Meeting, and exceeding, customer expectations is one of the key performance indicators of successful businesses to ensure customers don’t leave you for a competitor.
How to maintain superb customer service?
Keeping customers is hands down more cost-effective than obtaining new ones. Therefore, it is important that you keep the customers you have, grow your referral network, and wow the customers to come. To maintain superb customer satisfaction, make sure to implement these five secrets.
5 ways to deliver superb customer service
1. Train your staff on consistent responses for troubleshooting
Customer care can be difficult, especially if your staff is facing complex questions. Evaluate whether your business has the capacity to handle the customer support traffic, if not, consider outsourcing support to a reliable Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) partner. Providing effective answers, that are consistent and correct no matter who picks up the phone, helps to ensure that customers are getting the right information that they need the first time. Not only does training help your customer care team know where to look for answers, it means more issues are resolved during that first point of contact.
2. Respond to customer feedback authentically
If your clients have suggestions about your product’s functionality or complaints that you’ve heard more than once, make use of their feedback. Send them a notice once a feature they had frustrations with has been fixed or let them know if something they asked about has been solved. Even if it’s been some time since initial contact, always follow up once you have something you can deliver to bolster customer satisfaction after a disappointment.
3. Prepare features that make your customers’ lives easier
Targeting your customer services towards your specific market, like offering multilingual support or video tutorials for common processes, lets your customers know that you care about how they interact with your product.
4. Make sure customers don’t get lost
Being able to resolve problems during the first point of contact is a central tenet of customer care, but it’s not always possible. If an issue hasn’t been resolved by the end of the phone call or by your response email, have a communication process in place. Letting a frustrated customer know what progress has been made before they have to ask again can help your customer service be remembered favorably even in a no-win situation.
5. Maximize your window of available support
Whether you have a 24/7 support team due to international offices, on-call employees during busy seasons, or a support portal that promises a response by the end of the next business day, quick responses and consistent availability are important. Even if you can’t answer every question immediately by chat or phone call, have a clearly stated policy on your website so customers know what to expect.
Superb customer satisfaction is the most important differentiator separating you and your competitors. No matter what product or service you offer, customers want to be treated well and have their questions answered. For more ideas about how to exceed customer expectations and promote a great culture of customer service in your business, contact us today.
