Good customer service doesn’t end with the people on the phone answering your customer queries, and it certainly doesn’t begin there either. Align every member of your business to value customer-centric, “people” skills. The same kind, attentive demeanor that your support team shows on email or phone correspondence should be reflected in marketing messages, general email correspondence and the attitude shown to your customer base.
Nurture a good environment that stays hungry and thankful for the end-user. This creates an atmosphere of gratitude and impacts the customer service experience within your team to create an environment of service minded individuals with enhanced empathy, open to feedback.
Hire the right customer service people
Hire excellent communicators, good listeners and people with the right mindset for client-facing position. Do you agree that exceptional customer service begins with the hiring process? Having the right people on board to do the customer service job is the first step towards delivering outstanding customer service at your business.
Build a customer-centric culture
Put your customers at the core of your business to build and sustain a customer-centric culture at your business. Customers rightly expect you to care about their problems, work hard on creating products that make their lives easier, and staying alert in resolving any bottlenecks in their path to success. This is what customer centricity is all about. A customer centric organization is where every process starts and ends with customer satisfaction in mind. It’s a culture, not an event. An ideology, rather than an isolated action.
Don’t ignore social media customer service
Regularly monitor your customers’ feedback on social media and timely respond to questions and complaints. The key word is engage. Chances are that your local customers will use social media to communicate with one another. As your business grows, so will the number of opportunities to communicate with customers via Twitter, Facebook, and other social platforms. You will encounter both happy and angry customers on social media, and it’s imperative that you listen to them and provide support.
Empower your customer service frontline
Empower your customer service frontline to be responsibility takers, decision makers and problem solvers. Support your teams—like any other teams—need leadership. They need direction, even if that direction is to give them complete freedom to act on their best judgment. And when it comes to direction, one of the most commonly discussed policies around support is empowerment.
Invest in customer service training
Constantly invest in training your customer service team to develop and improve their customer service skills. Investing in customer service training provides a return on investment for businesses in two ways. Keeping existing customers satisfied reduces the costs of capturing new customers. Those satisfied customers are likely to recommend the business to others which further reduce the company’s reliance on expensive advertising to gain market share.
Always deliver on the promises
Avoid false promises that can easily undermine your company’s reputation and weaken your customer relationships. Delivering on your promises is doing what you say you are going to do when you say you are going to do it. Every time you follow through on a commitment, small or large, you build trust. And if you go above and beyond, you make an even stronger impression. So, if you say you are going to email prices to your customer by tomorrow, try for today.
Ask your customers for feedback
Don’t be afraid to ask your customers for feedback, it’s the fastest way to know if you need to improve. It helps us understand the WHY behind what people are doing. When we get feedback from our customers, we get a much clearer picture of what’s going on. Then we’ll know how to fix problems and go after the right opportunities.
Go the extra mile to impress customers
Exceed your customers’ expectations to ensure a positive customer experience that builds customer loyalty. Putting a great value on creating lifetime relationships with customers, as well as going above and beyond the customer’s expectation is really important to the development of any business. Today’s market is very competitive, and customers are aggressively pursued, so businesses can’t take customer loyalty for granted. Consequently, customer-focused companies and individuals recognize that relationship building and follow-up customer service are critical components for promoting both customer retention and long-term revenue growth.
Reward your customers for loyalty
Loyal customers create the long-term success of your business, reward them with discounts and special offers. Once you’ve amassed a loyal customer base, your work isn’t done. Thank your customers for their loyalty (and build better relationships with new customers) by continuing to surprise and delight them. Get inspired and show your customers you care.
