Your Satisfaction Is Our Priority

Customers are the core of every business and should always be your top priority.

Happy customers can help you build credibility and bring in more business - research shows that 77% of customers are likely to recommend a company to a friend if they have a positive experience.

And, that's why you should focus on keeping your customers happy and satisfied with great products and excellent service.

McKinsey & Company says that:

"Today's consumers do not buy just products or services - more and more, their purchase decisions revolve around buying into an idea and an experience."

In fact, according to a study by Walker, by 2020, customers will value experiences more than prices and products, and 86% of shoppers will spend more for a better customer experience.

So if you want your customers to like you, you need to deliver the best customer experience, at all times. Here are four strategies that can help you improve your customer service standards.

1. Seek Customer Feedback

To provide excellent customer service, you first need understand their needs, experiences, and pain points.

For these, you need to ensure that you provide your customers multiple ways to share their feedback. You can do this through telephone surveys or a feedback form sent via email. Other than surveys, you can also establish a complaint system, which will better enable your customers to raise their issues.

This will let you know all about their good, bad, and ugly experiences when interacting with your brand. Through this, you gain real insights into what you're doing well, and which areas require improvement.

Connecting with your customers to gather feedback also has another important benefit - it makes them feel that you value them, and are willing to resolve their issues. This can help to establish trust, and may even prevent them from sharing their concerns or negative comments on social media.

As an example, web hosting service provider SiteGround invites its customers to provide feedback 24/7 via three different channels: tickets, live chat, and phone.

2. Strengthen Your Customer Service Team

Improving your customer service begins with building a strong customer service team. Here's how you can strengthen your service performance.

Hire and Train Professionals with the Right Skills

No tool or AI element will compensate for the lack of a skilled workforce - when you hire people for your customer service team, you should look for individuals with the right skills.

You should also organize training sessions for them to improve their skills once they're on board - some notable skills every customer service representative needs to have are:

Empathy and Patience -A customer service rep has to deal with different types of customers: Some may be annoying or confused, while others may have a lot of questions. A customer support representative needs to deal with all of them patiently and professionally.
Good Communication skills -The people you hire must be confident and possess excellent communication skills. They should be able to convey what they mean in a positive way, and they should strive to never end conversations in a way that leaves a customer dissatisfied.
Knowledge - Ensure that your customer service representatives have complete knowledge of your product, services, and pricing plans. If they aren't sure of something, it's best to say, "I'll get back to you after checking with our product team," than to provide incorrect information.

Track Performance of Your Customer Service Representatives

Are you unsure of exactly how skilled your customer service representatives are? You should ask your customers about their experiences dealing with them.

SiteGround asks customers to rate each customer service representative who attends to them.

Once a customer rates the representative anywhere from one to five stars, the site redirects them to leave a review.

You can use insights from such ratings and reviews to track the performance of each customer service representative.

Appreciate Good Work

You should also seek to recognize the efforts of your customer service teams who deliver high levels of customer experience and satisfaction.

You can reward your top performers with incentives or gifts - this will encourage and motivate your employees to achieve your customer service goals.

3. Use CRM Platforms

Many companies struggle to establish effective coordination among different teams, which often leads to customer dissatisfaction.

To overcome this issue, businesses can streamline their workforce processes using smart CRM platforms. Such systems help to ensure that everyone is on the same page - which is important in establishing high customer service standards.

Some of the benefits of using smart CRM software are:

It provides useful insights about your customers which can help you understand their needs, sell faster, and provide a personalized experience to each customer.
It improves customer interaction and engagement, helping you build lifelong customer relationships.
Your sales and service teams can work more closely, eliminating the chances of any confusion.
Your customers get access to what was promised, which improves customer satisfaction.
Most CRM platforms are accessible on multiple devices such as desktops, laptops, and mobile devices. So you can assist your customers anytime from anywhere around the world.

4. Leverage Multi-Channel Servicing

Some 69% of adults in the United States prefer to buy from brands that offer consistent customer service across multiple channels, which is why brands need to provide omnichannel communication options.

You should enable customers to switch between multiple channels yet enjoy a consistent quality of service. This can help boost your brand's reputation and credibility.

Here are some best practices that will help you provide excellent multi-channel service to your customers.

Mobile Devices -People expect good support services when they're on-the-go. You need to ensure that your customer service and support pages are mobile-ready to meet their expectations.
Social Media -Many consumers are turning to social networks (especially Twitter) for customer queries and complaints. You should utilize the power of social media to bridge the gap between you and your consumers. Improve your response times on social media queries and provide effective solutions to your customers.
Self-Service - Many customers expect brands to help them fix minor issues by themselves, and they'll often look for such solutions on your website's FAQ pages. Your FAQ pages should provide easy-to-understand fixes to all common problems.

Final Thoughts

Even if your customer reviews are good, there's no such thing as over-delivering in customer service - there is always scope for improvement.

You should consistently focus on improving your customer service standards. Great customer service can help you build trust, improve brand awareness, gain customer loyalty, drive sales, and attract new customers through valuable recommendations.

Keeping your customers happy is more important for your business than anything else. Make sure you deliver 100% customer satisfaction both offline and online.