Even if your product is excellent if your customer service is poor—unhelpful, unreliable, or simply difficult to reach—people will find out about it, and you’ll lose business as a result.
That is a significant factor in why putting money into customer service is essential for long-term business success.
But what exactly does excellent customer service include, and how can you make sure that each and every customer that contacts your business for assistance has a positive experience? We’ve come up with numerous ideas for elevating your company’s customer service to the pinnacle of your sector.
Make “Moments of Wow”
Do more than you should. While it’s important to meet client expectations, going above and above to produce “wow” moments can help you stand out from the competition
Most of the time, “wow” moments are little things brought on by exceptional customer service.
Providing same-day emergency delivery, carrying out random acts of kindness, and coming up with creative solutions at the moment are a few examples of “wow” customer service.
Someone else will probably take care of your consumers if you don’t look out for them and don’t give them these “wow” experiences.
Recognition
A very important and appreciated touch that significantly improves the way your customers experience doing business with you is addressing them by name when you greet them. If your business operates on an appointment basis, the receptionist should check to see who will be entering the building next and should formally welcome them with a smile, eye contact, and the phrase “Good morning, are you Mr. Morgan?” if she is unsure or “Good morning, Mr. Morgan” if she is.
One of the things my buddy always says about her plastic surgeon is, “I enjoy going there because they always know who I am and are delighted to see me,” which is why she loves going there.
Receiving a warm, pleasant greeting by name when entering a place of business is the most flattering thing you can do to make someone feel special.
Be proactive and anticipate the needs of the customers
It takes less time to navigate several screens when all the pertinent client data and channels are combined into a single, unified interface. It also makes the advisor’s understanding of the customer journey very straightforward.
That is not all, though. Making client information instantly available aids in dealing with the current problem and also provides organizations with enough knowledge to consider becoming more proactive.
You can respond to both positive and negative feedback, or, for a truly unique experience, you can develop new rules based on the path taken by the consumer. Proactive messaging can be utilized, for instance, when a customer’s account is about to fall below a threshold or when a process for ongoing services is altering.
Appreciation
What do you do to demonstrate to your patients, clients, or customers how much you value them? After all, there are undoubtedly several companies who perform the same services as you. Do you make it clear to the clients you select to do business with that you value and appreciate their patronage? A universally valuable experience is being recognized.
You could hold an invitation-only event one evening and give “VIPs” an additional X percent discount, or you could invite select consumers to a sale one day before the general public. You may gift-wrap their goods or give them that item on the occasion that they frequently receive for free. Offer a free checkup if your offering is a service.
Always be sure to explain that you are giving them this extra because they are a valuable client and you want to express your gratitude to them. Sending them a handwritten note on pretty paper is one of the simplest and most underrated methods to express your gratitude.
Analyze Speech to Learn What Retains Customers Happy
Speech analytics can help businesses identify the words or phrases that their most effective salespeople use, how they position the product or service, and what sets them apart from the competition.
They can use the knowledge gathered from this understanding in agent training programs and utilize it to develop a clearer picture of what exactly makes consumers happy.
The contact center can assist in eradicating certain habits that might have previously spread among advisors but which may be detrimental to the interests of the consumer by employing training sessions to spread these techniques.
Delight
Bring a smile to their face and heart. You can provide them with a particular favor for their kid, parent, or pet. Have a contest or a drawing for something amusing that they can share with relatives and friends, make them giggle, or thank them in a spectacular way for a significant purchase.
Give their youngster a handful of balloons, serve warm, freshly made cookies in your office, and provide a tasty mid-afternoon snack.
Clear communication
The majority of the most important interactions are still had over the phone, even though today’s customers expect to be able to raise and have issues resolved on a variety of platforms, including live chat and social media. As a result, providing the caller with a great experience that is remembered for the right reasons requires precise communication.
Advisors require a comfortable headset, excellent acoustics, and a high-quality microphone in order to make this possible. The advisor’s and the caller’s experiences are already being jeopardized if they cannot hear or be heard.
Advisors will be able to concentrate on the caller without being distracted in crowded areas thanks to noise-cancelling capabilities and wireless technologies.
By enabling this mobility, the user may quickly find the information needed to address client questions without having to prolong the call or put the consumer on hold.
Show That You Always Pay Attention
The best thing to do if you truly want to provide a memorable experience is to pay attention to your consumers. Success depends on the ability to listen.
Nearly half of consumers (46%) say they just want someone to listen when asked about their emotional condition before making a call to a call center. However, only 23% of those people said they felt heard after the conversation.
Yes, you may try to stand out by sending anniversary cards to your clients, but what they want is to be heard. You could, for instance, employ real-time analytics to direct your advisors so they actively listen during calls and develop an “empathy” score to assess each agent’s listening skills. Both of these features may be included on advisor scorecards.
Conclusion
Experiences that are significant, enduring, enjoyable, uncommon, and unexpected affect how clients view you generally and feel about you specifically. These minor particulars are so simple to miss and so alluring to dismiss as inconsequential. But when you combine a multitude of ostensibly unimportant features, the result is something that has significantly more worth than it would have otherwise.
The tiny things are what keep people talking about you and referring you to everyone they know. They are the things that keep customers coming back repeatedly. They are the things that make customers justify spending more because they believe they are receiving more.
The large things are easy for anyone to get right, but it’s the tiny things that set one company apart from another and persuade customers to patronize them. When circumstances are bad, small-business owners frequently skip over the simple things, which is a significant error.
Personalization and consideration are free, just like paying attention and recognizing others.
