How to improve your customer service: A blog idea about what can be done to improve on customer service.
A business with a great quality product that captures a niche in the market but fails to please customers with proper service can never be successful. Customers are the most important aspects of a successful business; therefore, delivering a consistent customer experience is imperative.
When customers use any digitized method to fulfill their needs, be it buying anything online, doing some official work, etc., they demand a smooth and consistent experience that many organizations struggle to provide. Online customer service is an important part of the customer experience. It includes the specific touchpoints across the journey when a customer requests and receives assistance.
Finding out customer grievances and catering to those needs is the main key to solving this problem. Sounds doable, right? But the real challenge occurs when those issues are spread over more than one or two platforms and devices.
To make sure your company does not lose any customers, providing top-notch customer service is a must. In the following part, we will discuss how to improve customer service.
Instead of a generic onboarding message, you should always respond with a personalized email whenever a user purchases a product or signs up for a trial. If there is a learning procedure for the product, automated messages or emails can become very useful in helping the customer learn about the product. But they don't make the customer feel as welcome as a personal message. When a customer signs up for a free trial, purchases a product, or sends an inquiry, you should reach out with a personal message to ask if they require your help. There will be many who will not need your help at the moment, but they will appreciate the gesture and have a positive impression of your company.
To make the message personalized, you can use the customer’s name in it while addressing them. In case the customer is from a different country, you can use their native language in the message. Although, you should only do that if the customer is not required to reply to your message.
Generally, a loyalty program is the best way you can offer customers a personalized experience. It also helps you collect relevant data of the customer. Customers are always satisfied with loyalty programs.
So, the idea of a loyalty program is to reward the clients who have been loyal with an unforgettable experience. Something they will remember for a long time. Your reward may depend on what the customer likes. For example, you own a brewing company. You can always reward customers who have been coming to your shop for a long time and the ones promoting your brand with complimentary beer shipped to their house. But instead, as a surprise, you can also offer them a full tour of your company. Alternatively, while you could offer them beer at no cost, you can make their experience more special by customizing the labels, which can contain each customer's name, photo, or any other detail that signifies them. The final result will mostly be the same. They will advertise your agency among known ones that will definitely improve the image of your brand and increase your sales.
Social media has always been easy and convenient. This is why customers contact brands on social media more often. They ask for help, bring an issue to your notice, or have a question. They also do it because of the expectation of a quick response.
If you fail to respond on time, customers will most likely not like it and complain about it among their friends and family and on social media. To help yourself in such situations, you can have either an employee or an entire department, if possible, whose sole focus will be on managing social media.
It is not a bad idea to send auto-replies. They are fast, convenient, and provide customers with a clear idea about the status of their messages.
You can make the simple auto-replies more personalized. This will make them notice-worthy and interesting. Usually, companies keep the subject as "We have received your complaint," but you can make it sound different by saying, "Hi. Thank you for reaching out to us. We are working on resolving your issue."
At the same time, try to use the customer’s name. And never forget to thank customers for bringing the issue to your notice. Later, make sure to follow up with the customer about their experience.
Basically, the hidden trick is to deliver the resolution before the promised time. That’s definitely a great way to increase customer satisfaction. You can use auto-replies on any platform, but make sure to deliver on time. It leaves a great impression.
If you have a large customer base, you should have a team dedicated to responding to the customers and working on a 24/7 basis since we all know the importance of fast replies when it comes to customer support.
To build a team of customer representatives, you should hire employees for this work. Also, have multiple shifts running so that service is available all the time. If you have a budget that is not as big as others, you should hire freelancers. They can be from a different country, but this will cut down your establishment costs.
Introducing self-service to your company’s website and the portal can also contribute to this point.
To improve customer service, companies need to make the strategy customer-centric. The Voice of Customer or VoC program is the best method to maintain the standardized customer experience. The voice of customer program works with collecting customer feedback and understanding them, analyzing and prioritizing the feedback, taking action accordingly, and then following up with the customer for further feedback. Engaging with customers more, taking note of their issues, and prioritizing them is what can improve and take care of customer experience on all platforms.
