How to Improve the Efficiency of Customer Service
by Sumona Customer Service 18 December 2021
When companies improve their customer service, they have been shown to increase their sales. Numerous studies show that with good customer service, consumers are willing to spend more money on products or services.
So as a company, improving your customer service isn’t just evidence of your good intentions. It also has very tangible benefits that have an impact on sales.
By the end of reading this article, you will find out how you can sustainably optimize your customer service. Let’s go!
What is Customer Service?
Customer service generally refers to all services provided by a department of a company that is aimed at satisfying customer requirements after the purchase of a product or service. These include, for example:
- Complaints;
- Support for the operation and use of products;
- Purchase of spare parts and accessories.
Call centers, help desks, and customer service centers are the organizational units within a company where orders are taken and customer problems are handled. The main goal is to maintain customer satisfaction and retain customers for the long term. The related services may be paid or free of charge and usually consist of:
- Information;
- Consultations;
- Services;
- Rights;
Importance of the Customer Touchpoints for the User Journey
In order to better understand customer experience companies tend to pay more and more attention to customer touchpoint management. While conventional marketing looks for measures that simply bring more customers, modern marketing focuses on improving the customer’s experience (user journey).
With the right touchpoint management, you can find out what your customers expect, which services they receive, and how they react to them.
If you follow the customer’s journey at every turn, you can optimize and eliminate existing touchpoints. If, for example, an ad on Facebook receives little or no clicks and the customer’s consumption behavior declines, you know that this touchpoint was used incorrectly.
The customer interrupts their user journey after seeing the advertisement with the possibly wrong product. Unnecessary touchpoints can be excluded or deactivated to minimize customer disappointment. A good user journey is made up of many successful touchpoints.
Tips for Providing Exceptional Customer Service
1. Invest in Training and Capacity Building for Your Teams
The customer success, sales, and marketing teams are directly responsible for customer service, which is why it is so important that they (and, if possible, all the other teams in the company) receive ongoing training.
Advanced customer service skills are a must-have for any successful business. The most important topics are undoubtedly knowledge of the products and services offered by the company, the organization in general, the brand, the technological tools that support them in their work, and specific knowledge of their own work area.
2. Create a Profile of Your Customers
You can define the profile of your customers using the data you have gathered during research from marketing and from any other source that is available to you.
With such a profile, you can find out which motivation really drives your customers, far beyond their rational needs, motivation, and wishes. For example, their personality types, what causes them to make a purchase, and how satisfied they are.
The customer profile is important not only for the actual exploration process but also for segmenting your campaigns and marketing strategies.
3. Build Customer Trust
There are numerous scammers on the net and it is not easy to spot them. So if you are not a well-known brand, there is always uncertainty. Counteract this with a detailed imprint and a data protection declaration.
Another thing that you should do is introduce the company and individual employees on the main page. Customer ratings based on verified purchases or social media profiles with real interaction also increase trust. Furthermore, if you are outsourcing utilising the leading support outsourcing partner in your region, it would be a good idea to brief their customer support staff on frequently asked questions so that they can answer these over the phone for potential customers without the need to put them on hold to find an answer. Further to this, giving your customer support team regular updated about current delivery times and stock levels can provide a level of transparency for your customers that increases their trust in you. By openly stating what they can expect, customers will appreciate the honesty but will also be pleasantly surprised should you be able to provide a better service than what they were expecting.
4. Keep Your Promises
Customers are looking for someone they can rely on. Thus, make only promises that you can keep. While this can be difficult at times, keep customer expectations low and then try to exceed them. This way you will gain consumer trust.
On the other hand, if you repeatedly fail to keep your promises, your relationship with the customers will soon be spoiled.
5. Convert Curious Customers With FAQ Pages
FAQs and help pages can be used to reduce the number of inquiries to customer service. This way customers can independently find the solution to their problem.
The customer service employees in turn will have more time to clarify the individual problem cases and can thus offer improved customer service. Keep in mind that the FAQ pages should be easily accessible and clearly arranged.
6. Keep Track of Clients Information
Employees should document every customer request in detail in order to improve customer service. Only in this way can you guarantee qualitative answers.
In addition, any product defects can be identified if, for example, customer service representatives keep hearing from multiple customers about the same problem.
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