Date: March 20, 2019
Category: Blog
A great customer experience is the key to great customer service. There are a few, simple things you can do to immediately improve the level of satisfaction your customer experiences.
So, what do your customers really want?
To be Listened to
One of the most important roles of the Customer Service Team is to listen.
Although the Customer Service Team need to harness a certain level of control in their interactions with customers, not listening properly, or hurrying the customer along, will only make them lose confidence- they’ll feel like a number, rather than an individual, and will doubt that you have understood their query/request (that’s assuming you have!).
You get our point: rather than trying to speed up the resolution, you may cause the opposite by not listening properly. It’s more likely that the customer will need to get back in touch, resulting in a bad customer experience and increased customer interactions.
The speed and efficiency of the interaction is important, but should never overshadow the quality. Take the time to really listen to your customer- they’ll appreciate it!
A Personalised Customer Experience
Listening to your customer will ensure that you’re able to personalise your customer experience; something regularly cited as a must by customers!
Greet the customer using their name and introduce yourself, as well. The Customer Service Team should feel empowered and able to make their own decisions when it comes to interacting with customers.
Although IVR’s and automated systems can be incredibly helpful tools in certain situations, nothing creates a better customer experience than speaking to a friendly, helpful, efficient individual, who has taken the time to understand your query and catered their approach to your situation.
Options
Your customers want options when it comes to contact methods. Customer Service has surpassed the days of telephone-only contact. In fact, econsultancy found that 83% of consumers require assistance when making a purchase.
Your customers’ convenience should be factored in when deciding upon your contact methods, opening hours, multi-lingual support etc.
For Frontline Employees to be Empowered
As a customer, it can be frustrating speaking to someone who can’t help… “Well, then why am I speaking to you?!”
Frontline customer service employees need to be provided with the right skills, training and knowledge to make accurate and efficient decisions- they should be trusted and empowered to do so.
If the brand and its purpose have been trained out correctly, then there should be no issues enabling the team to go ahead and establish a genuine, human interaction, whilst taking the right actions to benefit the customer.
To be Kept up to Date
Finally, if a customer has a query or issue that cannot be resolved straight away, then the next best thing is to keep them as up to date as possible. Your customer should also be provided with alternatives/assistance in the meantime!
Don’t leave your customer without an alternative and not knowing what’s going on, because if you do, they won’t be your customer for much longer!
If you need any help with your customer service, simply get in touch to find out how we can help!