Excellent Customer Service – Top 10 Tips
1, Treat Customers as Individuals
We all have our favourite shops where we’re on first name terms with the owner or assistant but wouldn’t it be great if we could be treated the same by the customer care agent on the end of the phone, email, web chat etc?
Successful businesses realise that their most important assets are their customers and not necessarily their products or services. It can be as simple as referring to a customer by their first name or using the correct title (Miss not Mrs). The customer feels important and it reassures them that they are valued as a customer and not just a number.
Empowering customer service agents through the accurate presentation of data and knowledge can go a long way to address the challenge of treating customers as individuals. Giving agents access to a customer’s purchase history and contact preferences will mean that they are able to use this information to interact more effectively with each customer.
2, The Customer is ALWAYS Right
It might be a cliché but it still holds true. Customers should always be given the benefit of the doubt and you’ll only succeed in losing them if you insist on trying to prove why they are wrong and you’re right.
Always concentrate on solving their problem rather than focussing on the cause of it. In most cases customers whose issue or complaint is dealt with in a manner which exceeds their expectations will go on to become more valuable customers and an advocate for your business.
3, Go the Extra Mile
I recently bought a new set of wheels for my mountain bike and had to transfer the disc brakes from my old set. After several hours of frustration I was unable to get the brakes to work properly and having admitted defeat, took my bike to the shop where I had bought the wheels. They very generously fixed the problem for me free of charge and even gave the bike a clean while they were at it. Now how many times do you think I’ve told this story and where do you think I’ll go when I need something else for my bike?
The moral of the story is, be helpful - even if there’s no immediate profit to be had. Going the extra mile will get noticed (even if your customers don’t say so at the time) and they will tell other people about their experience.
4, Invest in Training
Are your customer service agents properly trained in how to handle a complaint or a disgruntled customer? Do they have an in-depth knowledge of your products and services and the marketplace in which you operate?
Depending on the nature of your business, customer care staff can often be your customer’s only human interaction with your business and they therefore play the most critical role in whether they have a positive experience or not. Training them to always be helpful, courteous, and knowledgeable is absolutely vital. Conduct regular refreshers on what constitutes good customer service (and what isn’t). Most importantly, empower every member of your staff to make those small decisions that count so wherever possible, they can avoid saying “I don’t know I’ll have to find out for you...”
5, Don’t Make Promises You Can’t Keep.
Not promises that you plan to keep but WILL keep! Reliability is vital to any good business relationship and customer service is certainly no exception.
The golden rule in just about every customer service situation is not to make promises unless you know you can deliver upon them – because nothing annoys customers more than an unfulfilled promise.
If a customer has cause to contact your customer care helpline, often they will have already experienced a problem or issue with your products or services. It might sound obvious but don’t make it worse by saying you'll call back within the next hour, and then fail to do so. If you can't solve the problem immediately, say so and then agree a time to call back… and stick to it.
6, Listen to Your Customers.
If you want to know what your customers think of your company then there is a simple way to find out? Ask them!
Most businesses can tell you all about their sales figures, about their average order values or about the number of new customers they have acquired. But when it comes to actually knowing what a customer thinks of them, then very few have a clear understanding of what makes their customers tick.
Customer Surveys are a great tool for gaining insight into your customers’ preferences and opinions. If the purpose of the questionnaire is clearly stated (i.e. to improve customer service) and if the right questions are asked such as “how are we doing; what is it you like; what don’t you like and what would you change” then valuable insight can be achieved allowing you to realign your service offering and improve your customer experience.
7, Embrace Technology
Technology is changing the way customers interact with businesses and in turn, the way in which customer service is delivered. Failing to embrace the opportunities that channels such as web chat, email, SMS and social media offer for real time customer engagement will not only blunt your competitive edge but may also give your competition the leg-up they need.
The social media platform Twitter is seeing big names such as Dell Computers and BT use the service to interact with customers in a new way and resolve the issues they may have. Both companies actually have customer service people on Twitter who find complaints and immediately address them.
8, Make it Easy to Get in Touch
Too many businesses make it unnecessarily difficult to deal with their customer service department. This can lead to disgruntled customers and a poor reputation, not something you want when good customer service can make the difference between succeeding or not.
Find out which channels your customers prefer to get in touch with you through and make it easy for them to do so. If, for example, you run an ecommerce business, you may find that the vast majority of your customer contact will be via email. Therefore, ensure that you have a 'Contact Us' link on every page of your website in a prominent position. But also, give your customers the option to contact you by telephone; after all we all want to speak to another human at some point or another.
9, Deal with Complaints
No matter how good your business and your customer service operation, unfortunately sometimes you’ll have to deal with customer complaints. It’s how you manage each scenario that can make the difference. Even customers who complain can become advocates for your brand, if their complaint is dealt with quickly and to (or beyond) their satisfaction.
Simple things such as being polite, allowing the customer to explain their grievance, summarising the points and agreeing the actions will all go a long way to ensuring that each complaint is dealt with efficiently and effectively, leaving the customer feeling genuinely valued by your business and that their complaints or views will be taken seriously.
Finally, cultural practices such as first contact resolution and ensuring staff are trained sufficiently to deal with issues will both ensure that when complaints do arise, they are managed carefully, are resolved quickly and that you are able to turn a customer’s negative experience into a positive one.
10, Excellent Customer Service Starts at the Top
If the people at the top of an organisation don’t believe in service excellence, it’s difficult to expect those further down the food chain to take it seriously. Customer service has to be embraced across all levels of your business, if it’s not, all the money in the world won’t give you an exceptional customer service operation.
However, having trust in your front-line customer service staff is as important as developing a culture of excellent customer service. It is people that deliver great service and some of the most successful companies are ones which empower their customer service agents to think for themselves, be flexible and act independently.
Summary
We’ve all experienced excellent customer service at some point but unfortunately we’ve probably all experienced bad customer service too. Recognising the difference in your own business and then striving to make each customer interaction the best it can be is what can make the real difference. If you embrace our top ten tips and ensure that all your staff (from top to bottom) are empowered to deliver them across all channels of communication whether that’s via telephone, email or online, then you’ll be well on the road to providing your customers with a service you can be proud of.
