companies, especially with regards to customer retention and brand management.
Here are a few simple ways to ensure that you are meeting your customers’ service expectations.
Provide Efficient and Effective Service
When a customer is in need of assistance, the process by which he or she can find help should be as easy and fuss-free as possible. In today’s context, this means a telephone helpdesk or an easily accessible webpage that the customer can turn to as needed.
The process of requesting for help should be simplified so that customers will not be unduly inconvenienced. For example, the customer should not have to enter in the same information, such as personal or product details, repeatedly as this would quickly become frustrating. Companies can help with this by allowing customers to create online accounts so that they will only have to enter this information once, and then storing this information for further use.
The information provided by the company through any channel, online or otherwise, should also be easily comprehensible as well as useful to the customer. As much as possible, any information that is given should be able to help the customer resolve the problem quickly. One example of this would be putting up simple troubleshooting guides on the company’s product website.
Give Prompt Responses
The trend these days is for companies to provide multiple avenues by which a customer can get in touch with them. As a result, customers often demand prompt responses, especially when they have an urgent query.
With many large corporations now providing round the clock service, companies aiming to provide great customer service should aim to shorten their response times as much as they can.
One way to do this, especially when dealing with a large number of customers, is to invest in multiple service response channels. This could include email, hotlines, a customer care centres, online chat platforms etc. This prevents any one channel from being overloaded with requests and allows companies to respond to customers much faster.
Include A Human Touch
An instant, automated response to a customer query is acceptable, as it allows the customer to know that his or her request has been acknowledged. However, from that point onwards, any further responses should include a human touch.
Whether it’s through online chat, email or over the phone, great customer service always includes a human element. A responsive, friendly and helpful customer service agent can make the entire interaction a pleasant one, even if the customer initially sought help for a problem. Companies must ensure, therefore, that all customer service agents are well-trained and competent at handling queries.
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