When you’re a business owner, you know that one of your top priorities is to keep customers satisfied. When your company lives up to its expectations, you know that you’re on the path to progress and success. That’s because happy clients are more likely to remain loyal to your brand and choose your products or services instead of those of your competitors. If they’re satisfied with what you’re offering, they’re more likely to recommend your business to friends and relatives, meaning that you’re likely to get an increased number of buyers. When someone recommends your brand to their loved ones, it’s likely to be more effective than any type of marketing campaign you might do. That’s because people naturally trust the opinions of those in their life sooner than publicity is done by strangers, no matter how well done.
While it’s natural you’ll want to increase the number of customers that buy from you, you must never lose sight of your loyal clientele and do something that will alienate them from your brand. However, your product line is not the only thing you should keep in mind when it comes to your customers. Recent research confirms that over half of customers would return to a business and continue to purchase from it if they had a positive customer service experience. How you interact with your customers is just as important as the products you put forward and has just as big an impact on the people. Here are a few steps you can take to make this service your forte and ensure your customers keep coming back.
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Train employees
Although it may seem like a walk in the park for anyone observing from the outside, assisting customers is no easy task. Your team may have to deal with people who are unreasonable, angry, and even downright rude. It’s normal that offhand comments will upset your employees, but the purpose of the training should be to teach how to manage these emotions, stay calm and empathize with the clients. However, they should also know how to manage uncomfortable, emotionally-charged situations and set boundaries. After all, despite the commonly-used aphorism, the customer isn’t always right, so being able to de-escalate the tension when things go south is very important.
The crew should also be well-equipped to answer any questions that may come to them. Ideally, all issues would be solved immediately, but others may take a longer time to solve. Being fast while also staying precise is something that your clients will appreciate, and it’s a set of skills you should instill in everyone who’s a part of your customer service team.
Enhance interaction
After you’ve discussed this with your employees, the most important thing to do is to see to the means through which communication is established with your customers. Make sure to look at it from an objective perspective to decide what can be worked on. In a business, nothing is standalone. All processes are interrelated and interact with one another. If something doesn’t work as it should, it’s likely to impact more things along the way.
One of the aspects you may not have taken into consideration includes the music your customers have to listen to when they’re put on hold while your team is trying to solve the problem. Choose a hold music download service that offers a wide array of royalty-free pieces you can play for your clients while they’re waiting in line. You can have your pick and choose between upbeat, inspirational tunes and softer, calmer songs. Your choice should be based on what suits your business most. If you pick something that is too jarring and out of place, there’s a higher chance that the customers will become bored or irritated and abandon the calls. When you select the right melody, you increase the likelihood of caller retention by nearly 80%.
Accept feedback
Since this is the realm in which pleasing customers is key, it would be incomplete to run a business that doesn’t allow the clients the possibility to speak their minds. Just as you allow them to share their opinions regarding the purchases they’ve made, as well as signal that there have been problems with the products, you should also enable your clientele to leave reviews concerning their customer service experience.
You can make this process accessible by setting up a special category on your website or inviting customers to write their messages on your social media page. And don’t just leave the feedback in your inbox. You should go through as many as possible and focus on what you can do. If you notice the same concern in many different responses, it’s clear there’s a genuine problem going on there. Conduct a thorough analysis so you can ascertain where the problem stems from, then take the necessary steps to solve it.
Follow up
If a client reaches out to customer service, it’s important you show your readiness to answer other questions. If the problem they’ve contacted you for has been solved, ask if there’s anything else you can do for them. If they’re asking for tips on how to use one of your products, you can leave the door open for a follow-up conversation should they have additional inquiries. When you take these supplementary steps, you send the indirect message that you value your patrons’ opinions and are committed to improving their interaction with your business.
In business, there are many things you need to take into account. Perhaps none, however, is more important than your reputation. Your repute is what drives people towards or away from your business. The complicated thing about building and maintaining a good reputation is that it doesn’t only rely on one thing. It is the sum of the different processes that make out your business, including ethical practices, the manufacturing process, the quality of your merchandise, and, yes, the way in which you interact with the clientele.
When you have an expert customer service team working side by side with you, you have more chances of seeing your business become all the more efficient and successful.
