What your customers think about your company is often a result of their experience when they contact you. Whether or not they remain customers is often a result of the quality of service you provide.
Customers expect more today from customer service than ever before. Businesses must ask themselves some telling questions to ensure they’re providing the best possible service to their customers.
- How does your customer service compare to your competitors?
- How many of your customers would be willing to refer others to you?
- How consistently are you able to provide an experience that not just meets, but exceeds your customer’s expectation?
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE CUSTOMER SERVICE EXPERIENCE
What the customer wants is immediate satisfaction. The phone rings, and the customer is greeted with a simple set of choices. One request later, and the customer is speaking with a human being. Within minutes, your Staff answer the customer’s questions, and the call is completed. Fast service and appropriate answers create a positive experience—and a satisfied customer. Everything that goes into creating this positive experience can be achieved with the right mix of strategy and technology. Satisfied customers and a competitive advantage—that’s what we are all striving for.
When a customer contacts your company, you must manage that customer interaction accurately and intelligently. A poor customer experience has a negative on customer satisfaction. Over time, poor customer service increases your costs, by forcing multiple interactions with multiple employees; it decreases potential revenues, by losing valuable cross-selling or upselling opportunities; and it forces your customers to consider dealing with your competitors.
Noted customer experience expert Seth Godin says,“more than 90 percent of customers change their opinion of a company based on the manner in which the company deals with them on the phone.” An exceptional experience, however, can change an ambivalent or negative perception into a positive one—and win a customer for life. Customers who are delighted with the experience they get from your business become repeat customers, and not only purchase more over time but also recommend your company to their peers.
So how can we help you to deliver this?
- Help to provide consistency – By using Direct Dial numbers you can ensure that the customer gets through to the right person or department every time.
- Focus on serving the Customer via whatever their preferred media is; Voicemail, Telephone, Email.
- Integrate self-service as well as human interactions. (Speech technology is an excellent way to capture customer information. For instance if you are running a business selling commodities then an automated service allowing customers to order a brochure will not only provide a simple and easy customer experience but will allow your staff to dedicate their time to more valuable opportunities.)
- Strive to deal with your customer’s enquiry during the first call. (Not only will this deliver a higher level of customer satisfaction but it will save your staff time in the long run and save them having to call the customer back later, this will save both time and money.)
- Ensure effective management of your team: The old adage of “You can’t manage what you can’t measure” is very true. Consider employing a good Call logging system, this will provide four benefits:
1. Allow you to see who within the team is the most proactive and reward their actions.
2. Assist you to see who needs training to maximise their skills.
3. Provide an element of competition between staff to boost productivity.
4. Allow you to measure the success of your team.
I have an excellent questionnaire which can help you assess your status and help to prioritise what’s most important to your firm. Please contact the Office and we will be pleased to provide you with a free copy.
Jim
