There has been a great emphasis on the importance of customer service. However, most business owners operating their businesses on a low budget tend to prioritize allocating funds to other business functions. But is investing in great customer service a waste of your time and money?
Most business owners are confused about how important great customer service is to their business success, especially because some successful companies continue to prosper despite their extremely bad customer service. However, providing your customers with good customer experience will increase their likelihood of coming back and transacting with your business.
Tips on How to Provide Your Customers with an Excellent Customer Service
While there are several ways that you can use to delight your customers and turn them into brand ambassadors, here are eleven smart ways that can help you to deliver great customer service.
Know your service or product
In order for you to provide your customers with a great customer experience, you should first fully understand the service or product you’re selling. This means that both you and your staff should know how the product or service works. Start by understanding some of the common questions your customers may ask and provide clear and satisfactory answers.
Know your customers
For there to be a good interaction between you and your customers, you have to first know what your customers want and what they need. According to Forbes, customers love personalization. Therefore, take your time to know your customers, make an effort to remember their names as well as any previous conversations. If need be, always take notes on what you discussed before so that you can make reference to it the next time you talk or meet.
Respond quickly
Providing your customers with solutions to their queries is important if you want to provide your customers with a great customer service experience. Resolving customer queries in a speedy manner is important, especially for those small issues that don’t take much of your time to solve. For this reason, you should consider installing WilsonPro outdoor antennas to boost your network and respond to customer problems quickly.
While it’s important to respond to your customers quickly, don’t rush to close the ticket or get them off the phone without completely solving the issue.
Fix mistakes creatively
Failure to take responsibility for your mistakes is a good way to get a bad reputation. Being transparent is important when running a business, and so is your customer service. Therefore, always strive to provide high-quality output to show your customers and potential customers that you have a high level of standards.
For example, in a post in the New York Times, Amazon was able to attract more customers after showing great empathy to one of their customers. The customer had ordered a new PlayStation for Christmas, but when the product was delivered, the customer was away and requested the neighbor to sign for the package. Unfortunately, the neighbor left the parcel outside their house, and it disappeared. Although Amazon wasn’t to blame, they resolved the problem by not only sending the customer a new PlayStation, but they didn’t charge them for shipping.
Personalize your services
Results from a recent survey show that 40% of customers want better human service. Customers get angry when they feel like they’re not being treated as individual persons, being referred to different people, or when they receive boilerplate responses. Instead, customers want to interact with other real people and not a company. This explains why most businesses send gifts to their customers on their birthdays.
You know your customers’ names, but do you know their birthdays? How about their hobbies and other interests? While it may not be possible to get all this information, giving a personal touch when you can is a great way to show your customers that you care.
Listen to your customers
To provide your clients with a good customer experience, you need to pay attention to their feedback and listen in real-time. Ensure that you show your customers that you listen to them every time they speak to you. By listening to your customers, you will hear and understand their real problems and work to solve them, which results in happier and loyal customers.
When listening to your customers, avoid pushing your personal agenda, and don’t assume that you know what your customers are experiencing. Instead, demonstrate active listening skills when chatting on the phone or through live chat. Consider using phrases like “Do you mean…?” and “it sounds like…” Remember to repeat the problem back to your customers in your own words to show them you understand what they have told you.
Maintain a positive attitude
We often say, “change your attitude to change your life.” In business, when you maintain a positive attitude, you will have an easy time providing your clients with a great customer service. According to Inc, the right attitude will go a long way in changing negative customer experiences. However, because you don’t always interact with customers face-to-face, the right attitude can be reflected in your tone of voice and language.
Nonetheless, the tone of written communication and live chat or email can easily be misinterpreted. The human brain uses several signals to interpret the emotional tone of a person through facial expression and body language, which are absent online. For this reason, you can use emojis to convey good humor and warmth, or you can call your customers when a live chat or email conversations get tense.
Help your customers to help themselves
Not all customers will talk to someone for their problems to be solved. For some, they want to resolve the problem themselves. According to Harvard Business Review, 81% of consumers attempt to handle problems themselves before they can reach out to the support team. Additionally, Venture Beat has revealed that 71% of consumers are able to solve issues on their own.
To assist your customers in solving problems that they may encounter when using your product or service, put helpful content where your customers can find the right answers to their problems. When your customers are unable to find a solution to their problem, they can contact a real person for help in just a couple of clicks. Providing content with solutions to most customer problems is a cost-effective way to make your customers happy.
Go the extra mile
By going the extra mile, you will be able to deliver a great customer experience. To be helpful to your clients, you may want to anticipate your customers’ needs before they even communicate them to you. Sometimes, customers will ask for something without realizing that they will also need another. It is your responsibility to anticipate your customer’s needs.
By going the extra mile, your customers will feel special and valued, and they will keep coming back to you. This is directly linked to the reciprocity phenomenon, which states that when you do something good for your customers, they will feel indebted to do something in return. Therefore, you can send small gifts during birthdays or other special occasions, or you can also give rare promotional codes, and in return, your customers will show their genuine appreciation by buying your products or services.
Think long term
As a business owner, it’s important that you always think long term, especially when it comes to dealing with your customers. When you keep your customers happy, you will get loyal brand ambassadors. This means that they will do marketing for you through word of mouth. In fact, Pete Blackshaw, an author and business consultant, says that a satisfied client will tell at least three people about your great products or services, while an angry customer will tell at least 3,000!
Keep your word
When you promise something to your customers, make sure that you deliver it to avoid letting your customers down. For example, if you promise to add a certain feature in your software, ensure that you deliver on that.
When you don’t keep your word, like you promise to contact your customer within 24 hours, and you fail to do so, make sure that you offer something that will make up for that. On the other hand, if delivery to your client goes awry, replace it, and make a refund of their money for their trouble. While you may lose some money by doing so, you’ll gain loyal customers in the long run.
Provide Great Customer Experience to Grow Your Business
Great customer service will have an impact on both your existing and potential clients. Therefore, you should build your business around how you can deliver excellent customer service. While it’s easy to forget the importance of providing clients with great customer service, you can combine all the above elements to provide both existing and potential clients a great customer service. Keep in mind that creating a good customer service experience will keep your customers loyal to you and your business, and it will also earn your business a reputation for going out of your way to help your customers.