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Customers are the lifeblood of any business. No brand can grow and be successful without the satisfaction and approval of the customers. This is why customer service is extremely important. Thanks to social media and the internet, now more than ever, people are becoming increasingly vocal about their experiences with distinctive businesses, both good and bad. Even if you consider that just one of 30 unhappy customers might make a complaint against your company, and an unsatisfied customer shall tell ten more people about the bad experience they had, there is a good chance that you might have lost some amount of business without even realizing it.
Nobody likes to handle customer issues and complaints. However, they need to be dealt with properly to make you and your business truly shine. Non-technical customer issues particularly have to be handled with compassion and care. It shall provide you the chance to create loyal and happy customers for life. Competent customer service must always be your priority.
Why Customer Issues and Complaints Matter?
Even though customer service issues do pose a challenge to your brand reputation in case the customers publically voice their complaints, they can still aid you to work on distinctive problem areas and refine your business processes effectively. But there is a lot more to the story. In many ways, customer issues do act as a reality check for your business and can aid you in:
● Identifying loopholes in your existing service or product quality
● Understanding the perception of the customers towards your brand
● Augmenting the service or product according to the growing expectations
● Getting the chance to convert unsatisfied customers into brand advocates or loyalists
If you manage to take care of customer issues swiftly and competently, both technical and non-technical ones, then you can turn previously disappointed customers into loyal ones. Receiving complaints can be good practice for your brand in certain ways. They can aid you in seamlessly frequently auditing your services and subsequently move towards delivering a final output that can match your brand perception and customer expectation. This is the reason why receiving and resolving customer issues can be advantageous for your brand.
Types of non-technical customer issues and ways to resolve them
● Long Wait on Hold: Average Time on Hold or ATH would be among the most crucial metrics for your customer service call centers. Your customers will want fast answers anytime they seek out your assistance. They will not have the patience to spend their entire afternoon with a phone glued to their ears. According to certain studies, it is shown that after two minutes, most customers are likely to hang up their phone, and more than 30% of them will not call back. Such statistics imply that you may end up potentially losing a considerable chunk of your customer base just because you did not pick up the phone fast enough.
❖ Resolving this customer issue: Long ATH indicates two major problems. It firstly can mean that your customer demand is way too high for your customer service team. As a result, you need to consider hiring more customer service reps to meet this demand. In the meantime, the existing reps can apologize for the long wait times, and assure the customers that they are working proactively towards first call resolution. Lack of automation at your customer service center might be another indication of long ATH. To equip your customer service team with the features and tools they need to streamline operations, you shall need advanced call center software that can automatically complete tasks. By choosing to adopt such a technology, you shall be in a position to optimize the production of your team by effectively removing menial activities from the day-to-day workflow. Having such an approach can cut down the hold time complaints and subsequently create a superiorly satisfying service experience.
● Out of stock or unavailable products: It generally is a good sign if your product goes out of stock, as it would mean that your business is proactively making sales. However, if the product stays out of stock for a prolonged period, customers might get impatient for its return. Some of them might repeatedly call for product updates or demand a special order. Such a situation indicates a time-sensitive need for your product that has to be fulfilled as fast as possible.
❖ Resolving this customer issue: Customer service representatives usually have no say in when a new shipment might be ordered. They ideally have to report these problems to their respective managers, who can subsequently notify both product and sales, management teams. Meanwhile, customer service representatives need to encourage the customers to remain patient and tell them that they shall be notified when the new shipment arrives. Having such a proactive customer service process shall assure the customers that your business is aware of their time-sensitive needs and is doing its best to cater to them.
● Uninterested service rep: No matter whether it is their personality, tone, or something else, some customers might not get along with certain customer service reps. In case any of your agents fail to meet their requirements, many of the customers might think that this is due to their lack of interest in your case. While at times this can be true, in many instances, the customers tend to have greater expectations than your team is equipped to provide. No matter where the fault lies if your representatives fail to appear invested, then your business reputation might take a hit.
❖ Resolving this customer issue: When dealing with a difficult customer, agents must try their best to deliver above-and-beyond customer service. Every company has its protocol. But at times, it is worth bending the rules to prevent customer churn. Your agents must pay attention to their body language and tone at the least, and try to display an attentive and motivating demeanor.
You must always take note of the customer issue. Even though they can be frustrating at times, such complaints do present an opportunity to enhance your support experience. After the support issue is effectively resolved, you can use customer feedback as inspiration for new community content.
