Providing an excellent customer service should be an important priority for your company. This is mainly because if you leave your existing and potential customers unimpressed, they are most likely not returning. Additionally, the unimpressed clients may spread the awful news among friends and on social media. Even one negative comment from a client has the power to destroy your reputation. Furthermore, given the current competitive environment in every sector, you can not turn a blind eye to good customer service.
Since businesses are run by human beings who sometimes make mistakes, no business is perfect. However, it is essential to know some of the mistakes you should avoid in your company. This article will review the top five mistakes your business may be making when it comes to customer service.
1. Not Knowing Your Customers
Although technology and automation in the global market is growing everyday, customers still want to experience the feeling of importance. Due to this, personalization is a huge tool you can use to capitalize on this. Little details such as remembering a customer’s name or offering free samples on customers’ birthdays may make customers feel special.
When followed in the customer service experience, this approach can play a huge role in developing a solid communication system that can manage all the interactions between clients and your business. Another example of this is answering a call with a language that will show great concern and appreciation to the client will help communicate that your brand cares about the client’s experience. You should always know your customers and understand how to cater to them. You could even use mystery shopping services to help gain a better understanding of your customers and how your business could improve its customer service strategies.
2. Failing to Provide Self-Service Options on Your Website
Most websites usually have an FAQ page that allows visitors to browse various questions with available answers in their own free time. This eases the enquiring minds of customers while navigating your website.
Also, a brand may decide to provide additional resources on the FAQ page like user manuals and buying guides, among others which equip consumers with the power to help themselves rather than waiting for help for extended hours from the support desk.
Besides, the self-service resources on your brand’s website will also reduce the struggle experienced by your support team. They don’t have to respond to every questions manually when the answers are already available for your customers to find.
That’s why if your website does not have self-service resources available at the moment, it is time to consider adding it and let it assist your customers in serving themselves when they face an issue.
3. Inconsistent Inventory
A customer support team is usually responsible for providing a positive customer experience. As this department is directly involved with customers, it should handle product availability issues as well. Many of the calls and messages coming in are related to decision of buying. Therefore, having the stock information in-hand is undeniably necessary.
Failure to frequently update the products portfolio can catalyze a negative experience for potential and existing clients. Customer service centers should work together with the sales department to always be aware of any inventory changes.
4. Hiding Your Contact Information
Recently, the business world has experienced a drastic transformation of business-consumer relationships, brought about by social media and text messages. To have a good customer service at your organization, you should always provide your audience with various communication channels on your contact page. This is very important because it will catch the attention of many young consumers who frequently use digital forms of communication.
Other than the conventional phone numbers, there are still other tools available such as social media channels and modern messaging platforms. Listing them all should make communication easier for the consumers, eliminating the frustation to reach out to your brand when they have issues.
5. Inactive Social Media
Among the existing communication channels, social media has raised to become a powerful tool for interaction between customers and brands. It has became the first stop customers make when they want to interact with brands directly. They can send messages directly to brands asking for information or make a complaint in a matter of seconds for free.
A business being active on social media is beneficial for consumers, as it makes it easy for them to reach out to companies, hence little challenges for service teams.
However, most consumers using social media channels to communicate with a brand expects a nearly instant response. They are unwilling to wait for hours and even worse, days to get an answer. Therefore, try to maintain a fast respond to any customer questions that you receive through social media channels, either in comment section or in private message.
Wrap-Up
Consider these aforementioned mistakes so that your business can avoid making them. Keep on evaluating what worked and what did not work in different situations. This will help you create outstanding solutions.
The same principle applies to almost every aspects in business, including interaction with your consumers. A good customer service is a key components in growing your business. Understanding the mistakes can help you bring out the potential and create a better mechanism. Your customer service is a capable and valuable resource, not just in providing responds but also offering solutions to your consumers.
Amy Sloane is an alum of Oregon State University where she studied marketing and business. She spends her free time writing and is a knitting enthusiast. Amy loves reading, cooking, and spending time with her dog, Molly. Follow her on Twitter to read her latest blogs! @AmySloane2
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