If you are looking to transform your approach to customer service in the modern world, you’ll need to consider a digital approach. Your company’s website is just one avenue where a customer can encounter your business. You may have a retail store or in-person experience to think about alongside inbound calls, social channels, and messaging services. There are many aspects to strategise to ensure a great experience and service. To help, here are 5 top tips to ensure these are all working together to improve your customer service efforts.
- Partner with Experts
Working alongside customer service experts can ensure you are on the right track and identify any pain points. Many businesses will partner with a customer experience agency to transform their approach and be as customer-centric as possible. Bringing in consultants and those with a wealth of experience can help push a business forward, raising customer satisfaction levels. From how the UX design of your website can be improved, to outsourcing services if you don’t have the required staff, to implementing new software and innovations to improve the experience. If you’ve been struggling to enhance customer service, getting this valuable assistance can transform processes quickly.
- Create Valued Feedback
Receiving feedback is one of the most effective methods to improve customer service. Not only does this need to be done internally for staff, but also collated from customers. By listening to your customers, you can quickly discover any pain points they are having with various aspects of your business whether it’s the responsiveness of your website, wait times when calling, and anything else that is providing a negative customer experience. This becomes valued feedback when you then act on this and improve the areas highlighted, helping you connect with your customers and show that you are taking their feedback seriously.
- Improve Listening Skills
Listening is crucial when communicating with customers and staff. A common pain point for customers is not feeling listened to, especially when querying services, products or raising a complaint. Being attentive and actively listening is the best way to resolve issues fast, as this way you won’t misinterpret information or miss any important details. This is vital when on the phone, using live chat or in-person and shows customers that you care about their experience and want to help.
- Always be Friendly
Whilst this should be a given, being friendly is key to great customer service. You will not find many customers who will feedback glowingly when staff has been rude, impatient, or confrontational. Being friendly when dealing with any kind of query is crucial and helps to diffuse a situation fast, especially when encountering complaints. We can naturally become defensive when challenged, so finding a combination of being friendly and actively listening can help to not make the situation worse and resolve issues quickly. Customers expect to be treated with respect and general friendliness will ensure they have a positive experience.
- Provide Avenues for Communication
There is more than one way for a customer to interact with your business, so providing them with opportunities to contact through their preferred method is best. You will always have some customers who prefer to speak to someone, so having inbound calls that can answer any queries is ideal. Others may prefer to use a live chat function that can be easily implemented into your website UX. There is also a growing number of customers that prefer to message or text either through social media or using popular messaging services. This is something many businesses are also approaching, providing an omnichannel experience. Identifying the avenues your customers prefer to use can do wonders for customer service and provide more convenience.
The above are just 5 of the most effective ways to start improving your customer service. Together they can quickly transform your current approach and help you connect with experts who can improve processes further.
