Excellent customer service is not just about building your reputation. It can literally mean the difference between business success and failure. In other words, you may have great products and business plan. But, if you do not try to follow current best practices in customer service, you may lose your customers.
Read on to know some of these practices.
Benefits of using Customer Service Best Practices
At the end of the day, what your customers think and feel about your business can affect its success. Research shows that you are likely to retain nearly 80% of your customers after a mistake if you have excellent customer service. More so, 93% will tend to make repeat purchases regardless.
Here are some benefits of using current best practices in customer service.
You retain your existing customers
Now, even though it is important to continue focusing on new customer acquisition, you may consider customer retention as equally – if not more – important. Why the effort to retain your customer is easier and less costly than acquiring new customers. Surely, your bottom line is better served when you don’t lose current customers as you go chasing new ones.
Excellent customer service builds your brand reputation
Also, having a bad brand reputation or perception due to poor customer service can put your business in jeopardy. As such, you should try to provide exceptional customer service across all your channels. This includes social media, website, email, and other channels.
There is an increase in referrals
Certainly, satisfied customers are more likely to refer your brand to new prospects. What this means is that you get to spend less than you would have in gaining new customer acquisitions. Consequently, investing in exceptional customer service helps you gain more word-of-mouth and other referrals.
You improve customer loyalty
What amount would you cite as the worth of customer loyalty? You can ask those big brands out there. They did not get big suddenly you know. After all, when you follow current best practices in customer service, you improve customer satisfaction. In turn, such customers are likely to be more loyal to your brand.
You gain a competitive advantage
Certainly, leading brands in various industries are known for providing premium customer service. Without doubt, providing superior products and services without good customer service support will lead to loss of customers. Just one poor customer service experience can also lead to loss of customers. Thus, when you offer consistent excellent customer service, you edge out your competition and get closer to the top.
Current Best Practices in Customer Service
What are the current best practices in customer service you should follow? You can start by considering how to implement the following tips.
Resolve customer requests and complaints promptly
Sometimes referred to as improving first touch resolution, your business should focus on resolving customer support issues as quickly as possible. Where your FCR is poor, you will have a drop in customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. Therefore, try analyzing delayed responses and look for ways to improve them. Continuously train your team on improving FCR.
Provide Self-Service Options
Do you know that up to 81% of customers attempt solving issues themselves before reaching out to a customer service agent? That is to say, if you provide effective self-service options for your customers, you save yourself a lot of costs and service time. So, start by creating a knowledge base of helpful content. This can include frequently asked questions and common issues. In addition, you can use chatbot software.
Build the capacity of your employees
Similarly, you do not want to throw your employees into the customer service field without adequate training. There is a constant need to empower your employees so they become proactive, professional, and competent at customer service delivery.
Be transparent in managing customer expectations
Furthermore, you should be forthright in expressing what customers can expect from you. It would not do to promise what you cannot deliver. Rather, specify what they can expect. Then, work towards exceeding those expectations.
Use Customer Relationship Management platforms
These CRM platforms can help you gather relevant data. Thereafter, your representatives can use such data to personalize interactions and adapt to customer needs.
Use the H.E.A.R.D framework
As used by Disney, this framework is used to deal with distraught customers.
Hear: simply practicing active listening can do so much. Try not to interrupt with some justification or apology.
Empathize: Express your understanding of their position. empathy can build trust with the customer. In turn, this can make them remember your business in a positive light.
Apologize: An apology does not mean the customer’s tone is reasonable or that you are wrong. It simply expresses your interest and wishes to improve.
Resolve: Moreover, your apology should be backed with a resolution. Attempt to resolve the issue as soon as possible.
Diagnose: finally, thank the customer for showing patience with a wish to serve them again. Subsequently, diagnose the problem and work towards avoiding a repeat.
Create Customer Service Representative Reviews
Finally, use surveys, feedback forms, and reviews from customers to periodically access you’re your business and your customer service representatives. As such, you can more quickly identify pain points in your customer service workflow. More so, you can reward exceptional employees and give more training to others.
Wrapping up
You should see the implementation of current best practices in customer service as an opportunity instead of as an expense. After all, you not only increase your number of loyal customers, you create brand ambassadors. Furthermore, you ultimately boost your bottom line.
