How You Can Make Your Customer Service More Impactful
Customer service is an integral part of business, and you?ll soon see the detrimental effects it can have when it?s not up to par.
You need to be thinking of the bigger picture when it comes to improving your service, and this could mean looking into customer experience consulting.
This can really help you understand what?s not working and how you can make improvements that actually mean something. You want your customer service to be noticeably good, not just middle-of-the-road okay?
So, if you want to take your customer service to the next level, keep reading and discover how you can make it that much more impactful.
1. Tailor Your Service
You might think that you already tailor your service by making sure you call each customer by their name, but this isn?t as impactful as you might think. Tailoring your service means treating each customer as an individual throughout the entirety of their experience with you, not just when you answer the phone.
Make it so that anyone can contact you and feel as though they?ll be treated with respect and listened to, even if they have to make a complaint. You also want to think about changing the way you process different types of contact too. Some people might prefer a more formal approach when speaking via the phone and others may prefer a relaxed email response.
Try asking your customers when they first join you how they prefer to be contacted, and you?ll be surprised at the varied responses. But this will really allow you to tailor their experience with your business and hopefully make a lasting impression on them.
2. Be Accessible
Your business needs to be accessible to everyone, no matter their abilities. So, it?s vital that you look into all avenues of customer service and see if there are areas that can be improved.
Even something as simple as extending your opening hours can make a huge difference. Not everyone is able to contact you during business hours as they?re working too, so by staying open even just an hour later, you can enable them to contact you and resolve their issue.
Try making sure that you offer multiple different methods of contact as well. Only providing one will definitely cut out a lot of people as they won?t be able to access that method. For instance, by only offering customer service by phone, you?re preventing people who can?t or don?t like using the phone. So, always have alternative means of contact, and you?ll be well on your way to providing great service.
3. Go The Extra Mile
It?s one of the first things that you learn in customer service but going that extra mile really does make all the difference. It doesn?t really take that much effort on your part either. In fact, all you need to do is treat the customer as an individual, not a number, and you?ll find yourself wanting to go the extra mile without even realizing it.
Taking ownership of a bad situation also factors into this, as most people expect companies to blame them instead of owning up to their mistakes. Going the extra mile doesn?t mean you need to spend hours focusing on one customer at a time, but it can be little things like offering a discount if they?ve had to wait in a call queue or sending them a voucher because they mentioned that it was their birthday on a call. All of these things stand out much more than standard service, so make sure you always push to go that little bit further.
Customer service is an integral part of business, and you?ll soon see the detrimental effects it can have when it?s not up to par.
4. Utilize Feedback
Feedback is extremely useful, and more businesses should make use of it. Feedback allows you to easily see where you?re going wrong, helping you to implement changes that matter. Ask your customers for feedback on your service on a regular basis. Some even ask for a rating and feedback at the end of every call or live chat.
If you think that this is overkill, just try sending an email survey once in a while to your customers and see if you can spot a pattern in the negative feedback. You want to take every piece of feedback on board, no matter how small, as it can all really make a difference. Sometimes customers will provide feedback while speaking with you, so it?s important that you use your initiative and actually do something with it.
You want your customers to feel valued, and listening to them and making changes so that they can see the improvement will be a great way to enhance your customer service.
5. Make It Easy
Finally, you want your customer service to be effortlessly easy for your employees and most importantly, the customer. Make sure that you utilize tools that make processing contact from customers simple and easy to do. If you make it more difficult than it needs to be, you?ll find that your customers always end up unhappy whenever you get around to speaking to them.
Try not to have lots of different keypad options when they phone you, as most people will find them very frustrating. Make your service as simple as you possibly can and your customers will definitely thank you for it. You?ll also make your employees’ lives easier too, as they won?t have to deal with angry customers right off the bat. So, remember, make your customer service easy and it will have a much more positive lasting effect.
Customer service is extremely important for all businesses, but it can be their downfall if it?s not done right. You want to make sure that you don?t fall into this category and ensure that you always provide excellent service no matter what.
So, if you want to offer impactful customer service, make sure that you really take these tips on board. Implementing them won?t be hard either as they aren?t major changes, simply minor adjustments to the ways you work. Before you know it, you?ll be providing top-notch customer service and leading the way amongst a sea of competitors.
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