Customer service has evolved considerably over the years – from single channel call centers to multi channel contact centers with the emergence of cloud technologies and onward to customer engagement development social channels. Now, customer service has gone mobile with the use of smartphones in the world today.
Customers are still not satisfied. And, now, with so many channels available to them on which to voice their dissatisfaction, at any time, from anywhere, the swell of discontent grows louder every day.
So what is the problem? The problem is that a deep gap of technology exists between businesses and their customers. On one side are customers – all using social, mobile and cloud technologies, communicating and sharing thoughts and ideas. On other side are businesses, hopelessly ill-equipped to service their needs.
Businesses needs to harness the power of cloud, social and mobile technologies to connect with their customers and grow their business, and quite blatantly, using customer service as a competitive advantage. Here are some ways you can impact customer service:
- Be responsive:Small businesses need to make responding to customers a priority. Always respond to complaints and comments, whether it’s by email, phone, chat, Twitter, or Facebook;
- Be fast:Unfortunately it’s no longer just enough to give customers a thoughtful, well considered response. You also need to do it fast! This is an area where you can easily use to beat out competitors that are hamstrung by clunky service solutions;
- Get personal:When you automate repetitive tasks you can free your agents to craft personalized messages that build loyalty and reinforce your brand personality;
- Extend online:More than 90% of consumers will check a website for answers before emailing for help, so your website can make a huge difference in how you are perceived;
- Engage on social:More than 3⁄4 of online users interact on social networking sites. Their friends are there and they expect their favorite brands to be too. Social is a great place for engaging with customers — no one can tell in the social world whether you have a support team of 200 or just two.
