Steps to great customer service
Having a good customer service is the key to owning a great business and will help you grow your customer pool and your company. In this short blog, we will give you the eight steps on how to obtain better customer service.
- Personalized service for your clients.
Be personal with your customers. Let them know that you’re a friend and not some other corporate office employee. Make them feel like they’re an individual person. There are several ways of doing this. You could send your customer a personal handwritten note instead of an automatic reply email or give them a discount for their troubles (Indeed, 2020). They will think of you again when they see these things. - Respect is the number one priority.
Some customers will be angry towards you, they’ve received a broken product, or something is wrong with their order. This is natural, but those angry customers will redirect their anger to you instead of to the company in some cases. If this happens, then you must stay calm. Giving remarks or giving somebody else the blain will only make it worse. Assure them that you will try your best to fix their problem as soon as possible. - The key is messaging.
Be available for your customer through all different types of platforms. Make sure that they can contact you through social media (Facebook, Instagram). Include the company’s phone number on your website with a link to WhatsApp so you can be contacted there. A recent study showed that 44% prefer to use chatbots or automated interactions. If your company can set one up, then we highly recommend you do so (Dreyer, 2016). However, it is still more important to have an actual person respond to customer questions since more people like to talk to an actual person. You can also find more reasons on why to stay in touch with customers here. - Be quick.
The response time is often of great importance. Suppose it takes longer than 24 hours for your company to get back to a customer. Then they will think that they are neglected and won’t feel like a well-treated customer. If you respond quickly to a customer’s request, they feel like you care for them and choose the right company. - Don’t make promises you can’t keep.
If you write on your website that you promise to get back to your customers within 24 hours, you need to do so. Breaking a promise with a customer will ruin your relationship with them, and they might look for a different company. The key is to under-promise but over-deliver to keep your customers satisfied. - Have patience. Be calm.
Sometimes you’ll end up finding yourself in a challenging situation with a client. Somebody slow with their computer, somebody who doesn’t understand how it works. It could be a person with a lot of specific questions that all need to be answered. Take your time with these people. Nobody likes to feel like they are being rushed. Certainly not when they are the ones providing your firm with an income. Always have patience when working with these customers.
Suppose it takes a long time for a potential customer to get back to you. Then you can always send them a friendly reminder mail to let them know that you are thinking about them. - Set up feedback.
Ensure that clients can give feedback to your response and your customer service and make sure that customers know how and where to do this. At the end of a conversation with a customer, you could include a short survey with a couple of questions or include live chat support. It shouldn’t take long to fill this in and must be understandable. Therefore this step should be kept as simple as possible.
If you want more individuals to fill this in then, you could offer them a reward such as a small discount on their next purchase. When you do this, the client answers it correctly and thoroughly and not just because they want the discount.
Make sure to utilize this information given by your clients. Look at the feedback and, if needed, make changes to your customer service. - Go the extra mile.
This might be the most obvious one but do something extra for your clients. Show your customers that you are busy with them day and night, and they will always remember that. Show them that you care about their requests and try to fulfill them as fast as possible. This will make your relationship more substantial, and you’ll be seeing your customers again very quickly.
A great example of this is when Sainsbury changed the name of their previously called tiger bread to giraffe bread because a little 3-year old girl thought it resembled a giraffe better (Wonderlust, 2016). They sure won a customer for life, and that should be your goal too.