12 Critical Customer Service Tips for Startups & Small Businesses

Elevating customer satisfaction and growth through service to solutions

solutions to improve customer service

Additionally, with more support cases being solved by front-line customer service, your product experts can spend more time improving the product or service. Instead of having to perform customer-facing responsibilities, engineers and product developers can focus their energy on innovating your company’s offers. Some technology will become the catalyst for new customer service positions. For example, augmented reality will pave the way for virtual assistants who can help customers learn how to use products and services. Customers will not only be able to simulate a product, but they’ll also have someone digitally supporting them as they become familiar with its features.

They allow their employees to spend up to $2,000 to solve customer issues. The spend could be in the form of discounts, refunds, or bonuses and rewards. With your goals in place, define key performance indicators (KPIs) to track and improve your performance and take specific action. Social media platforms are a go-to for many customers, openly voicing their opinions, asking questions, and raising concerns. Every mention and every comment can be a touchpoint and significantly impact the customer experience. Organizations must continue to invest in customer service to ensure they retain their existing customers and gain new ones either through referrals or positive word-of-mouth.

Gamify the pre and post-purchase experience.

A study by Microsoft revealed that more than half of consumers prefer an online mode of customer support interaction. The respondents who agreed included not just millennials, but also people above the age of 55. Omni-channel support, discussed above, also helps your support reps to respond quickly, as there are multiple different areas or points of contact so customers don’t have to wait on one channel. One of the best ways to make it easy for your customers to get in contact with you is to offer omni-channel customer support. The easier it is for customers to get in contact with you, the higher your customer satisfaction levels will be. For example, if a customer wants to place a return and can easily navigate to a returns page on your website, they’ll take less time to return a product and be satisfied with a refund or exchange.

solutions to improve customer service

Today, many consumers are not just looking to buy a specific product or service. Instead, they base their purchase decisions on the overall shopping experience. Telling your customers how you’ll help them along your journey with your business is a great way to keep them satisfied. Customers will know exactly what to expect from you and that they can reach out to you for help if needed, as opposed to wondering which direction they should go in to get help. Hearing from customers about a glitch, technical error, or any type of bad experience with your business can feel disheartening. It’s also discouraging for customers as they likely want to hear from you first about any lapses your business is experiencing.

Step #8: Create a consistent feedback loop

That’s because even when you can’t tell the customer exactly what they want to hear, a dose of care, concern, and understanding will go a long way. A support rep’s ability to empathize with a customer and craft a message that steers things toward a better outcome can often make all the difference. In fact, if your organization tests job applicants for customer service aptitude, you’d be hard pressed to look for a more critical skill than empathy. Perhaps empathy — the ability to understand and share the feelings of another — is more of a character trait than a skill. But since empathy can be learned and improved upon, we’d be remiss not to include it here. Sometimes your team is going to come across people who you’ll never be able to make happy.

Effective customer service means having the ability to make minor changes in your conversational patterns. Without an ounce of exaggeration, being a good writer is the most overlooked,

yet most necessary, skill to look for when it comes to hiring for customer support. In other situations, a problem-solving solutions to improve customer service pro may simply understand how to offer preemptive advice or a solution that the customer doesn’t even realize is an option. Shane Barker is a digital marketing consultant who specializes in influencer marketing, product launches, sales funnels, targeted traffic, and website conversions.

Customers will expect an omni-channel service experience.

The only way to determine the right key performance indicators (KPIs) is to create a solid framework to guide you. In this article, you’ll learn 15 strategies to improve customer service performance in 2022, so let’s dive in. Fortunately, there is an abundance of tactics you can try to improve your team’s performance. From implementing a quality assurance strategy to asking for honest feedback from your customers, these will help provide a seamless customer journey from prospect to post-sale.

solutions to improve customer service

This system helps organize customer lines, whether a linear or mobile queue, ensuring that wait times are minimal. It can be difficult to identify the best candidates, but evaluating their empathy and problem-solving skills is essential in finding great customer service agents. You can also create a place for customer self-service (CSS) to reduce your teams’ customer contact rate. For example, an FAQ page, a help center, or a community forum can help customers resolve issues without having to contact your CS team.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published.