What makes great customer service?
A great customer Service is when you follow the best practices, such as valuing your customers’ time, displaying a an affable attitude, and offering helpful and knowledgeable sources, but you must go a step further to surpassand not just meet expectations.
10 ways to provide great customer service
You can employ a variety of strategies — including the built-in capabilities of customer software for customer service, shared inbox tools as well as Help desk applications to delight your customers and get them talking about your services to their family and friends.
Here are the top 10 ways to give great customer service.
1. Be aware of the product you are selling
As a support representative for customers is a full-time job. You are working on customer support issues which means that you must be an expert in the field of product.
A thorough understanding regarding your item is a crucial customer service capability. It is ideal to trust your product and be able to talk about aspects and cases of use in a way that is insightful and explain to customers how your product will be beneficial to them — as well as help troubleshoot things that isn’t working properly!
Your role is to ensure that your customers get the most value of their purchase, and feel that they’ve received real value for dollars. Set yourself the goal of know everything you need to learn about your product so that you can delight your customers with prompt suggestions to use the latest options and products.
2. Maintain a positive attitude
Attitude is everything and a positive mindset helps in giving outstanding customer service.
“The right attitude changes negative customer experiences into positive customer experiences,” says Flavio Martins, the VP of Operations and Customer Service at DigiCert, Inc. Because the majority of interactions with customers are not face-to-face, your approach must reflect in your manner of speaking and tone of your voice.
It’s easy for people to misinterpret what the voice of written communications and live chat may appear as cold. The brain utilizes various signals to determine an individual‘s emotional tone such as body language and facial expressions, many of which aren’t present online.
Don’t be afraid to employ emoticons to show the warmth and humor you want to convey or even contact a friend when you notice an chat or email conversation becoming anxious.
3. Problem-solving with creativity
More than 80 percent of customers have been churned out due to poor customer service. This is why you need to focus by solving issues for clients and be a key element of your support function -and there are always problems to resolve.
Everybody has heard about Zappos’ legendary service to customers offered by Zappos. For instance, they provided a man with free shoes just before the wedding, after his purchase was delivered to the wrong address due to an error by the delivery service. Zappos resolved a problem and provided outstanding customer service — they gained a loyal customer and told the man an unforgettable story that he could not wait to tell.
Don’t be afraid of dazzling your customers when you try to solve their problems. You can solve the problem and move on however, by imagining ways to meet the needs of your customers by going over the call of duty, you’ll be able to create clients who are loyal to you and your service.
4. Respond quickly
Sixty-six percent of respondents think that taking your time as the top aspect when it comes to online customer service. Responding to customer inquiries as fast as you can is the foundation of a good customer service. Speed is of paramount importance particularly for small problems that require little time to resolve.
However, the best customer service is faster than speed each time.
Customers are aware that more complicated problems take time to resolve. There’s a gap between the time required to respond and the speed with the rate at which you solve their issues. Customers don’t want in a queue for help and will spend all the time it takes to address their problem. That’s what you should do, too.
Contact your customers as soon as you can However, don’t be in an effort to remove them from the phone, or even close the ticket without solving the issue thoroughly.
5. Customize your service
40 percent of customers would like better customer service. They need to feel more than a mere ticket number. They’re frustrated when they’ren’t being treated as an individual and are receiving boilerplate responses or being treated with a ball various individuals.
Customers would prefer to talk to an individual, not a corporation. This is one reason that many companies send gift cards to clients on birthdays.
Do you know more than your customers’ names as well as their birth dates? What are their interests or interests? Do you have the ability to make them smile? It’s not easy to make everyone laugh However, going off the script and putting a personal touch whenever you can is a great method of showing your customers that you are familiar with them and take care of them.
With Help Scout, tickets are known as “conversations” to encourage support teams to look at queries in a more personal way. If your using Help Scout or one of its alternatives, think about what support tools that you’re using can aid you in customizing your interactions with support.
6. Help customers assist themselves
But, they do not always want to talk with someone to get their issue resolved — typically, they prefer to swiftly resolve the issue on their own. For instance, 81% of customers try to handle issues on their own before making contact with an agent live. The research also indicates that 71% of people would like to be able to resolve many customer service problems by themselves.
Self-service can be a flexible and cost-effective method of making customers feel satisfied. That’s the idea behind Help Scout’s Beacon which places the help content in front of users so that customers can get answers in the exact spot they’re without having to leave the site. In the event that they are unable find the answer to their questions assistance from a live person is just a couple of clicks away.
7. Support for customers is the focus.
Customers are the most vital element of your company, and they are more important than the products or profits. Treat them as if they were the centre of your universe since they are.
As per Kristin Smaby’s article in ” Being Human is Good Business,” “It’s time to look at different ways of approaching things creating a human-centric customer experience with great employees and innovative technology. Therefore, you must get to know your clients. They are people. Make yourself human. It’s worth it.”
Southwest Airlines put this concept into action in a truly unforgettable way as one of their pilots halted the flight back in order so that they could wait in line for client going to funeral. They put the person in front of their own targets and the customer will not forget it.
8. Listen attentively
Being attentive to customer feedback involves looking back through the information, and also listening to the feedback in real-time. Let your customers know that you are listening to their feedback when they choose to reach out to you. Being attentive increases the likelihood that you’ll understand the real issues of your customers and be able to effectively address these issues, which will result in more satisfied customers.
Take note of the opinions of your customers, without pushing your agenda. Don’t presume that you know what your client will say.
Develop active listening skills; when in a live chat, you should use phrases such as “It sounds like … ” and “Do you mean … ?” or “Let me make sure I’ve got this right.” Be sure to reiterate the issue back to them using your own words, to prove that you’ve understood them.
Active listening also means that you are aware of your customer’s particular personality and current state of mind, allowing you to modify your responses to suit the context. Customer service isn’t one-size-fits all.
9. Keep your word
If you make promises and you are obligated to meet it is good customer service. Don’t let your customers down. Making sure you keep your word is all about trust and respect.
If, for instance, you pledge the SLA with an uptime that is 99% or more, be sure you meet the standard. If you have a commitment to develop specific features in your application within an exact timeframe and you are obligated to deliver on the promise.
If you violate your word, such as saying you’ll contact the client within 24 hours but you don’t, provide a solution to compensate. If the delivery of your customer fails, you can propose to fix it or give them a refund for their difficulty. It’s possible to lose some cash in the short-term but you’ll be rewarded with the trust of your customers.
Incredibly, customers don’t feel more satisfied in the event that you deliver more than what you promised. They will, however, get angry when you violate the terms of a contract. It’s always recommended to make promises that are not kept and to exceed them so that you can ensure you do not violate this vital social contract.
10. Be proactive and to be helpful
The extra mile is among the most crucial ways to provide excellent customer service. This is the time when you’ve completed all the necessary steps and you are still looking to go further.
Sometimes, being helpful is anticipating the needs of your customers before they need to explain the needs. In reality, some customers will want something without realizing they actually require something else. It’s your responsibility in predicting their demands and make it easy the items they need.
If customers feel you appreciate them , like you truly care about them They’ll come to you. This could be related to the concept that of reciprocity in the field of social psychology. If you do something good to your customers, they’ll be inclined to do something to repay you — such as purchase your goods!
A small token of appreciation “just because,” or providing them with a special promotional code, will appeal to the egos of your customers and show your sincere appreciation for their company.
