Tips For Providing Excellent Customer Service
What Is Great Customer Service?
Great customer service means following best practices like valuing customers’ time, having a pleasant attitude, and providing knowledgeable and resourceful resources, but that you also take things a step further to exceed rather than just meet expectations.
To exceed your customers’ expectations and deliver great customer service, Read More Here.
Customer Service Tips
Learn what modern customer service is and get our best tips on providing excellent customer service.
- Know Your Product or Service
To provide good customer service, you need to know what you’re selling, inside and out. Make sure you and your customer-facing staff know how your products or services work. Be aware of the most common questions customers ask and know how to articulate the answers that will leave them satisfied.
- Be Friendly
Customer service starts with a smile. When you are in a face-to-face situation, a warm greeting should be the first thing your customers see and hear when they ask for help. Even when handling customer service requests via telephone, a smile can come through in your voice, so make sure you’re ready to be friendly.
- Say Thank You
Gratitude is memorable, and it can remind your customers why they shopped at your store or hired your company. Regardless of the type of business, you have, saying thank you after every transaction is one of the easiest ways to start a habit of good customer service.
- Train Your Staff
It’s important to make sure all of your employees, not just your customer service representatives, understand the way they should talk to, interact with, and otherwise assist customers. Provide employee training that gives your staff the tools they need to carry good service through the entire customer experience.
- Listen
Listening is one of the simplest secrets of customer service. It means hearing what your customers are saying out loud, as well as what they are communicating non-verbally. Watch for signs that they are displeased, while listening to what they say to you directly.
- Be Responsive
There may be nothing worse than nonresponsiveness to a customer who is trying to get help, resolve an issue, or find out more about what you’re selling. It’s important to respond quickly to all inquiries, even if it is only to say you are looking into the issue and will be back in touch. Some responses are always better than none so the customer doesn’t feel ignored.
- Show Respect
Customer service often can involve emotions, so it’s important to make sure you and others you have handling your customer service tasks are always courteous and respectful. Never let your own emotions overtake your desire to see your customer walk away happy.
- Ask for Feedback
You may be surprised what you learn about your customers and their needs when you ask them what they think of your business, products, and services. You can use customer surveys, feedback forms, and questionnaires, but you also can make it a common practice to ask customers first-hand for feedback when they are completing their orders.
Why Excellent Customer Service Should Be Your Secret Weapon?
You could have the coolest, highest quality product out there, but it means nothing if your customer service experience is poor. Businesses invest so much into attracting and selling to customers, so why shouldn’t the same mindset apply to customer service?
Customers are, after all, the heart and soul of a company. Without them, stuff hits the fan.
A study from NewVoiceMedia found that 51% of consumers would never do business with a company again after just one poor customer service experience.
What’s more, the same study found that 42% of customers would post about a negative experience with a brand online for the world to see.
Your business can’t afford to have a stellar customer service process in place. If customer service isn’t a priority for your business, you could risk your reputation going down the drain, losing you both current and potential customers.
With a large population of consumers doing the majority of their shopping online these days, it’s estimated that there will be 300 million online shoppers by 2023!
the standard for online businesses has never been higher.
Consumers are expecting companies to accommodate their preferences, from newer areas of customer service like live chat and Facebook Messenger to tried and true channels like email and phone support.
Those standards are becoming higher for a good reason. After all, customers are making a conscious decision to invest in your product or service and anticipating a particular experience in return. Your customers are the reason you’re in business in the first place, and your job is to serve them as best as you can.
Delivering your product or service is one thing, but the way you treat your customers when they need assistance is what will make your business stand out in an ever-more crowded market.