The way you treat your customers when they have a problem is a big deal. It’s one of the biggest factors when it comes to the way people see your business. You could have an amazing product, but if your customer service isn’t good then people won’t think your company is amazing. Just look at TalkTalk. Their Internet service is great – but whenever you bring it up, people just complain about their dire customer service!
Whatever business you’re in, you should be looking to provide outstanding customer service. (Unless your business doesn’t deal with customers. In which case, feel free to read another one of our articles.) Here are some of the factors you may not have considered.
Clarity
Have you ever had a problem with a product or a service but haven’t been sure who to contact? You went onto the company’s website to find some contact information. But all you could find was a labyrinth that kept redirecting you to different pages without providing an email address or a phone number.
You should ensure that customers know exactly where to turn if they have a problem. If they have to fight tooth and nail to get directly in touch with you, then they’re just going to be that much angrier. And that’s the opposite of what you want.
Using your voice
We can go on all day about how much technology has made a lot of things easier. Sending emails has never been more simple, for example. But, at the end of the day, typing something out can still be pretty cumbersome. Sometimes, people prefer simply to talk to you, voice-to-voice.
A lot of employees don’t like to deal with customers on the phone. They prefer the impersonal nature of email. So do a lot of customers, to be fair. But sometimes it simply isn’t enough. It can often be the fastest way to get to the root of the problem. You should look into a wide selection of phone systems for your business.
Customer service apps
The easier you make it to access your custom service features, the happier the customer will be. Yes, I kind of did already make that point. But how can we make that access even easier? You could look into developing an app for your customers.
Among whatever other features you want, it could also provide direct links to your customer service. It could include a button that puts a call through, or initiates instant messaging. Customer service apps have really been taking off lately, so consider it!
Complaint mentality
Here’s a strange piece of advice that you may not have heard before. Take this mindset: treat complaints as a gift. I don’t mean that, when a customer complains, your employee should respond with “Aww thank you, that’s just what I wanted!”. I’m talking about appreciating what a complaint is.
It’s vital information about your product or service. If something goes wrong, it’s crucial that you know about it. So make sure the customer knows that you appreciate their call, even if it’s about a subject that doesn’t make either party jump for joy.