Customer service is a key aspect of business. Without it, or when it’s severely lacking, a business will end up with a bad reputation and a declining customer base, particularly with an increase in social media use where customers share both positive and negative reviews.
Word-of-mouth marketing is popular, and so customer loyalty is crucial in generating new leads and sales.
It’s essential to make both new and current customers feel appreciated and valued. Excellent customer service relationships draw customers to their favorite brands. Don’t let a bad customer experience ruin your business.
Here are 3 ways to take your customer service to the next level.
1. Keep Quality Consistent
The best way to gauge the level of customer satisfaction is through direct feedback from clients. You can do this by asking them to take part in a short survey at the end of each phone call and integrate this into the call waiting process. Direct feedback will help your employees to look at the service they’re offering through the eyes of the customer. This is also an opportunity for customers to praise top-performing employees and boost their morale.
For instance, something like a slow connection to client files or the lack of an expert to respond to complex queries can prolong call resolution times, but this can be resolved by offering the right channel to solve these issues.
2. Improve Response Times
Long waiting times are a major concern for many clients, especially if they have an urgent problem. Use KPIs to measure metrics such as the average waiting time, average call length, and the number of calls handled per hour; this will help to assess customer satisfaction.
Today, customers expect to be able to contact companies through multiple channels. The need to track and respond to client queries quickly via multiple channels is driving the need for a unified communication channel.
By integrating several channels into one, you can engage customers hastily; this also helps to make sure all interactions are stored, viewed, and managed from a central location. This makes it easier to address customer needs. By unifying various communications, you can make sure all customers get the same level of care and attention whatever channel they choose, and it helps to cut poor communication and long waiting times.
3. Be Kind
Always respond positively to all customer queries, whether positive or negative. If a complaint is genuine, go beyond sending a “we’re sorry” email. Resolve it as quickly as possible and go beyond what an ordinary company would, even though this may be expensive.
Was the customer let down? Was the product below their expectations? Was there a delay in delivery? Give them a discount or a voucher, call them, and offer a sincere apology. Good words spread about good businesses; if you take care of your customers, they’ll recommend you to others and your company will grow.
