Introduction
Customer service is more than just a phone menu. You can drive business success by improving the basic customer experience and building stronger relationships with your customers. Here’s how:
Customer service is more than just a phone menu.
Customer service is more than just a phone menu.
Customer service is about delivering the right experience at the right time. The best customer experiences are those that help customers get what they want, when they want it and how they want it (within reason). And while this may seem like common sense, there’s no denying that many businesses still struggle with providing good customer service because they don’t know how to measure success or failure in their efforts.
You might think of your business as being unique–and maybe it is! But if you’re not measuring success by specific metrics related directly to delivering on needs and wants in real time, then there’s no way for you know if what you’re doing is working or not until after-the-fact feedback comes back from unhappy customers who have already left negative reviews online or told friends/family about their unsatisfactory experiences with your company.
Empower your customers with self-service options.
Empower your customers with self-service options.
Customer service isn’t only about answering the phone and solving problems. It also involves giving customers tools that make it easier for them to solve their own issues, through things like online chat or email support. This can be a great way to save money on staffing costs–and, in fact, it’s often cheaper than hiring new employees in the first place! You’ll also see an increase in customer satisfaction if you provide self-service options because they’re more likely to feel like they have control over their own experience (which they do). Further still: offering these kinds of services increases customer experience and reduces churn rates by reducing friction points between your company and its customers.
Be proactive and use your data to improve the basic customer experience.
Customer service is about more than just answering the phone. It’s about using data to improve your basic customer experience, from the moment a customer interacts with you until they’ve had their problem solved and are happy again.
Customer service agents should be able to track all sorts of metrics, including how many calls they take per day and how long each call lasts on average; whether customers prefer email or chat; which days are busier than others; if there are any repeat questions coming up frequently (that could indicate an issue in your product); etc..
This kind of information can be used by managers at all levels–from front-line supervisors all the way up through C-suite executives–to make decisions about staffing levels or new product features that will drive more sales while also making sure each person working at the company has enough time off so they don’t burn out!
Never stop listening and learning.
One of the most important things to remember when driving business success with friendly customer service is that you should never stop listening and learning. Listen to your customers, listen to your employees, listen to your competitors and partners–the list goes on!
You can learn a lot by simply being open-minded enough to hear what others are saying about your business and industry as a whole.
Don’t forget about the importance of personal touch.
Personal touch is the most important element in building a successful customer service strategy. The best way to use personal touch is by making sure that your employees are well trained and know how to provide quality service. You can also encourage them by giving them incentives for doing so, such as higher pay or bonuses for good performance.
If you’re running a small business with only one or two employees, it can be difficult for them to provide the same level of service as larger businesses do because there aren’t enough people around who are able to help out when things get busy or complicated. In these situations it’s important not only that you train your staff members well but also ensure their ability through proper equipment such as computers with internet access so they don’t need take time away from helping customers simply because they don’t know how something works.”
You can drive business success with friendly customer service
It’s easy to think of customer service as something that happens when you call in or walk into a store. But great customer service doesn’t just happen on its own–it’s something that needs to be planned and executed by your entire organization, from top to bottom.
To drive business success with friendly customer service:
- Empower your customers with self-service options. If someone is having trouble finding what they want or need on your website, provide them with the tools they need to find it themselves–and then help them along the way if needed (but don’t act like their personal assistant). This will allow you to keep costs down while improving satisfaction scores at the same time!
Conclusion
We hope you’ll agree that the best customer service is one that’s personal, proactive and empowers your customers to solve their own problems. By putting this philosophy into practice, you can turn your customers into loyal advocates who will help grow your business by word-of-mouth marketing.
