In our modern day society, customer service is more important than ever. With the rise of social media, people are able to spread the word about a business much faster than before. However, this also means that if a customer receives bad service, they’ll have no issue posting about it on their profiles for everyone to see. This can be detrimental to your business, and before long you’ll find it hard to retain loyal customers. Improving your customer service isn’t really that difficult, but you need to know where to start. Something as simple as integrating omnichannel customer service could make a massive difference to the levels you provide. So, if you want to take your customer service to the next level, keep reading and discover the 5 top ways you can do just that!
- Listen To Your Customer’s Needs
One of the top things you can do when trying to improve your customer service is to actually listen to your customers. You might think that because you were polite on the call or you sent them a simple resolution, it means you provided excellent service. However, you actually need to do a lot more than that if you want to improve it. If your customers contact you repeatedly about the same issue, instead of simply resolving it, try and look at ways you can prevent it from happening again. This will make much more of a difference in the long term, as your customers will see you as a proactive business that actually cares about them.
- Become More Accessible
To be an accessible business doesn’t mean you have to be available 24/7, but it does mean you need to make your business open to everyone. You might be providing the most amazing customer service over the phone, but if you have customers that are hard of hearing or members of the deaf community, they might not be experiencing the same high levels. Take a look at all the types of services that you offer and make sure that they can be accessed by anyone, no matter any disabilities or restrictions that they may have. You could also look at extending your opening hours so that your customers have more opportunities to contact you. It’s important that you think about offering more than one method of contact too. If you’re digital only, then some of your customers might not be able to speak to you if they don’t have a smartphone or PC. Instead, be sure to enable your customers to speak to you in whatever way works best for them. You’ll soon notice that the number of irritated customers you have declines!
- Have Achievable SLAs
SLAs are crucial when running a business, but it’s also vital to get them right when offering them out to customers. You don’t want to tell your customers that you’ll get back to them within an hour if that’s physically impossible. Instead, make sure you give them realistic SLAs that will manage their expectations. Otherwise, you’ll only end up with more angry customers than you started off with! A customer might have got in touch for a simple issue, and because they were informed, you’d respond in an hour and didn’t, then it might turn into a complaint. Your SLAs shouldn’t be too long either. Multiple days of wait can be extremely off-putting to customers, but it’s also important that you don’t promise them something you can’t achieve.
- Make Your Service Easy
You want to make the type of service that you offer as easy as possible, for both your customers and your employees. There’s no point in having a ridiculously complicated system that your employees struggle to use as it will only cause further issues to the level of service you provide. Instead, make everything super user-friendly for both parties, and you’ll soon find that everyone is a lot happier. If you have processes that are hard to follow or contacting you is really hard, then you’ll end up with frustrated employees and customers who are both caught in the middle of something they can’t control. Good customer service needs to be simple and easy for everyone involved as it needs to be able to run smoothly from start to finish. So, make sure your bin off any unnecessary steps and make the whole process easier for everyone.
- Make Your Service Personal
Personalizing the service that you offer your customers is very important. No one wants to feel like just another number in the queue, so make sure you treat every customer like an individual. Little things like using their name, asking how their day was, and building up a genuine rapport can help immensely. You also need to make sure that you change how you speak to each person and try your best to match their personality. For instance, if they prefer being addressed as “Mr. Smith” rather than by their first name, make sure you tailor your service to be a little bit more formal. Whereas if they’re more than happy to be called by their forename and are extremely chatty and friendly, mimicking this back to them will enhance their personal experience. Make sure you personalize the service you provide to each customer, and you’ll be able to tell the difference right away.
Good customer service is something that a lot of companies strive for but just miss the mark. This is generally because of small things like not being accessible to everyone or offering a very generic service. These things are easily changed, so don’t let your business fall victim to the same trap that countless others do. With a few changes here and there, you’ll soon be providing the best customer service in your market area. Your customers and employees will both benefit from the improvements, so start making them as soon as you can, and your business will be catapulted to success.
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