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"Customers are willing to spend 17% more with companies that deliver great customer service" - American Express
Excellent customer service is the sign of a well-managed business. Any business that needs to grow should first build its customer service department.
In this age where a bad customer service experience can be blown to a catastrophe with social media, creating an exceptional experience has become crucial. Every business needs to know how to prioritize customer service.
In this blog, let's discover what are ways to improve customer service with some relevant examples. But first, let's define customer service.
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What is Customer Service?
Every business has customers that buy their products or services. Once the purchase is over, customers have different queries.
These queries need to be answered by someone from the company. This is customer service and is usually done by a support team.
Why is Good Customer Service Important?
1. Increase customer satisfaction
When customers receive excellent customer service experience whenever they reach out to the support team, they become satisfied customers. This results in the improvement of many customer satisfaction metrics.
2. Improve customer loyalty
Did you know that 96% of customers consider customer service a key factor when deciding to stay loyal to a brand?
Happy customers stay loyal and tend to make repeat purchases with the same company. This leads to an increase in overall sales.
3. Reduce customer acquisition costs
Delivering exceptional customer service can result in positive word-of-mouth marketing and increased customer referrals. These referrals can reduce the cost required to acquire new customers.
Help Your Agents Serve Customers Better!
Now that we've seen the impact of customer service, let's look at how to improve it with a few examples.
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How to Improve Customer Service?
The biggest thing that a support team can do is train every customer service agent to serve customers better. Here are some customer service examples to show you why they are important.
1. Address customer service problems before impact
In 2017, an AWS outage caused all Amazon services to be down. Instead of waiting for customers to raise an issue, Adobe tweeted about it with an adorable GIF.
Instead of being frustrated, this reassured every customer that this problem was being worked on and taken as a priority.
In such situations, customer support reps should try to address a problem if a pattern has been observed. When such issues go unresolved, it can lead to endless customer service issues.
Agents should always be alert and notice if there is an increase in the frequency of specific customer complaints. If it is something that the customers should be informed of, using customer service channels will reassure them that the problem is being fixed.
2. Ask customers for their feedback
Feedback is an essential part of improving customer service. While there are AI-based feedback tools, there are some things only a customer can tell you.
Using surveys and feedback forms helps the team to know what is working and what isn't. This helps managers to create a customer support plan that tackles these problems.
3. Be empathetic with customers
Once, a customer from Zappos forgot about their item return request because of the loss of a loved one. With empathy, Zappos understood the situation and sent the customer the item for free with some flowers.
Empathy is key to delivering exceptional customer service. When agents step in the shoes of the customer, it becomes easy to resolve the problem in a peaceful manner.
Rather than being empathetic to their problem, any customer who contacts the customer service center prefers to get their problem fixed immediately. If they're treated with empathy, customers tend to remember it, and it improves their loyalty to the brand.
4. Turn customer mistakes into service opportunities
Employees in the Ritz-Carlton are provided with $2000 to fix any guest's problem without any questions. Once, a customer left their charger in The Ritz-Carlton Sarasota.
After contacting support, they got their charger delivered to them the next day itself. There was a note that said we wanted to ensure that it was delivered right away.
Customers are human, and they also make mistakes. Instead of making them wait for a long time to get it rectified, there are two methods to fix it.
The first is to provide excellent customer service like Ritz-Carlton. Since it's difficult to have that kind of financial support, agents can prioritize such customer errors.
The other way is viable only when such errors become frequent. In such a scenario, an analysis needs to be done on what could be improved to prevent similar customer errors from happening.
5. Implement personalized responses
Zappos responds to any mail sent by a customer. Instead of using the same template to respond, they personalize every response.
Once, a customer sent a mail to the CEO. They got a reply saying that the CEO was busy and had a cute message.
When it comes to chat and email support, the language used can be a huge factor in deciding satisfaction.
If it's the same response they've been receiving, there's a huge chance that it can lead to disappointment. On the other hand, if it's a friendly and understanding tone, customers are likely to wait if the resolution takes more time.
6. Empower agents to improve customer experience
Customer service reps need to be trained well to provide great customer service. If agents are in a supportive environment, they can perform better.
Using tools like automated coaching and real-time assistance can give agents the support they need. Automated coaching creates tailored coaching sessions for each agent to improve their performance.
On the other hand, real-time monitoring gives agents an assistant for their phone calls. Phone support becomes a lot easier with guidance on call scripts, an in-built database, and more.
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7. Be ready to change
A 3-year-old girl noticed that the tiger bread sold by Sainsbury's looked more like giraffe bread than tiger bread. She and her mom wrote a letter to them.
Surprisingly, they got a response from the support team at Sainsbury's, which accepted what the girl was saying. It was said that they would be renaming tiger bread into giraffe bread.
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Sainsbury's prompt readiness to change their product's name shows the importance of customer feedback. There are instances where the customer will point out an existing problem in the customer journey.
While such decisions aren't solely under the customer service team, it should be considered. If the problem is relevant and needs attention, it should become a priority for the relevant teams associated with it.
Suggested read: Craft the Perfect Customer Service Performance Review
Helping Agents Improve Customer Service
These real-life examples of good customer service illustrate the training that agents need. When they're trained to deliver excellent customer service, it reflects in their performance.
In the hectic life of a customer service agent, there should be an approach to use efficient methods that don't take up a lot of time. Using automated coaching is a relevant option.
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Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is a good example of customer service?
Creating self-service options and methods for customers to seek support easily. This helps customers find solutions on their own without having to contact support.
2. What 3 things make exceptional customer service?
Every agent should be empathetic to customers they're speaking to, present a positive attitude, and try to solve problems as fast as possible. When all of these are present in a customer interaction, it becomes an excellent customer service experience.
3. How can technology enhance customer service?
Using the latest technology can help agents provide customers with a good customer service experience. Apart from automation, agents can receive real-time assistance with such tools.
4. What are some effective methods for customer service training?
Apart from traditional methods like group sessions and personal mentorship, there are automated coaching solutions. These solutions create tailor-made sessions for each agent to improve based on their performance.
