Customer service is the foundation of any business. When done well it will boost profits, enhance brand reputation, generate repeat business, give companies a competitive edge and increase customer retention.
The opposite, however, is true for poor customer service. In fact, one-third of consumers claim they would consider switching companies after just one instance of bad customer service (American Express), while 67 percent of customer churn is preventable if firms resolve issues the first time they occur (Ameyo).
With that in mind, what can your organization do to create a five-star customer service experience that turns dissatisfied consumers into advocates of your brand and repeat customers. We’ve listed 8 tips to help:
#1 - Create a customer service visionThe first step of a successful customer experience is building a customer service vision. This gives your entire business, and your customer service agents, a framework for what they are striving to achieve.
This isn’t an in-depth look at key performance indicators (KPIs), but rather a high-level overview of how you want your customers to feel when interacting with your brand and how you want them to perceive your business.
#2 - Find the right balance between speed and qualityWhen receiving help from a customer service team, customers not only want high-quality service, but they want it fast as well. Now this is a delicate balance - focus on speed too much and you’ll sacrifice quality, but focus on quality too much and you’ll end up with slow resolutions.
That’s the secret sauce of high-quality customer service, finding the right balance between a high-quality service and a speedy resolution. Your business needs to find the perfect middle ground where the speed of your service and quality meet perfectly.
#3 - Identify the customer touchpoints that are important for your brandTo analyze how successful your customer service strategy is, you need to identify all of the customer touchpoints of your brand. Customers don’t just speak with your brand over the phone, they visit your website, message your social pages, talk to chatbots and so much more.
This step is crucial to the creation of a successful omnichannel customer service experience.
#4 - Make the most of artificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence (AI) has the power to transform your customer service offering. By using chatbots, automated emails, intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs) and many other technologies can help your brand both improve the speed and quality of your customer service.
#5 Analyze your customer service performance with KPIsTo drive continuous improvement within your customer service program, it’s crucial that you identify KPIs to monitor on a frequent basis. This will give you direct insights into how your strategy is performing and what you need to improve moving forward.
Your KPIs could include any of the following; customer satisfaction score (CSAT), net promoter score (NPS), first contact resolution (FCR), average handle time (AHT), customer effort score (CES) and time to resolution.
A Complete Glossary of the Most Important Contact Center Metrics.
#6 - Build an experienced and skilled customer service teamYour customer service program is only as good as the customer service representatives you have to deliver it. Build a team that is not only skilled and experienced, but has the personality to fit into your company culture and deliver world-class experiences to your customers.
Remember, skills can be taught but attitude and personality cannot. Look for team members who will be passionate about providing your customers with world-class help and genuinely care about solving their problems.
#7 - Focus on agent performanceCustomer service representatives are the foundation of your customer service program. They speak with customers, advocate for your brand and relay your script in a bid to resolve common issues. Build a strategy that focuses on ongoing training and development to consistently enhance and improve agent performance.
#8 - Create feedback loop that drives continuous improvementThe best way to improve your customer service program is to hear directly from your customers on what’s working and what’s not. Creating a reliable and consistent feedback loop from your customers will ensure you have all the information you need to drive continuous program improvements.
Do you need help implementing a successful customer service program?
Building a successful customer service strategy requires industry-related expertise and skills, in-depth analysis of both customer expectations and agent performance, expensive technologies, a world-class customer service team and 24/7 customer issue resolution.
That’s difficult to afford in-house, even for large enterprises with huge resources.
That’s why many organizations turn to an outsourced contact center partnership, which offers all of those for a fraction of the price. Interested in learning more? The advantage Communications team of customer service experts would love to discuss your company’s unique requirements. Contact us today!