How important is customer service, more specifically — quick and quality customer service?
A lot, actually!
For any successful business, creating a good product and selling it is only half the battle. Providing your clients with unparalleled customer support is equally vital as it is a crucial brand differentiator. This blog will tell you all that is there to know to usher excellent results in customer service.
Consider this statistic from HubSpot research: ' 90% of customers rate an immediate response as essential or very important when they have a customer service question. 60% of customers define immediate as 10 minutes or less.’ Patrons are more likely to switch to competitors if they experience delayed responses and disjointed service delivery. Scary, isn’t it?
If clients do not have a positive experience with your company, they will leave. A study by a global consulting firm says that only one in 25 customers complain if they are unhappy about a product or service. And for customers that don’t complain, they just stop doing business with you. That’s why the fear of customer churning has intensified the competition to retain them.
More effective leadership is required to reassess the tools used to provide better customer service while understanding how new strategies can be implemented. With growing call volumes and ever-increasing client expectations amid economic uncertainty, it’s easy to see why now is a pivotal time for customer service teams.
Are entrepreneurial success and customer success correlated? Yes, they are. Customer success happens through excellent service provided to clients.
Let us look at this connection a little more closely.
Whether you’re a small business or a department within a large company, customer service counts. Providing world-class customer service may sound like a tall order to some, but that’s not the case. Successful businesses are built on a strong foundation of honesty, a customer-centric organizational culture, and a reliable customer service department that delivers proactive and immediate customer support anytime on the channel of their choice — phone, email, text, chat, and more. When planned and executed well, customer service adds value to your brand, increases your customer base, and promotes brand loyalty.
Here are a few proven ideas that can be implemented to usher excellent results in your customer service and make your business a big hit among the masses.
Evaluate your brand’s commitment to serving customers. Conduct a self-assessment of your company to understand your preparedness to serve customers with these five questions.
Differentiating between businesses based on mere comparisons of product specifications, features, functions, and value-added benefits is a thing of the past.
With goods getting commoditized in bulk, distinguishing between brands is one solid way for consumers to identify the select few businesses that have the customer’s best interests at heart. This strategy focuses on a few well-performing enterprises while eliminating many mediocre companies. Those brands that offer the most fulfilling and rewarding experience to patrons remain profitable and become crowd favorites.
Nowadays, during the discovery stage in customer journeys, prospective clients want to know if your brand has existing consumers talking about your product or service online so they can learn more from other customers’ experiences and then decide whether to make a purchase or subscribe.
Also read: Are Online Shoppers Ghosting Your Business? Here's How to Break the Jinx
Meanwhile, businesses must be confident of their quality of customer service and aspire to create value in every interaction with consumers. Dive deep into your customers’ profiles. Obtain insights into their behavior, psychographics, and even some geographic and demographic info.
If you are a business owner or someone who’s in charge of running one, then (a) Find out what customers have to say about your brand. (b) Ensure your organization always makes it into customers’ list of curated brands.
Finally, take a good look at the brands competing against you. Ask yourself — How might a competitor provide the specific value that customers want at a lower cost? Consider your buyer’s alternatives, even if they want to stay with you.
It does not matter how awesome your product is — if customers don’t achieve their objectives, they will eventually leave. Invest time in hiring and building your customer success and customer service departments early on. Do not delay. Most organizations become incapable of providing quality CX if their team members lack information about clients and are not clear about their role. Your sales and service teams must have a clear purpose and a set of metrics (KPIs) that align with their responsibilities.
Customers have high expectations from brands they do business with. Speed, convenience, consistency, and personalization are non-negotiable expectations of customers from any brand. You should put yourself in your customer’s shoes and visualize their goals, then help attain them. Look at gaps to fill in the market and position your brand different from your competitors. Don’t miss any opportunity to revisit and revise your clients’ aspirations periodically.
How does your brand show up compared to your competitors in the minds of your customers? Do they believe your product or service adds value to their lives? How to continue providing value without disparaging competing service providers?
Talk to customers, listen to their feedback, treat complaints as opportunities, give customers what they are asking for, or if you are unable to, explain why and offer alternatives. Collect feedback and take action on them — feedback thus obtained from “voice of customer” channels reflects specific pain points and assists in constantly recreating good customer experiences.
A customer loyalty program is a system where a business rewards its customers who make frequent purchases. Loyalty programs are offered by retailers and other corporations as a way to attract and retain customers. A typical example of a brand celebrating customer loyalty is Starbucks. The company has managed not only to retain its customers but also to expand its customer base through exemplary loyalty programs.
After self-assessing your preparedness to serve customers, you should know what customers want when they choose to do business with you.
The rising cost of living, ongoing supply chain disruptions, and the anticipation of further inflationary pressures are making people think a little more carefully than usual about their spending. Consumers today are clear on what they want — extraordinary service at all times. Surveys have shown that over 52 percent of consumers have switched providers in the past year solely because of bad customer service.
Putting yourself in your customer’s shoes will go a long way to provide the kind of proactive customer service that has consumers lining up to do business with you. That means having a clear understanding of customer expectations.
Customer Expectations for 2023 and beyond:
Customer care is no longer the cost center of businesses; it’s the new price of entry. Remember that your brand's most powerful marketing engine is customer service. If you wish to succeed in avenues like e-commerce, direct-to-consumer sales, and marketing, customer service is your best ally – helping you retain customers, nurture advocates, create memorable experiences, and drive a more profitable relationship.
Organizations providing customers with fantastic experiences outperform their peers in the long term. Offering great experiences to clients visibly improves financial performance. Let’s see how.
Businesses are mindful and pay extra attention to detail when serving their loyal/longtime customers. These customers are not price-sensitive. To savor unique experiences, they tend to stick around longer and are open to ideas to use other products and services.
To become a customer service champion and CX leader, an organization must first create a customer-centric culture. There is a direct correlation between superior customer service and brand loyalty, which means your customer service department can become an important stakeholder in your client acquisition and retention strategy.
Your objectives and goals for your customer service department should align your teams around delivering seamless, personalized service that builds trust and consumer confidence besides improving customer loyalty.
Academic studies have pointed to a strong correlation between customer satisfaction and the financial performance of businesses. As businesses transform and new trends emerge, it becomes all the more necessary to understand your customers, what their needs are, and where you stand with them in their journey. The skills listed here are everything customer support agents need to provide outstanding service in 2023 and beyond.
Also read: What Are Customer Touchpoints – And Why They Matter
And to reduce workload, you can utilize helpdesk software backed by productivity tools that help your customer-facing teams excel and put your brand in the CX hall of fame.
A diverse range of skills is needed to excel in delivering good customer service and making people feel valued. To become a customer service champion and a CX leader, an organization must have a customer-centric culture that aligns around uniform customer goals to sustainably create a value-driven impact over time.
Here are four pointers that can help business leaders develop a robust CX strategy by ensuring all departments within the organization work in tandem for the customer's good.
Now, you know how to create a customer-centric culture that prioritizes service and the overall experience. It’s time to look at the smart tools that can help you bring excellent results in customer service in 2023 and beyond. These tools are:
Customer success is directly proportional to the quality of service companies provide their clients. To overcome challenges and work on new opportunities, understanding customer demands and the trends being reported can help brands to adapt and deliver amazing experiences consistently.
ThinkOwl supports brands in their endeavor to provide world-class service. It is a helpdesk software with a difference. OwlDesk by ThinkOwl builds a strong relationship between customers, agents, and your brand by collaborating between them and helps easy communication. All important facts and information about your customers are available to your client service teams at their fingertips. Sign up now for a 30-day free trial.