Every business has two basic goals – to attract new customers and to retain the existing clients. Marketing campaigns are one way to achieve these goals, but they can never deliver the projected results if you don’t pair them with other sales mechanisms.
Customer service is by far the most important tactic here because it allows you to attract new consumers and strengthen relationships with the old ones. This is particularly important for digital businesses because 58% of Americans perform online research about products and services before purchasing.
Unfortunately, it seems like a lot of companies still don’t realize the importance of this topic. According to the research, more than 80% of consumers have left a company because of a bad customer service experience.
We strongly believe that you want to avoid such complications, so keep reading to learn eight highly practical reasons why online businesses should invest in customer support.
Customers Expect You to Do It
The first reason to invest in customer service is rather simple – today’s online consumers expect each brand to provide them with an entire set of customer service channels. It’s not the issue of whether you like it or not, but rather a plain business necessity. After all, if you don’t develop top-notch customer service, rest assured other companies will take over a large portion of your clients because they are more agile and proactive.
It’s More Valuable than Other Sales Factors
Do you know that customer service is projected to take over prices and products as the key brand differentiator by 2020? Customer service is obviously going to be the biggest battlefield in the business war, which means that you simply cannot underestimate it.
In the sea of products and services, it’s the only way to distinguish yourself and rise head and shoulders above your rivals. The sooner you realize that some products will always be better or cheaper than yours, the sooner you will begin making improvements service-wise.
Cost Efficiency
Investing in customer service doesn’t necessarily mean wasting money. On the contrary, new technologies allow you to reduce operational costs while improving relationships with your clients. How come? The answer comes in the form of chatbot technology.
Chatbots are available 24/7 and able to answer the vast majority of user inquiries. Instead of hiring a whole team of customer service agents, you can reduce costs using a chatbot platform that operates automatically. It’s a one-time investment that pays off quickly, which is why agencies like Paper Writing Pro Proofreading Service use chatbots for years already.
Beware of Customer Reviews
A study shows that companies with the strongest omnichannel customer engagement strategies retain an average of 89% of their consumers, over 50% more than their less agile competitors. High-quality service doesn’t only boost retention but it also turns consumers into brand advocates who are willing to praise your business online.
However, the coin has two sides since angry clients will most likely leave a negative review to express their dissatisfaction. The power of social proof is immense, so you better take care of customer service in order to encourage positive user reviews.
For example, SmartBiz Loans collects reviews through TrustPilot, Google Reviews, the Better Business Bureau and Consumer Affairs. If a review needs to be addressed, the SmartBiz team responds ASAP to remedy any problems or answer any questions.
Personalization
Online businesses using customer service platforms don’t only enjoy the benefits of automation. On the contrary, they get additional advantages such as data accumulation. Namely, customer service software stores information about every single interaction with your prospects, so you can use it later on to continue communicating with these individuals in a more meaningful way.
Writing agency Edu Birdie uses CRM tools because it helps them to collect consumer-related information effortlessly. That way, they only need to exploit the existing data to guide potential clients further down the sales funnel. In other words, the agency can personalize customer service and tailor offers so as to match the requirements of a specific consumer.
Sales Booster
This benefit of investing in customer service goes hand in hand with the previous one. As you keep upgrading customer service, you keep expanding a base of satisfied clients who are willing to do business with your company online. As a consequence, you are able to convert more leads and maximize the sales potential of your digital business.
Reduce Bounce Rate
How many times have you noticed potential customers who visit your site and leave quickly because they search for additional information somewhere else? It’s the main cause of higher bounce rates, but you can prevent it successfully if you provide users with on-site customer support.
Using live chat or chatbots, you can encourage consumers to ask you product-related questions directly instead of looking for information on Google or other engines. This is exactly why 55% of customers are willing to spend more money with a company that guarantees them a satisfying experience.
Prevent Additional Issues
No matter how hard you try, there will always be people who are not happy about your products or services. In such circumstances, it’s much better to develop a good customer service that can handle angry consumers subtly then to let the situation escalate and jeopardize the reputation of your business.
Conclusion
Customer service is gradually becoming the most important brand differentiator, so you cannot afford to neglect it. Some entrepreneurs still can’t figure out the significance of this business segment, which is why we discussed eight reasons why online businesses should invest in customer service. These are not the only features that make customer service so significant, but they should be enough to convince you to make a move and do all it takes to give your company a brand new boost.
About the Author
Peter Hill is a writer at assignment writing service “Assignmentgeek”. He is a socially active person, likes traveling and photo/video editing. If you need any assignment help, please feel free to contact him. You can find him on Twitter and Facebook.
