In a world filled with similar products/ services, providing great customer service can be the difference-maker. With so much information available online, you can’t hide. People’s expectations have changed a lot. It is important to provide great customer service instantly. Never forget the power of an excellent review or word-of-the-mouth. It can be more powerful than your paid marketing efforts. People can easily spot a fake review, improving your customer satisfaction can go a long way to increase your sales.
If you’ve got a great product but if your customer service is below average, then your business will fail, eventually. People don’t remember the product for a long time, they remember the experience. Customer service is your first point of contact with the outside world. You want to make a great impression on your customers. Your business should always look for ways to improve customer satisfaction.
One
way to always improve customer satisfaction is to provide your team with
regular training on human interactions.
● Train your support
agent to practice empathy, patience, and consistency.
● Providing wonderful
customer service is not a thing of one day, practice continuous learning.
● Don’t assume that the
customer understands, ask them instead.
● Always be willing to
show your work ethics to your customers.
● If you don’t know
something, or if you are wrong, admit it.
● Never take customer’s
messages personally.
● Try to provide the best
customer experience.
● You are not a bot,
don’t be afraid to show your human side.
● Practice active
listening.
● Don’t forget to follow
up, even after a problem is solved.
● Provide a personal
touch to every customer.
● Always be accessible.
● Treat your customer
like royalty.
● Try to develop your
customer’s community.
● Take feedback from your
customers after every interaction.
● Customer satisfaction
is directly proportional to the happiness of your customer service team.
● Understand your
customers.
● Practice transparency
in your communication
● Don’t be rigid
● Never use negative
language while communicating
● Always use positive
language while communicating
● Use the CARP method
● Try to solve the issue
effectively and quickly
● Appreciate the customer
for their time
● Use customer service
templates
● Train your customers to
help themselves
● Be informed with
customer data
● Send offline
appreciation
● Customer service is
everyone’s business
Every day you will interact with various types of customers. Some will be confused, others would be quite chatty while some would be furious. Practice empathy with every customer and provide the same level of service to each one.
Each
customer is unique and will provide you with a unique challenge. Try to
understand the customer’s mood and provide services accordingly. Be open to
learning and strive to understand the customer’s pain points. Continue to
search for better ways to provide customer support.
Ensure your customer understands you correctly. Assume nothing, always ask them if they have understood. Use positive language and stay cheerful throughout the interaction. Never end your conversation without confirmation from the customer.
Everyone likes a representative who finishes the job and doesn’t pass the buck. But you also can’t spend too much time handling one customer while keeping others waiting. Stay focused on your goals and try to achieve the right balance.
The
customer depends on you to solve their issues. They assume you know the product
inside out. You must know every aspect of the product and if you don’t, admit
it. Take some time from the customer to find the related information. Get back
to them as soon as possible. Everyone appreciates honesty and effort to find
the right answer.
Don’t
make the mistake of taking your customer’s messages personally. Swallow your
pride, grow a thick skin and accept blame and negative feedback on their face
value. Your primary goal is to provide customer satisfaction. Even with your
most unreasonable customer, be empathetic and reasonable.
Pay
attention to providing the best customer experience at all times. Any negative
customer experience can take a toll on your business. Monitor finding the lapse
in service, make sure everyone on your team knows about the issues. Train all
your executives to be human-friendly.
Identify
common ground & shared interests with all your customers. Try to humanize
yourself and try to create a long-term relationship with all your customers.
Customers will like you more, which will increase sales.
When
you’ll practice active listening, your customers will feel heard and
appreciated. Use paraphrasing and clarifying techniques to ensure you
understand them. Saying “sorry” or “thank you” will benefit your business. Try
to empathize with everyone.
Never forget to follow up with your customers. Call them or email. Take feedback/ survey about your services from every customer. Show them you value them and you are always on their side.
A
customer wants help from an actual person and not from some bot. When you
provide a personal touch, it shows your appreciation towards the customer.
Leverage social media to grow your business by responding fast. Display
pictures, testimonials and more on your business page. Your customer should
know they are working with actual people.
When you are accessible to your customers, you are making a connection. Aim to make your accessibility easy for your customers. If you have an online business then also, you can provide a personal touch via video support calls. It helps in building trust.
Give
each of your customers VIP treatment. Make them feel their value by showing
appreciation. If you have a large team, you can assign a support representative
to special customers. Treat your customers like royal members.
Develop a sense of community with your business/ brand. You can create a community through webinars, social media, interactive websites, online forums, conventions and trade shows. Every customer interaction is a chance to learn and improve.
Every customer interaction is a chance to improve and grow your business. Taking regular feedback from your customer and working on it will ensure you are ahead of your competitors. However, you won’t be able to solve every issue instantly, you can create multiple touchpoints for simpler customer feedback.
When your customer support team is happy, they can provide better service. You should strive to create better working conditions. Improve conditions by providing opportunities for career growth, better training and resources.
Understanding
your customers ensures you would provide consistent service. Get to know the
reasons for buying your product. Collect information from your customers. Duvim Chat helps to make your services/products better by saving customer chat in the
transcript form.
The
way you interact with customers is quite important for customer satisfaction.
You need to find a style that works for you and stick with it. Don’t use
passive-aggressive language, e.g. Try to avoid technical jargons, slangs, etc.
It can turn off your customers.
When you are conversing with your customers, make it personal, friendly and don’t go overboard by being too formal. Many companies have a customer service team that talks like century-old bots.
Using
negative language while communicating with customers can be harmful to your
business. Avoid using phrases like, “Sorry, we are unable to upgrade your
service until next month or we are unable to refund your money right now."
In
the previous example, we showed you what not to use during customer
interaction. Here is the same sentence you can tell differently. “The update
will be available next month or we have started the process and you will get
the refund after some days.”
Use the CARP method
CARP
stands for:
When
you solve the customer’s issue on the first call effectively, it raises your
trust level with the customer. Try to solve the issue on the first call, or at
least as soon as possible. Keep them in the loop.
Make
the customer feel appreciated by thanking them for their time. A simple thank
you goes a long way in increasing customer satisfaction. Show them you care and
are generous towards them.
Don’t
waste time by reinventing the wheel. Keep a customer service template and
follow it for maintaining high standards. Create a scalable template for the
future.
You
should aim to provide customer support for most of the day. But it can be
difficult when you have a small-sized team. For those times, you want to upload
documents/ help materials so that customers can search for help.
Don’t
rely on the guesswork, rely on solid data. Tracking frequency issues and the
handling time of each customer will help you make better decisions. Ultimately,
resulting in improved sales.
Nothing
works better than a personal “Thank You” note sent to your customers. Take some
time to show that you value them. Appreciating customers goes a long way in
growing your business.
Every
member of your team should feel the customer’s pain points. When everyone
understands the importance of customer service, your business will sky-rocket.
Providing amazing customer support should be one of the major goals of your business. Customer satisfaction is directly related to your business success.