How to improve customer service and win big with customers

en.clix.vn20 November, 2022

0 16 6 minutes read

what if we told you there was a way to grow your business two to four times without developing a new product or receiving additional funding?

Exceptional customer service turns new customers into promoters and promoters into returning loyalists. And these promoters have the potential to increase the lifetime value (LTV) of your brand by 1,400%.

Reading: Review how to improve customer care systems

Let’s take a look at some additional data that explains why improving customer service should always be a critical business goal. we’ll also provide some tips on how to create a flawless customer service strategy.

the importance of excellent customer service

brands around the world are realizing how investing in great customer service can pay dividends in the long run.

The data speaks for itself.

companies and researchers collect data year after year that supports the need for a dedicated customer service strategy:

90% of customers consider customer service to be important when choosing a brand.
94% of customers who rate their experience with a company as “very good” are likely to purchase additional products or services from that company in the future.
78% of customers are likely to forgive a company for a mistake if they were provided with exceptional customer service.
58% of customers have higher customer service standards due to the covid-19 crisis.

however. What happens when a company makes a mistake in customer service? Is the negative impact on a brand so drastic? yes.

with 52% of global consumers saying the majority of their customer service interactions are fragmented, 89% of customers say they leave a business after a bad customer service experience client.

Improving your customer service is one of the most valuable things you can do for your business. this guide will help you achieve that goal faster and more cost-effectively.

measure and monitor the customer service experience

Making unguided changes to your customer service strategy based on “feelings” instead of measurement and benchmarking could end up hurting your support team and the brand as a whole.

Microsoft reports that 89% of customers want to provide customer service feedback to businesses after an interaction or transaction.

Having feedback measurement tools not only allows your consumer to share their experiences, but also helps them use their insights for strategic action planning.

Actively collecting customer feedback to see what is working well and what needs to be improved can provide clear direction on how you and your customer support teams can improve the customer experience over time.

collect customer feedback on a routine basis

customer satisfaction (csat) and customer effort score (ces) are two well-researched ways to collect customer feedback and instantly discover trends within our customer satisfaction survey software.

csat and ces are particularly useful because of their simplicity. after a customer service experience, the customer is asked a question:

csat: “how satisfied are you with [service provided/problem resolved]?”
ces: “how easy did we make it to do x?”

this unambiguous and direct survey question sent automatically to the right people at the right time allows you to measure specific types of customer interactions and clearly see which areas:

needs major improvement
can be addressed quickly
are the most pressing

To get more detailed information about a specific area of customer service, consider sending surveys to smaller, more targeted customers. some sample survey segments may include:

old clients
I just made the second purchase
I recently wrote you a review

or dig deeper into the customer’s reasoning with additional questions. Adding additional customer service survey questions to your survey can open the door for more qualitative feedback about a customer’s experience with a customer service representative or a product purchase. some questions may include:

aq: Based on your current experience, would you return to [this service/store]?
aq: Is there anything the customer service representative could have done to improve your experience?
aq: Did you find the help center documentation helpful in solving your problem?

monitor and respond to customers on social media and review sites

Your company’s reputation on social media can be both incredibly beneficial and painfully detrimental. While hard to dissect, these statistics highlight why social media is worth paying attention to:

40% of people use social media to keep in touch
41% want to stay informed about current events
29% use social networks to discover/search/buy something
30% are here to share their opinions (often about business)

Social media is a megaphone for your customers to praise your business with positive feedback, recommend your products or services to others, and build organic brand awareness.

Unfortunately, that same megaphone, more often than not, can also be used to publicly voice some incredibly sensitive complaints about your company and your customer support team.

While tracking everything mentioned on social media and responding to users is beyond the scope of traditional customer service, keeping an eye on what your customers are saying can help you stay ahead of trends and address customer satisfaction.

tip: connecting twitter or other social accounts to team communication apps like slack can keep the customer support team on top of comments made on social media in real time for a response fast and troubleshooting.

The same idea applies to review sites. 45% of people say they are convinced by visiting businesses that respond well to negative reviews on sites like yelp, google my business (gmb) or webretailer.

Not only will customers update or change their review once the issue is resolved, but responding to reviewers shows great value in customer service to potential customers.

increase customer satisfaction with a self-service experience

Making customer service a priority doesn’t always mean increasing the number of support call centers. Overwhelmingly, today’s customers want to be able to help themselves online.

a zendesk survey found that 75% of customers think self-service is the most convenient way to get help. From YouTube how-to videos to actionable tutorials and blog posts, making information accessible and easy to find will deliver a better overall customer experience.

delighted uses this self-service model in the customer service help desk. The Resource Center includes in-depth articles and step-by-step guides to support a self-service customer experience across all aspects of the CX surveying journey.

when customers are able to help themselves, they are generally more satisfied with the overall customer experience.

get in touch with your customer support team

While putting customer satisfaction at the forefront of your brand is essential to business success, it is your employees who can have the greatest impact on the company.

Time spent measuring team satisfaction and training employees reduces churn and improves customer experiences.

collect feedback from the customer support team

Open forum team meetings and calls to get employee input can be used to gather details, but they are not effective ways to get the pulse of your customer service department.

Like nps and customer surveys, employee net promoter score (enps) surveys help you understand employee satisfaction.

Poor customer service enps scores are a leading indicator that their support is suboptimal and potentially disconnected from your company’s messaging efforts.

Findings have shown that when companies prioritize employee experience management as well as the happiness of their support teams, customers are served more attentively.

improve customer service skills with active listening and empathy

According to the Harvard Business Review, the average listener can only remember about 25% of what someone has said. Active listening isn’t something everyone does intuitively, but it’s crucial for customer service team members to master it.

Most clients don’t like having to repeat themselves to clarify something they’ve exaggerated, and active listening can work well in situations where clients may be trying to explain complicated scenarios.

Practice makes perfect. Either as a formal or informal exercise for 10-15 minutes a week, practice the art of active listening. in pairs, each team member should take turns talking about a specific topic for 1-2 minutes. without distractions, the other person will reflect on what the first person communicated and include empathic language to show that they understand. then change.

68% of customers expect the companies they interact with to show empathy, and active listening exercises can help foster empathic communication naturally in conversations with customers.

Learn more about active listening training tips in the article How to listen to customers effectively.

maintain good customer service with expanded knowledge

Put tools in the hands of your customer service team to improve their understanding of not only what they do, but also what other departments do. a customer service representative may need to be an expert in cross-departmental knowledge and must have access to up-to-date training materials for reference.

sandboxes – These are internal sections of your website where an employee can create a mock order, walk through a process, start a chat, and see things from the point of view the client’s. .
Cross-departmental meet and greet: Invite colleagues from other departments to meet up to answer questions, give a presentation, and help your agents better understand what they do.
review existing resources regularly: do they need to be updated? are they accurate? a customer service team is only as good as the accuracy of the knowledge you put at their fingertips.

With delight, you can easily capture customer insights to see what’s working and what areas of your support processes need to be improved using our experience management software. Start collecting feedback from support reps with customer service surveys in our free 7-day trial.

what are you waiting for? start today.