Customer service improvements for your business

March 23, 2020 16

EDITOR’S NOTE: In any scenario, ensuring you provide the best customer service is paramount. The COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic has forced many businesses to close. Others have switched to remote and e-commerce operations. During this health crisis, it is important to provide great customer service more than ever.

Good customer service is more about understanding your customers and offering empathy. There is a possibility that you see the situation differently. It’s crucial to resort to the customer’s perspective of things and try to alleviate the situation for them.

Make sure that you understand that the idea of good or bad customer service resides in the eyes of the beholder. The customer gets to determine whether the service rendered to them was good or exceptionally well.

Fast response time

Service time is one of the most crucial factors concerning customer service. Slow and under-productive service, including lengthy on-hold times, is considered bad customer service. Spectrum customer service is considered one of the best services with customer response time less than 90 seconds. As a result, this makes them some of the best customer service providers in the states.

Clearer communications

This is the tie-breaker between good and great customer service. If your customer finds you predictable and isn’t experiencing any unpleasant surprises from you, they are bound to stay loyal. However, a single unexpected, not-so-smooth experience can ruin your long-time rapport. Negative experiences have a more lasting effect than positive ones.

Greeting the customer

A greeting at the front door makes a customer feel like they should shop there. This adds to the goodwill image of the business. Similarly, greeting a customer in a lively and welcoming tone can make them feel valued. Thus, this provides a great way to earn their loyalty.

However, this could backfire if the business is ignoring or treating the customer as a low priority. One bad customer experience has the power to take away 100 customers from your business. One good customer experience has the power to bring in only 10.

Empathy

Empathy is the ability to put yourself in your customer’s shoes and seeing things from their perspective. Some people are intrinsically capable of expressing this trait. Others, however, can acquire this trait. Understanding what the customer is feeling is the sole foundation of effective customer service.

Active listening

Every customer service call has a human element with real concerns and issues. They see you as a “savior” who can help them understand the reason(s) behind that issue. Additionally, it allows for appropriate troubleshooting and other possible ways to mitigate it. Active listening not only benefits a customer service agent but also relationships outside of work. Listening and understanding can solve at least half of the problem.

Quality of the product or service

Business swiftness is a good thing. However, it can result in lost customers if the product or service quality is lousy. The Six Sigma Principle is a principle for customer service, as well as product and service quality.

Six Sigma states that the cost of quality causes an adverse effect on the business. If substandard service or product offerings are offered to a customer to save costs, it’ll result in greater expenditures for the business. As a result, this ends up with returned products or excessive complaints.

Issue resolution

Effective service resolution has the best impact on customer retention. A company must have the ability to anticipate the possible issues and thus have a set of clearly defines standard operating procedures for issue resolution.