In the 20th century demand for every business was to revamp all their business verticals & connect the dots to perform excellent customer service. The roles might be different for all the verticals like Human Resources, Finance, Sales & Marketing, Operations, Supply Chain, but the objective for everyone was to deliver the best possible service.
But, the definition has changed in the 21st century. The expectation of customers has changed tremendously from the service providers. Reasons; evolution of digital media, mobile devices, start-ups evolution, the number of service providers & quick service delivery system. It’s more became Customer Engagement, rather than just customer service.
We here at Apogaeis believes that customer service is not just a department, it’s everyone’s job. As the quality of your products or services are not what you put into it, it’s what your customers get out of it. We are privileged enough to be known as a best customer service provider in our domain. Because of our excellent customer service approach, we get around 80% of our business either from repeat customers or from referrals.
Here are a few customer service tips to improve your customer service experience.
Brace your Customer Service Team
Your customer service team should possess the right skills & expertise to manage customers. If they fail, no CRM can help you to compensate. What could be the skills? We don’t have any particular list. But Apogaeis usually look for patience, adaptability, clear communication, knowledge, listening skills, work ethics & more importantly value addition in our customer service team.
Listen – Understand – Analyse – Then Suggest
This is probably very important while managing customer lifecycle. Listen carefully to your customers, understand business obstacles, try to analyse the root cause, verify the solution & then suggest. To perform this, you have to be a good listener & excellent analyser. Keep it in your mind you should be an expert in customer’s business. Be ready to answer all the queries.
Interact
If your team has all the expertise & skill, then you should allow them to interact with the customers. Update, follow up, admit your mistake, and ask questions. Brainstorming is very important to understand business obstacles and to produce technology solution.
Remember during a project, always update your client the status. Follow up after the issue resolves, admit if you have done any mistake & do ask questions to understand your customer’s requirement better.
Be Truthful
Always promise what you can deliver. Stick to deadlines, make sure you turn up promptly for any appointments or meetings and never make commitments which you cannot keep. If situations change, let the customer know as soon as possible.
Let your customers Remember You – of course for right reasons
Usually, customers remember all positive or negative experiences more strongly than normal day to day activities. Try to make every customer experience with your service a positive one, so that they remember you. Word of mouth matters a lot. Be polite & helpful – give a little extra if there is no harm, even if it is just some advice or extra information about the product or service they are buying or interested in buying.
Optimize your Customer Service Strategy
Your team may have all the skills and know how to interact with your customers. But what organizational strategies can you apply to make your customers happy? Be Flexible & Active: Don’t let your customers feel that they are interacting with computers. Offer more than just automated email responses. Take advantage of social media. Write responses, reply to your customers, post photos & show your customers that you are some real people. Create Communities: involve & engage your customer in communities. Run social media content, arrange webinars, conduct surveys etc.
Validate Customer Concerns
Don’t put your customers on the defensive. When a disagreement arises, first try to understand their concern before you figure out a way to help them. Validating their concern and showing that you see how they feel is the first start in fixing the problem. Emotional connect and relation matter the most. How each person feels is their own emotion, and as a service provider, you can’t tell them that it’s wrong without likely evaluating the situation.
Take Feedbacks
No matter how proactive you are, you’ll never be able to get in front of every customer issue. To make sure you learn about the good, the bad, and the ugly experience your customers have, create an easily accessible way for customers to give feedback.
Whether it’s a phone survey at the end of a service call, an email survey sent directly from your CRM tool, or a form on the “Contact Us” page of your website, creating a means for customers to give feedback makes it easier for you to learn what needs improvement. Believe us, it will help to keep unsatisfied customers away from raising their voice in your highly visible social media pages.
Learn to Apologise
Things will go wrong. Either intentionally or unintentionally. Prepare yourself for this, emotionally as well as operationally. Show patience & courage. No harm in saying a sorry.
4Ps’
Last but not least, always remember these 4 Ps’ of customer service.
Promptness: Deliver what you promised promptly. Meet deadlines. Avoid delays.
Politeness: A small “Hello”, “Thank you”, “I Appreciate” can make a deference. Just don’t sell, build relationships.
Professionalism: No need to say, Be professional. It shows your business ethics & customers feel they are cared for.
Personalization: Using customers name is effective. Customers like the idea that with whom they do business knows them on a personal level.
Many companies already have good customer relationships. But only a smart company will always ask what excellent customer service is? You have to constantly look for opportunities to improve your customer service, else your relationships will hibernate.
We hope, this blog helps you to enhance your customer service and always be on the top. Feel free to add any point if you feel like missing. We appreciate every view.
