There’s no doubt that quality customer care is essential as companies with superior customer service have higher customer retention.
By providing your customers with a high quality service you will make them feel valued and this leads to a more profitable business.
Research has often found that price is irrelevant as long as customers feel they have been taken care of.
So how do you create a superior customer service centre?
Here are some tips for you:
1. Know Your Customer’s Core Lines Of Communications
There are so many different ways that customers can now communicate with brands.
You have the traditional post, telephone and email channels, but coming into the mix is social media and mobile.
25% of consumers in 2014 made a complaint via social media according to the UK’s Institute of Customer Service and those that do complain expect that brands respond within 30 minutes.
Ensuring that you have the facility to cope with this kind of complaint can prevent serious damage by complaints going viral.
2. Listen To Customer Complaints
The most important thing to do with your customer service process is to ensure that you are listening to your customers.
When they have a problem, they want it resolved with care. Sometimes there might be numerous problems, some of which you can’t resolve but by listening carefully you can identify the key issues and resolve them quickly.
You should also take note of customer complaints:
For every complaint there are another 10 people that don’t complain according to research firm TARP.
Knowing what some people are complaining about can help you solve problems for many other customers.
3. Set Standards
Standards are the cornerstone of great customer care.
If you want to retain customers you need to tell your customer service team what level of service you expect and how it can be achieved.
Everything from how the consumer is greeted on the phone, to what solutions are offered to the customer, should be pre-planned.
The more times the customer service agent has to speak to someone in management or delay the resolution of a problem to discuss with management – the less professional and powerful the agent will seem and the less effective they will appear.
4. Keep In Contact
Customers like to have regular contact, especially if you are dealing with complex problems that need to be researched. You might think that your delay is reasonable, but the customer might not.
Even a quick email giving the latest news about the resolution can be a reassurance to the customer that you are still dealing with the problem and haven’t forgotten them.
To help with this, use tools like calendar reminders, Google calendar, diaries or phone reminders (depending on what tools you want to use).
Give case references to be able to quickly refer to your notes and keep management in the loop as well.
5. Reward Staff
Good customer service retains customers and therefore, although not a direct sales channel, it can help to maintain revenue, raise customer lifetime values and improve a brand’s reputation.
Rewarding staff for their positive contributions to your customer retention is a good way to motivate staff into providing quality customer service.
Consider setting up key performance indicators, measure performance and provide rewards. These rewards don’t have to be financially based e.g. half a day off, an award or even a mention on the company’s newsletters – whatever it is to demonstrate that you recognize their valued contribution.
Conclusion
Good customer service is paramount in any business.
Setting up and maintaining superior customer service can be achieved by promoting multi-channel options for customers, listening to customers and rewarding service agents for their efforts.
When you achieve good results, you will see a return on investment with customers returning to you again and again.
- How is your customer service?
- Does it retain customers?
Ease your mind on one facet of the customer care–fulfillment–and focus your attention on customer satisfaction, product development and business growth.
How?
Get your free assessment today and find out how easy it can be when you engage the professionalism of a fulfillment service.
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