Great customer service could be the one thing that sets you apart from the competition.
In the previous startup I founded, the user experience was almost perfect..except, we created a bug during launch date. I’m kinda glad we did.
This small bug generated a lot of phone calls and emails. Luckily, all we had to is hit one button, and the customer’s issue would be fixed.
What Constitutes Good Customer Service?
One of the ways you can tell if someone cares about you, is, how quickly they implement/act upon your need for help.
Do you remember the last time you sent an email and got a response back, within a minute saying, “FIXED. Really sorry that you had to experience that…” ?
We responded to the emails/calls/chats because we really cared about our customers.
Whenever you call a company, and whenever you interact with a person from a company, you’re forming an opinion based off experience.
That experience and opinion is what makes us either want the company’s product or service more, or, becomes a reason for why we shouldn’t do business with them.
A lot of companies offer horrible customer service or leave customers with a poor overall experience, and that becomes a reason for why their customers switch to one of their competitors (product being the strongest).
5 Ways to Provide Great Customer Service
Don't lose your customers to the competition because of horrible customer service.
Here are 5 simple tips for providing good customer service for your customers:
1. Show that you care
The first tip to providing great customer service is to show that you care.
Clients like the attention; they want to feel as though their every word is being listened to and their demands are being heard. All I have to say is pucker up and get to kissing.
Clients appreciate feeling wanted and acknowledged, never forget that. One of the best tips I can give is to not only cater to their needs but to also send them “treats”, award them for remaining a loyal client, or if you screw up somewhere.
This can mean a free month’s worth of service or even a box of cookies for their office. Get creative with the idea and you will see a positive response from your clients
2. Be remarkable
When you’re looking to buy shoes, where do you go? Zappos!
How about wanting to buy the best phone? You go to Apple and get an iPhone!
Being #1 is heavily underrated. People want the best; they don’t want to settle for anything less.
Create a remarkable customer experience for your customers. Make the customer experience so good, it becomes worth sharing.
Creating a remarkable experience is all about your customers. You want to treat them like royalty, because they’re going to share your story, and they’re going to help you grow your business.
It all starts with making your customer support and business remarkable.
3. Always put yourself in their shoes
Another way to create provide excellent customer service is to put yourself in the customer's shoes.
Try to empathize with their situation. Don’t bore them with technical mumbo jumbo that any desk jockey can read from a script.
Wouldn’t you respond more positively to someone who will leave out the BS details and give it to you straight?
How many of us actually like calling a company and getting an automated secretary trying to “assist” us?
Your customer service team is made up of humans, so stop training them to respond as if they were robots.
4. Show initiative, get things done!
Be a Yes! man. If your client wants something done, find a way to get it done. As long as the demands are within reason you should do everything in your power to please your clients.
A happy customer leads to a happy employer and a happy employer leads to you getting that awesome T.V. you’ve been eyeing for a while now.
The client is the one with the money, ultimately they’re always right. As cliché as it sounds, their wish is your command.
5. Glue your phone to your ear
Are you doing YOUR best to give the fastest responses to your customer’s queries?
Answer promptly and effectively. A client can contact you at any time throughout the day; if you hear that phone ringing you better get on top of it.
Good luck finding additional business streams if you get a reputation for keeping your clients waiting. It’s as simple as: you want their money, they want your time.
Think of it from your own point of view. Have you ever tried contacting a big time corporation and each time you’re either put on hold or forced to wait several days before they contact you by email?
I’m sure you know what I’m talking about, it’s happened to all of us. The first thing that comes to mind is “why am I putting up with this? I don’t need this crap; there must be someone who would appreciate my business more.
” That’s how easy it is to lose clients, don’t let such a trivial matter affect your company.
That’s one of the reasons we’ve built Helpjuice.com, a better way to provide instant answers through the use of a knowledge base.