Customer service excellence is the backbone of many businesses. It’s one of the best ways a small business can pull forward, ahead of the competition, and secure a loyal customer base.
Doing your best to provide a good customer service experience will always be a good thing. But in the rush to ensure that customers are looked after, night and day, no matter the issue, a few key oversights can be made.
Indeed, it’s very easy to miss off the customer service touches we’ve listed below. These are the kind of techniques that really help you to stand out and become a memorable name. They’ll help you score more 5 star reviews, more referrals between customers, and plenty of goodwill both online and off.
The bottom line? All of this translates into profit at some point or another!
And while they sound pretty magical, you won’t need to master magic to start using them in your business. Just check out the tips we’ve included to incorporate them and boost your customer service efficiency ASAP.
Provide Customers with a Timeline
Customer service can take an age to get through, for both your employees and customers alike. It can be rough to stay on the phone for over an hour, and even then, the caller may not get a solution they like at all.
This is the kind of thing you want to stamp down on from the beginning. You can do so by providing as much of a timeline for the process as possible. Be upfront about how long the call might take and what steps will need to be completed.
If need be, you could also offer the customer a callback if it would require them to be on the phone for a longer period of time. This technique has seen a lot of success in small companies in recent years.
On top of this, try to put some detail into the timeline. If a customer is getting a refund, let them know when they can expect it. Most of all, try not to rely on vague words like ‘soon’. Try to provide a more exact window instead, even if you can’t say for sure when it’ll actually arrive.
Train Your Team to Limit Miscommunication and Timewasting
A well trained customer service team is invaluable. No matter the size of the business in question, no matter how much of a long standing reputation the company already has, the team training can make or break a customer’s perception.
And if too many people feel like they’re talking to someone who doesn’t understand, doesn’t care, and doesn’t want to help them, the business will start to see a decline.
As such, you need to train your customer service staff in the best practices for talking to customers, resolving disputes, and ensuring a satisfactory solution.
But then we come to the timewasting issue. Many businesses have their customer service teams follow a script. There’s a routine to it, and customers are led through the steps every single time.
And while this is done to try and ensure your staff have been as helpful as possible, it’s just a waste of everyone’s time. Especially in the smaller cases, such as if the customer in question just needs to be told they’ve called the wrong number!
So above all, train your time in being direct and helpful. Try to limit canned responses, and signpost your customers to the right places ASAP.
Personalize Transactional Emails
Transactional emails are some of the most common communications a business has with their customers.
Even more than via a newsletter, or on social media. You’re in their inbox delivering some key information on quite the personal basis. That makes personalizing transactional emails pretty important.
It’s best to talk to customers in the same way you would if you were face to face. If someone gets an email from you to confirm their order, it needs to be just as warm and friendly as if you were having a chat with someone you know.
Even when these kinds of emails are automated, don’t let the nature of the digital medium get in the way. Be one on one with the person you’re contacting, as it reminds them you see them as the real customer they are, rather than just another number.
Avoid Condescending Language
Time and time again there’s been complaints about businesses sounding condescending when a customer gets in touch. And frankly, it’s quite an easy mistake for a business to make.
It might sound like you’re just trying to be polite to your own ear, but your customer can hear it much differently. And when a customer feels like you’re ‘talking down’ to them, they’re not going to be very happy.
Of course, it’s best to be clear and direct. You don’t want to overload your customers with jargon and make it hard for either party to communicate. However, be careful that while you’re simplifying the technical things, you’re not accidentally writing a script for a child.
In all of your online copy, video media, and any interpersonal communications sent between you and the customer, develop an appropriate tone for the adults you’re selling to.
Be informal and casual where you need to be, but don’t let your customer service voice become something that sounds a little bit spammy and insincere.
Don’t Forget These Important Customer Service Touches
They can make all the difference to the way you’re seen and regarded by the market at large. That’s what customer service is made to do, and you can improve how beneficial it is by adding in the touches above.
Bringing in customers is one thing, but when they’ve arrived, you’ve got to ensure they have the best time possible. If they ever need to get in contact to say they’ve not gotten what they were promised, rectifying it should be as simple and easy as it was to go through your checkout in the first place.