4 Simple Ways to Improve Your Customer Service Experience

It used to be that businesses did not have much competition and didn’t have to put much effort to make sales. Now that opening a business has become an easier and more common thing, companies are finding that customer service experiences can differentiate them from their competitors.

It also used to be that if your customer service was bad, only the dissatisfied customer along with his/her circle would know. These days, customers can place a bad review anywhere on the internet.  They will even go as far as write unthinkable things on your social media pages or posts.

If you’ve landed on this blog, you must be looking for ways to improve your customer service. Perhaps you’ve received bad customer reviews or maybe you’re finding that you’re losing customers – Don’t worry. Here are four simple ways to improve your customer service experience:

1.  After sales support

If you think that customers are demanding before the sale, be prepared for after-sales demands. Customers feel that since they have purchased from you, they have the right to receive support for everything, including brushing their teeth. Okay, that’s an over exaggeration, but it’s still true that the quality of after-sales support determines whether you will get a repeat customer or not.

Here are some results from a customer service study

• “Fifty-eight percent of customer service teams view managing social media inquiries as their top challenge.
• Churn rate can increase by 15% if organisations fail to respond to customers on social media.
• Forty-five percent of customers share negative reviews on social media.
• Sixty-three percent of consumers read negative reviews on social media.
• And, 65% are likely to speak negatively about their customer service experience.”

After-sales support begins the moment your customer has made the decision to purchase and involves the following:

• A thank you note for their business
• Handling the safe delivery of goods
• Ensure that your customer has your contact details
• Adding your customer to your email list
• Checking up with your customer and offering additional products or services

2.  Monitor your online presence

Some customers prefer to send their queries via social media, and they expect a prompt response. If you haven’t got a Social Media Manager handling your accounts, get one asap!

Your Social Media Manager should be someone with customer service experience and who manages their own social media presence well.

Provide customers with a feedback mechanism across your entire online presence. That way, your Social Media Manager can monitor and implement changes to address key issues when they arise.

3.  Take care of your staff

A happy employee makes great customer support a possibility. Take care of your employees, and they will take care of you. It is Richard Branson who made this saying popular. He built Virgin on this principle, and to this day, the company is listed as one of the best to work for.

Here’s how to improve staff morale:

• Pay good incentives
• Train staff regularly
• Try to understand their point-of-view
• Involve them in key decisions

4.  24/7 Support

If possible, provide 24/7 support services. Many businesses have opted for this method and have seen great results.

In addition, allow your customers to find technical information such as articles, how to’s, news and more in one central place. Making this information available to customers will reduce the need for them to escalate queries.