Excellent customer service can make all the difference in making you stand out from your competition, so it’s certainly not an area you can afford to ignore. Whilst sometimes the temptation can be to focus on other areas, for example, price points, this would be totally counter-productive if your customer service is weak. In the end it doesn’t matter how competitive your pricing is, if your customer service is terrible you are not going to build customer loyalty and you’re not going to have people coming back or recommending you to their friends.
It can sometimes feel like a constant juggling act keeping all the areas of our business healthy, productive and efficient. It’s not always easy to know the areas that most deserve our attention and how best to to keep those areas functioning at a premium level. Customer service is one of those areas that constantly needs focus, planning and dedication in order to make your business grow. So here are our top tips on how to make sure the customer service you offer your clients is building solid relationships and is doing your company justice.
Make Yourself Completely Available
One of the biggest mistakes companies can make, in today’s era of the internet and online commerce, is to try and funnel all their customer service functionality online, through their website. As business owners we may think that this will serve us well as it will free up time for staff to be getting on with other things, in fact it can be damaging to our businesses as our clients can feel shut out, neglected and down right frustrated.
So the first way that we can begin to ensure that our customer service is accessible to our clients is by ensuring that there is always a way that a customer can contact someone within your company, with any question, query or complaint that they may have. Telephone numbers, email and even social media platforms such as twitter, are all customer service elements that the modern day consumer expects. So make sure you are not losing any potential new customers by making your company obsolete and closed off to customer interaction.
You should also be providing a map and details of your address. Customers who can’t find an address or just basic contact details tend to leave webpages immediately into the arms of competitors who appear more transparent, open and seem to be a more respectable and established business. To emit basic company details from your website can instantly alienate you from potential new clients as people may view your company as unreliable and untrustworthy. So be open, transparent and welcoming on your website. You want your clients to feel that their communication is not only welcome but encouraged.
Response Rate
So now that we have customers confidently and comfortably communicating with us, what is the next step to ensuring their experience with our customer service team is a positive one? Quite simply, the response rate. The time in which it takes for you to be responding to your customers is critical to how valued your customers feel by your company. Emails going unanswered for anything more than a week, or voicemails remaining unanswered will not only upset your customers but will really damage the reputation of your company and the identity and perception of your brand.
Your business policy should be aiming to respond to any incoming enquiries, complaints or questions within 24 hours so you and your staff should be building strategies to try and make solid goals, like these, a reality. If you genuinely think that 24 hours is going to be extremely tight then just be honest with your clients and let them know what response timeline they can expect. Pushing yourself and your team to be as tight ,with response rates, as possible will keep your business functioning efficiently whilst keeping your customers on side.
Listen & Always Be Respectful
It’s not always easy to remain cheery and professional when you have had to deal with a barrage of negative complaints and bizarre critiques on your product or service. It can be incredibly challenging to stay positive and make sure that each customer that contacts you is made to feel that they are being listened to and that their opinion is respected. But this is the Number one rule in effective customer service. We have all heard the saying ‘the customer is always right’. It can be seriously challenging at times but this is the mantra that we should all approach when it comes to servicing our clients. Keeping yourself and your staff motivated and reminded of the importance of good manners and professionalism is crucial. Your team must be polite, diplomatic and helpful at all times to ensure you are continually building a strong reputation for your business.
Hanging up some inspirational customer service quotes around the office, on your computer, or sending one or two around your staff, if morale or motivation seems a little low, could be just the reminder your team needs of the importance of great customer service. Keeping staff motivated, to service their clients in the best possible way, should always be at the centre of your business, so spreading motivational and inspirational quotes from time to time could be just what your team needs to feel extra motivated to deliver top notch service on a daily basis.
It doesn’t mean that you have to sit there and take rude and disrespectful behaviour from your clients. No one should have to suffer from extreme rudeness, insults, or even threatening behaviour and your staff should never feel that that is something that they have to suffer through as a part of their job. However your staff should be well trained enough in their jobs to know how to deal with customers that are frustrated and upset as a direct result of something that has gone wrong with your business. Knowing how to stay calm, pleasant and helpful in such situations gives your company the opportunity to turn any frayed relationships around and to continue building a solid reputation as a reliable, trustworthy and approachable company.