Is Your Company Lacking In Customer Service? Here are Two Tips To Change That Today

When it comes to improving your relationship with customers, the solution may be more obvious than you think. In fact, in many cases, the solution is to improve your customer service. Think about it: It doesn’t matter how great your product is, if your customer service is bad, your customers won’t be happy. When more focus is placed on your staff’s ability to please customers, those customers are more likely to remember the positive interaction than they are to remember the problem they encountered in the first place.

In large part, your employees are the face of your company—so it makes sense to take time to hire the right people and then train them to represent your company in the best possible manner. A highly motivated and competent customer service staff will ensure strong customer relationships, which will in turn grow your product and your brand.

If you think your company could use a customer service boost, here are two great tips.

1. Strengthen your staff’s customer-service skills

   Does your customer-service team have the skills they need to manage your customers’ needs? It’s never too late to train your staff, especially when it comes to customer-service skills. At a minimum, you want your staff to be personable, professional, and knowledgeable about your product. Here are some other skills your customer service team should have:

   • Patience and empathy

     No matter what, you’re always going to have at least a few upset customers. Some will be angry, while others will be irate. Some customers will have a lot of questions, some will just want to chat, and still others will need someone to walk them through things step by step. All these people will speak to your customer-service representatives so they need to be patient and empathetic in their dealings with a variety of personality types.

   • Adaptability

     Every single customer is different, and each customer has unique needs. Your service agents must be able to sense the customer’s mood and handle surprises and changes. Because providing excellent customer service involves an ever-changing skillset, being adaptable includes the desire to always learn new things.

   • Effective communication

     Your agents must be able to clearly convey information and instructions to customers. Because more than 60% of consumers still prefer speaking with a person over the phone, word choice, tone, and inflection are key. Customer-service staff should be trained to use positive language, sound cheerful and professional, and speak clearly and concisely.

2. Encourage customer feedback

   Customer feedback will help you measure customer satisfaction and will provide insight that can be used to make improvements. Even if you already have great relationships with your customers, there’s always going to be something you can do better—and there’s no better way to find out what that is than by asking your existing customers.

   There are a number of ways to request feedback—from online surveys to phoning a customer directly. One simple rule of thumb: Make it as easy as possible for customers to tell you what they think.

   In addition to helping you gauge customer satisfaction, you can also use feedback to improve your product, create an even better customer experience, and make customers feel important and involved—all of which will help you retain customers for the long term.

   When a single negative customer service experience is just a click away from being shared on social media, there’s no shortage of incentive for providing the best customer service possible. Great customer experiences, on the other hand, result in increased customer loyalty, an uptick in positive reviews, word-of-mouth endorsements, and increased profits.