In the age of the online review, it is more important than ever that you care about your customers and what they might say about you, your brand and your products. Because it can quickly spiral and before you know it - your reputation is in the gutter.
Here are some key things you can do to provide excellent customer service experience.
From the moment you pick up the phone or respond to the email, you need to set a firm and positive tone. Be in charge and address their issues as quickly and politely as possible. Make sure that they know that you will do everything in your power to make the situation right. The positive manner in which you respond will make them feel more like they are talking to a friend than a business, which will usually soften their approach too. Positive language is your best friend.
If you get an email on Monday but let it go unresolved until Friday, you are just avoiding dealing with it, and the customer is right to elevate the complaint. You can use help desk outsourcing to help you keep all of this under control. Find more info on how it can make a difference to your customer service. If you have employees, they must care as much about the issue as you and the customer do. So make sure that everyone is pitching in when possible. It also gives everyone a deeper appreciation of what the customer is expecting and how you can avoid these issues in the future.
It really is about the client or customer here. You customer should always be the driving force behind every decision that you make in your company. Your tone should talk to them as you would like to be spoken to. If you sell sneakers to the younger demographic, then you probably aren’t going to want to have jargon-heavy responses. If you work in the business or finance world, then your responses should meet their needs. The user experience matters.
When replying keep it personal. Use the name that they have used in their emails. When responding on Twitter, use the name that you can see and sign off with your name too.
Excellent customer service is about dedication, focus and staying authentic to the company. If you can help, then you should try to make sure you deliver as fast as possible. Listen to the concerns, even if you think they are trivial. Lousy customer service, in the end, will drive people to look elsewhere for the goods or the services that you provide. And that is a loss of money. Over time, if you aren’t doing your utmost to nail your customer service, you are going to see that reflected on your online ratings (think the stars on Facebook, Yelpers, Trustpilot and even bloggers). Before people buy from you, they are likely to read those reviews and decide against it.
Happy customers = repeat business.
[Photo by Susanne Jutzeler from Pexels CC0]