What is Excellent Customer Service?
Key Takeaways
- Excellent customer service forges positive customer relationships and builds a loyal customer base.
- Training is essential for operatives to learn how to handle customer problems or inquiries in a polite and timely manner.
- Businesses must be accessible to customers via various channels such as social media, email, phone, and online chat. So, technology can be a big help in boosting a business's customer support channels.
Excellent customer service builds good relationships with clients and prospective customers. Happy customers are likely to return, and also are likely to be advocates for your business. As a result, you will be rewarded with a loyal customer base.
Customer service is one of the most important parts of a business. Especially with social media and review sites that allow customers to swap stories, good or bad, about how they have been treated. Good customer service will actually grow your business.
You have a choice of whether to provide a bad, a good or an excellent customer service. Obviously the business that provides an excellent customer service not only has happy customers but also has a distinct advantage over its competition
Customer Service Training
It is imperative that customer service operatives are fully trained on all features of the business. It includes pricing and product knowledge, as well as how to deal with a customer’s problem or enquiry in a polite and timely manner. It’s also imperative that the training is ongoing.
As the face of your company, the customer service operative must have a certain set of skills. Customer service staff must have patience, be able to listen and communicate, as well as use positive language. They need to know how to react in a calm way, should unexpected problems arise.
Businesses need to be accessible
How can your customer contact you? Being online offers a multitude of options to reach out to your customer base. There are a vast amount of ways to integrate customer support technology into your business. Use of social media, email, online chat, and self-help portals such as Zendesk or Freshdesk, allow the ability to be available to help, even when you aren’t. Phone support can be tricky. Often happens the customer hanging on for so long that when they actually get to speak to someone they are often annoyed because of the extended wait. Make sure you have enough trained staff manning the phones.
Who does it right?
Following a recent Which customer survey, it was announced that the cosmetics company Lush is in the top spot for UK customer service. An astounding 89% rating was giving by customers, who said staffs were always happy, welcoming, and helpful.
Lush’s customer care team say they are eager to answer questions via email, Twitter and Facebook, or on their telephone helpline, which is open 8am to 9pm. They also have a search and a FAQ section on their website.
Each brand was rated on making their customers feel valued, knowledge of products and services, helpfulness of staff, resolving complaints or problems and access to customer support. Respondents were also asked to give brands an overall rating for customer service, which is where our customer service score comes from.
– Which Magazine
If you want to out-support your competition you need to invest in the right technology and the right team. If you do this you will see your business thrive