Happy to Help – 5 Ways to Improve Your Customer Service
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Although providing a high-quality product is critical in business, it’s exceptional customer service that’ll keep your buyers coming back time after time. The advent of social media has changed the landscape of customer service, with today’s buyers expecting service that’s prompt, accessible, and high-quality. While keeping up with these demands may seem like a challenge, businesses that don’t continually improve their customer service strategy will fall behind. Here are five practical ways to get ahead:
Overhaul Your Communications
It’s difficult to provide excellent customer service with outdated technology. These days, it’s possible for small businesses to offer the same high standard of customer service as a larger company thanks to cloud-based communications. Cloud-based business tools are flexible and easy to use, allow you to a create a central repository of data, and enable employees to stay connected with customers whether they’re at their desk or on the go. Many wholesale VoIP providers also offer features like virtual assistants and customised call directing with unique greetings and specialised information for each department, which can help with upping your customer service game.
Seek Feedback
Providing fantastic customer service isn’t just something that you learn once – it’s a process that requires continual adjustment. For this reason, it’s vital to give your customers a simple and accessible way to provide feedback. Whether you opt for a post-call or email survey, website form, or live chat feedback session, knowing what your customers think of your company makes it easier for you to continue making improvements. Additionally, feedback lets you know where you’re succeeding and what you should be doing more of.
Keep Staff Happy
It doesn’t matter if you run state-of-the-art training programs and only hire the best staff – if your employees aren’t engaged, your customer service will suffer. Companies that make an effort to improve their customer experience also see employee engagement increase by an average of 20%. It’s in your best interests to foster a workplace culture that’s positive and open and encourage your employees to voice their concerns. To achieve this, you could consider running an employee engagement survey to find out how you can improve your workplace operations and boost morale.
Get Personal
The number one reason customers switch away from products and services is that they feel unappreciated. While bots, automatic responders and FAQs are handy time-saving tools, don’t rely on them too heavily or your customers may take their business to a company that can provide better, personalised service. Be sure to make your company available to customers by offering phone support and prompt responses to queries. You can also harness the power of social media to foster relationships with customers by engaging with reviews and comments made on your profiles.
Be Accountable
No one likes being reprimanded for a mistake. However, pretending as though it didn’t happen or justifying your position is a sure-fire way of losing valuable business and repeat customers. The reality is that everybody makes mistakes – it’s how we deal with them that matters most. Encourage your customer service representatives to own up to their errors and make amends with customers. More often than not, accountability on the part of a customer service rep will help to build trust between them and the customer and restore confidence.
Creating a strong customer service strategy takes time and dedication, and sometimes even a full overhaul of your business’s existing processes. However, doing so will help you to build meaningful customer relationships that’ll allow your business to prosper well into the future.
