“Customer service shouldn’t be a department, it should be the entire company.“
– Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos
We live in an era where customer service has transformed more into customer care. We need to genuinely care about our customers. Consumers are overwhelmed with offers online and offline. How do you compete with everyone else who is offering the same products or services as you? Well, personal touch and individual approach have never been more crucial.
More and more companies get to the point of realizing that offering high-quality customer service is worth the extra effort. It leads to higher retention rates and creates loyal customers, the same loyal customers who are the barrier between you and your competitors. Good customer service increases the times the customer comes back to your brand or shares it with others. Your brand is responsible for the happiness, loyalty, and retention of its customers. It’s that simple.
Can you imagine what it would be like, if you could hear what your customers want, like in the movie with Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt, “What Women Want?” If you master the magic of personal approach, you may get to that supernatural state of knowing what your clients want and exponentially increase your customer base. Of course, many other crucial factors influence conversion rates. But, in this article, we will focus primarily on customer service. If you want to learn more about increasing your customers’ trust with customer service improvement, you can keep reading this article.
What Does the Data Say?
Before we go further with our five A tips that could improve your customer service, leading to retention and growth, let’s see what the data says about customers.
According to the statistics, 89% of customers are more likely to make another purchase after a positive experience with customer service, and 95% of customers will read a review before purchasing something.
About 88% of companies state they use data to enhance their understanding of each consumer. About 68% of consumers note that messaging is the most convenient way to stay connected with companies.
And 50% share that they would go to a competitor if they have a single bad customer experience, and 80% say they’d go after more than one.
Our 5As to Ace Ahead in the Customer Service Competition in 2022
Adaptability
Markets are growing exponentially as customer attention span decreases. Every day, you see new companies emerge, and they are now competing in the digital world where customer experience has turned into a complex journey full of surprises. Getting your prospects’ attention has become volatile, but keeping their attention, and turning them into customers, is harder than ever before. Customer satisfaction would impact your brand’s online presence and spike your customer’s loyalty and retention. Your business needs to adapt to the new customer experience trends with a whole new set of requirements. Today companies adapt quickly to the idea that they need to show care for their customers. Sending personalized messages and cards and responding creatively to an inquiry showing care and a personal approach is only part of it. Today your loyal customers expect rewards, and your new customers expect long-last impressions. So from small gestures to big discounts, you need to have it all if you want happy customers and better retention rates.
Approach
We can’t stress this enough. The individual approach is everything when it comes to retaining your customers. Capturing their attention is only the beginning. Send them thank-you notes whenever you can. Show them you are not indifferent to them by making small gestures. They remember the product or service you provide, so you should remember them too. And here comes our next tip. Address them by their name. Use a friendly and informal tone or writing style. Instead of generic, corporate responses, show them that you remember them and care. Today, everything is automated, so if you have a top customer, show a good, old-fashioned approach. This approach is going to improve your customer satisfaction exponentially. If any of your customers have an issue, go the extra mile and make a small gesture they didn’t expect. This approach may turn into a customer success story that turns viral on social media.
Agents
Invest in your agents’ abilities and skills. Motivate them to do more than “just their job.” Make them passionate about your brand. Keep in mind, that customers today want to know more about you to trust you. They expect an answer to every question from your customer service agents. Turn your team into a fierce force of passionate individuals that love selling what you offer. Make sure your customer service has a coherent system between purchases, service tickets, shipments, and feedback. You can record your agents’ interactions with your clients and analyze the calls so that they can improve their approach and reduce the response time. Create a workforce based on a collaborative culture. Your customers see your company as one thing, and they don’t know how it operates, so your customer’s journey can shift from department to department. Bring your teams to collaborate and solve any issues your customers may have.
Agility
Have you heard of the phrase “time is money?” It has become more relevant today than ever. Today agility is a synonym for efficiency and effectiveness. People have less and less time to deal with issues, especially when they are clients or customers. They want your business to be professional and expect their issues resolved ASAP (as soon as possible). When they have questions, they expect your agent to answer them satisfactorily. That also shows that your employees know your business inside and out, making your brand even more trustworthy.
2022 customer service includes accurate information, provided almost instantly. Today, more and more companies realize this, and they invest in quick response, knowing that success requires quickness as much as quality. Today brands have two fronts to fight on – their competition and social media, where customers can write reviews. So, you would need those reviews to be top-notch. There is no magic wand that can erase a complaint online.
Analysis
Keep track of your customer experience and your agents’ productivity. See what your average wait time is – meaning – check how long it takes for callers to receive a response or talk to your agents. You can do the same with email. Analyze your service at your level. See how fast your customer’s questions have been answered, and ask them for feedback. How many queries and how fast do they receive an answer after the customer’s initial call or email? After this analysis, you can see how well your business interacts with its customers and what areas need improvement. Without doing this in-depth analysis regularly, you would be in the dark about where your brand stands with its customer service and support.
Our Bonus As
Brand Ambassadors and Advocates
In the future brand ambassadors and advocates will play an even greater role in marketing. Brand ambassadors are those who share with the public via adverts or meetings your company’s values, promoting its products and services. Advocates are usually people who are satisfied with your product or service and they recommend you without being paid for it. They usually share your brand via word-of-mouth and reviews. They often tweet their positive experiences with your brand. According to some experts advocates may sometimes have even more credibility and higher success rates than ambassadors. However, you need both at your brand’s side to boost your customer base.
To Sum It All Up…
In the fast-growing digital ocean, popularity is crucial. However, if you are missing an individual approach, it won’t be enough to deliver satisfactory results to your business. Your customers need to be pampered and feel important. You may be offering the best products on the market, but without an individual approach and showing care to each customer or client, your business may not reach the goals it has set out. Make your business flexible and adapt to the changes in the market. You may have to make more than one or two adjustments to the way you run your business because adaptability requires change. Create memorable customer experiences and humanize the interaction by sending personalized messages, addressing your customers by name, and even coming up with solutions to mistakes they may have made, showing how much you care.
Make your customer service agents as agile as possible because, with care, comes the fast resolution to issues your clients face. Regular in-depth analysis of your customer service development will help you see your strong points and emphasize them and your weaknesses where you can apply changes.
