If you thought just having a customer service department was enough, you’re in for a big surprise. In the present-day modern digital age, it is more important to provide a good customer service experience powered by innovative tools, methods and strategies. To do that, you’re going to start by improving your customer service in your business.
Modern customers aren’t just demanding, they want their needs satisfied immediately. In fact, 75% of online customers expect help within 5 minutes, according to Mckinsey. This is where your business comes into the picture. Customer service is all about satisfying the customer’s needs to increase satisfaction and loyalty. And, you’re going to ensure they don’t leave unsatisfied.
You can bet if your company is great at providing good customer service, you’ll be more successful in retaining an existing customer than your competitor. And, according to the White House Office of Consumer Affairs, it is 6-7 times more costly to attract a new customer than it is to retain an existing customer.
Why Customer Service Matters: Why Improving Customer Service is Important
If you still think you’ll be better off without improving customer service, consider this – companies lose more than $62 billion due to poor customer service, according to NewVoiceMedia. If you optimize your customer service, it’ll result in happier customers and reduced costs.
Not to mention the positive brand image it will end up building for your business. 95% of consumers talk about poor customer service experiences with other people, according to American Express. You wouldn’t want your customers to talk negatively about your business, would you? Ofcourse not!
What Customers Really Want – Self Service
Apart from your excellent product or service, your customers want timely, personalized and simpler customer service with immediate solutions to their problem. It includes everything that makes it easier for them to solve their current problem.
Customers also want the ability to solve their own problems with self-service options. According to CRM Magazine, 45% of companies offering web or mobile self-service reported an increase in site traffic and reduced phone inquiries.
Customer Service Improvement Strategies: Innovative Ideas for Improving Customer Service
If you want to improve customer service, you can start your customer service improvement right away by implementing some innovative customer service ideas. Some of these customer service improvement strategies are easier to execute and implement than others. Choose the one that best suits your business and industry type, and it’ll guarantee to improve customer service in your company:
Customer Service Training: Train Your Contact Center Agents
Without the right call center training, your agents won’t know how to effectively deal with customers. More importantly, apart from knowing the product / service really well, your agents need to be trained on building relationships with customers by talking nicely, empathizing with their problems, and ensuring they are satisfied when customers leave the conversation. Oh! Never forget to tell your agents to thank the customer for contacting customer service once the conversation ends.
Improve Customer Service Standards
Without a clear and definite set of customer service standards, your agents will deal with customers how they see fit. Think about improving interaction quality, information availability, behaviour, and appearance. Brainstorm common customer service scenarios, along with the most appropriate way to solve the scenario. Then, impart this information to your agents and set a standard for customer service throughout the entire organization. If possible, reward employees who go the extra mile for your customers.
Offer 24/7 Customer Service Availability
If you aren’t available when your customers need you, you risk losing them. Sometimes, just being available 24/7 at a moment’s notice is the best way to start improving customer service. One easy way to implement this is by using a social self service chatbot for customer service that intelligently solves customer queries in real-time.
Plus, if you improve first call response, you’ll improve your contact center business by saving more money. In fact, according to SQM Group, a 1% improvement in first call response results in $276,000 in annual operational savings for call centers.
Empower Your Agents with Innovative Contact Center Software
Without the right contact center technology, agents will not be able to effectively do their job of building relationships with customers. If you invest in a dedicated contact center platform to manage your contact center, it will provide the right tools for agent empowerment, such as ACD, Unified Desktop, CRM, Predictive Dialer, 360 Degree Customer View, and Real-time Analytics.
Don’t Hold Back on Incentives and Rewards
If you’re facing a large number of dissatisfied customers, it would be a good idea to try giving out incentives and rewards to customers for making them dissatisfied. Usually, customers appreciate companies giving a free coupon or discount voucher for future purchases. Do everything in your power to make the customer come back for more.
Hire Better Customer Service Agents
If you want to deliver better customer service, hire better customer service agents and use good customer support software. This does not mean outsourcing to another country. It means you should hire better people and work on improving your contact center hiring process to result in employees who are dedicated, loyal, and future customer service rockstars.
Solutions to Improve Customer Service
Lucky for you – Ameyo is a market leader in contact center customer service solutions. Not only is our contact center platform ideal for agents to build better customer relationships, it is powered with true technological innovation to deliver the kind of experience that will make your customers come back for more!
