16 April 2022
By Roger Kennedy
roger@TheCork.ie
Customer service is something that your company can’t afford to overlook and ignore for a second longer. If you’re serious about staying the distance and making a lasting success of your business, it’s in your best interests to upgrade your approach to customer service.
But what does that look like and which steps should you take in order to make it happen? We’re going to talk about all of that and more today, so read on and start working out how to improve your business’s customer service. The sooner you put these changes into action, the sooner you’ll start reaping the rewards.
Show Some Empathy
Showing your customers a little empathy might not seem like much at all but it can go a really long way when your customer calls you up to talk about a problem they’ve been having. Being friendly and showing them that you understand what they’re experiencing and that you’re going to do what you can to sort it out right away can be very important indeed. It’s not a lot but it makes a difference in the eyes of the customer.
Act Decisively
Sometimes, you need to simply be decisive and make sure that you’re not leaving your customers to wait around when they’re having a problem with your product or the business in general. When you act decisively and get their problem dealt with as quickly as possible, it shows them that you’re serious about keeping them happy and you’re not going to frustrate them with pure inaction.
Be as Flexible as You Can Be
Being a little more flexible can be a really positive thing when you’re trying to deal with a customer problem. You might not be used to dealing with every single problem you come across, so there might not be a simple formulaic answer. But by being flexible and looking for bespoke solutions, you’ll be able to keep your customers happy and offer them a more positive customer service experience.
Ensure Customers Receive a Human Service
Ensuring your customers receive a level of customer service from you that’s first and foremost human is a big deal. The truth is no one wants to talk to a robot or an answering machine. So making a member of your team available to deal with these problems at all times is going to be very important. Lots of businesses make the mistake of making things too impersonal and robotic, and it’s pretty well-understood now that most customers don’t like that at all.
Use Uniforms and Name Badges
If you run a store or some sort of physical location where customers interact with your staff directly, it makes sense to do what you can to make it clear who’s a member of staff. You don’t want to make it difficult for your customers to tell who’s working for you and who’s not. You can buy name badges and choose a uniform that makes support staff easier to spot for your customers. Again, this simply streamlines the whole process for the customer.
Train Your Staff to be Patient
A little patience is another thing that goes a long way when it comes to customer service. If your staff are properly trained and know how to deal with your customers in a careful and patient way, customer service outcomes will improve in no time. Everyone who’s worked in customer service knows it can be tough at times and customers often don’t make it easy to be patient with them, but it’s vital to remain as patient as possible nonetheless. Failure to do so is a failure of customer service.
Listen and Improve
Listening to your customers and letting them tell you about their experiences with your customer service department can be very useful. That doesn’t mean that you have to act upon every little criticism you get. But if you notice trends in the feedback and people are having the same problem, again and again, that’s a sign that you need to do something to improve your approach to customer service. And you never have to stop improving it if you want to be successful and achieve customer loyalty.
Customer service is a huge part of making a success of your business and giving your customers what they’re looking for. You’ll definitely struggle to retain your customers if you’re not able to offer a level of customer service that they’re going to be happy with. So be sure to consider the potential upgrades discussed above.
