Customer service is supporting your customers before and after they purchase your products or services. The goal is to assure they have a streamlined, easy, and enjoyable experience.
Amazing customer service can elevate your brands profile and ultimately improve your bottom line. Customer service today extends far beyond a 1-800 help line. It can span email, website, text message, and social media. Your customer service reps are on the front lines and should be well-trained, personable, and proactive.
Here are tips to help you launch and maintain effective customer service.
Don’t just hire and throw your employees to the wolves! Your customer service department should run as a well-oiled machine and a comprehensive training program is key. Training shouldn’t just include a script. Make sure you have consistent strategies to address any issues that might come up. Following are characteristics that should be expected from your employees and included in your training.
A customer touchpoint is any time a potential or existing customer comes in contact with your brand. This can happen before, during, or after a purchase. Touchpoints include:
Once your team has determined where the customer is in the lifecycle, they can adjust accordingly.
You should be tracking all customer communication and resolutions. This helps you gauge the effectiveness of your approach and can let you know if you need to tweak your strategy. It’s almost impossible to run a customer service program flawlessly. Have a mindset that values mistakes and the lessons you can learn from them. Once you’ve identified a mistake or missed opportunity, get out in front of it.
Once your team has the skills to handle the various customer service scenarios, look at the processes you have in place. Strive for customer happiness before they have a problem.
Getting feedback from your employees is just as important as customer feedback. Employ an “open door” policy, provide a suggestion box, and schedule one-on-one, face-to-face meetings. Talking to those in the trenches can help you shape your training program to put new strategies in place.
Don’t “set it and forget it”. A recent study showed that a whopping 87% of shoppers now begin product searches online. Have a system in place to respond to questions on social media or review sites as soon as possible.
Encourage feedback, pay attention to customer comments, and be responsive to information you’ve learned. This insight can help identify steps to take to improve customer service and even expand your business. Research from Verint Systems Inc. revealed that the more feedback customers share — both positive and negative — the more companies gain. Our article has great ways to get and interpret feedback: The Best Ways Small Businesses Can Gather Customer Feedback.
Don’t let your customer service reps just be reactive. Train them to be proactive. Here are some ways to reach that goal.
There are many ways to generate leads, but few are more effective than customer referrals. People trust recommendations more than ever and 84% of consumers say they either completely or somewhat trust recommendations from family, colleagues, and friend about products and services. Read strategies to get more referrals on the SmartBiz Small Business Blog: 10 Ideas to Get More Customer Referrals.
Multi-channel marketing is reaching customers using a variety of channels including websites, brick-and-mortar stores, direct mail, email, mobile apps, social media platforms, and more. Be sure to have appropriate customer service responses in place for each channel.
Your customer service team is the face of your company and you want that face to be happy.
Happy employees are more likely to be engaged in their job and committed to the success of your company. The SmartBiz blog has many articles to help you manage employees and reduce costly turnover. Review these articles for employee management ideas: