Customer service is imperative to brand success, building a reputation and encouraging customer satisfaction and loyalty. Improving customer service in any business should be an ongoing process that every member of the company is committed to on a regular basis.
Keeping your customers happy when running a small business is key to growth and becoming a leading brand in your industry. We’ve listed some tips and strategies that you can use in order to improve and fine-tune your customer service.
1. Get the Right People for Customer service
Customer service starts with the people who deliver it directly – your company’s customer service agents. This is an area of your business that you shouldn’t try to cut costs with; hiring less-experienced but cheaper agents can be a gamble with many risks down the line, especially for start-ups who need experienced customer service experts who can hit the ground running with keeping customers and clients happy.
If you are on a tight budget, you might want to consider the option of outsourcing your business’s customer services to a company that provides outsourced contact center services with experienced friendly agents to represent your brand.
Also Read : New Technology That Allows For SMEs To Improve Customer Service
2. Get to Know Your Customers
Secondly, it’s difficult to provide customers with the service that they want, if you don’t know exactly what it is that they are looking for. Remember that there is no ‘one size fits all’ description of customer service and various people and groups will expect different things from the businesses and brands that they use.
The best way to determine what your customers are looking for in terms of service is to ask them directly! Conduct market research, use social media and don’t be afraid of asking your customers to speak their mind so that you can take their feedback into account.
3. Resolve Problems Quickly
From a customer’s point of view, there is nothing worse than a company who appears to be uncaring about a problem or issue that they have. When it comes to customer service, you, unfortunately, cannot expect everything to be perfect all of the time. Errors can and will be made and you will need to be prepared for when a customer comes to you with a complaint or a problem.
The way in which you handle these instances will affect your reputation; in fact, many customers are more than willing to forgive an error or let a complaint slide if they receive outstanding customer service from the get-go. Have a solid problem-resolution process in place and always be ready to apologize sincerely if a customer is less than satisfied. Remember, customer service drives loyalty!
4. Promote Inclusiveness
Today’s customers aren’t just looking for the best products at reasonable prices; they also want to use brands that they feel that they are a part of. Social media is a great way to promote inclusiveness and offer a great level of customer service. You can use it to keep customers regularly updated on the business and inform them of any changes, along with asking their opinions and encouraging them to engage.
If you found these tips helpful, we’d love to hear from you in the comments!