How To Improve Customer Satisfaction

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management ArticleOne area of your business you should pay special attention to and make more of an effort is your customers. After all, they’re the ones handing over their money to help keep your business afloat so never underestimate their importance.

Your company will begin to thrive once you can ultimately improve your overall customer satisfaction scores. When clients are happy, then the entire business will experience less mayhem, and your employees start to like their jobs better. However, you first need to accept that you can always be advancing in this area and then put measures in place that are going to help you pick up your performance.

Ask for Feedback

Improve customer satisfaction by proactively asking for and seeking out feedback from your clients. Send out surveys, pick up the phone or meet one on one and confront them about what it is they do and don’t like about how your business operates. Dive deeper into the specifics so you know exactly what it is you can change that will truly make a difference and draw in more customers. It’s common for companies to make assumptions about what it is clients are looking for and then head in the wrong direction. It’s a wise idea to have the data to back up your claims and only commit to certain modifications if you know your customers are onboard.

Be Available & Responsive

In this day and age, it’s important always to be available to your customers and ready to help. Not only do you want to be available to answer questions and inquiries during your regular business hours, but it’s also a wise idea to provide support across multiple channels. What will help you out the most is to make sure you’re staffed appropriately by using an online employee shift planning software. You can read more here about how you can get this going in your workplace, so you’re always properly staffed and no customer is left wanting.

Train Your Employees

Your company culture should include making customer satisfaction a top priority if you’re going to succeed in this area. It’s worth you taking the time to train your employees and make sure everyone understands how to interact with clients properly. Pay special attention to your customer service department and confirm that your staff knows best practices and how to handle all sorts of difficult requests and inquiries. Create policies and procedures that both your employees and customers are to follow to make your jobs easier.

Listen on Social Media

One place where you can actually learn a lot about your customers and get a better idea of how they feel about you is on social media. Assign staff members who are in charge of this responsibility and can spend a good amount of time listening and jumping into conversations where appropriate. Use this as a way to collect a lot of valuable data and then have these individuals report back to everyone in the company about what they’re discovering. There may be aspects you’re unaware of that are hurting your business and causing customers to feel dissatisfied. If you need more clarification about a specific topic or complaint, then reach out to that individual privately and collect more information on the matter.

Build Relationships

Communicate to your team that you want them to work on building relationships with customers and not simply thinking of each person as a number or transaction. Get to know your clients on an individual level and show that you care about them as people. Encourage staff members to create an open dialogue with customers and find out more about why they do or don’t enjoy doing business with you. Be able to recognize and reward your most loyal customers and be sure to treat everyone with respect no matter how much money they’re spending with you. It doesn’t look good for your business when you don’t remember people by name who are consistently making a lot of purchases from you and are loyal advocates of your brand.

Exceed Expectations

You can improve customer satisfaction by not only delivering on your promise but also going above and beyond on a regular basis. Work to not only meet expectations but to exceed them time and time again. Instead of aiming for mediocre, shoot for the stars and show your customers that you truly want to see them satisfied after having made a purchase with your company. Not only take care of any problems that come your way but offer up a freebie or discount code they can use the next time they shop with you. Throw in an element of surprise once in a while and watch how quickly their faces light up and they’re willing to share their positive experiences with others.

Track Your Progress

You’re not going to know how well of a job you’re doing or how satisfied your customers are unless you track your progress. Set goals, keep score and monitor how you’re performing as a team throughout the year. Hold meetings that revolve around this topic specifically and get input from your employees about how you could be doing a better job. The only way to improve is to set goals and define metrics and then be diligent about observing how you’re performing and making changes where necessary. You should eventually notice an upward trend. Otherwise, you may have to adjust your approach and regroup about how you want to proceed.

Conclusion

Customers aren’t automatically going to be impressed with your business just because you have a solid product or service in place. They’ll want to be wowed and impressed in their interactions with you and see that you’re putting forth an extra effort each time they reach out or spend money. The good news is that you can use these tips to help you improve your customer satisfaction scores and make sure your business is offering your clients an unforgettable experience. It’s important you never stop learning and growing in this area if you want to guarantee a bright and steady future.

3 Huge Customer Service Mistakes You Could Be Making

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The majority of customers prioritize good service when they’re choosing a company to deal with and they certainly won’t become repeat customers if they don’t feel that your customer service is up to scratch. That’s why it’s vital that you know how to make the customer experience perfect every single time. There are a lot of things that you should be doing, but it’s equally as important to understand the things that you shouldn’t be doing. These are the biggest customer service mistakes that you could be making right now.

StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article
 
Not Taking Advantage Of Technology

Technology is a great asset for businesses and you’re really letting yourself down if you’re not taking advantage of it. Good technology can massively improve your customer service department if you know how to use it properly. One of the major benefits of technology in customer service is that you can make yourself available 24/7 on a wide range of channels. Head over to www.bpmonline.com for more information on implementing customer service help desk software. You can set up a live chat service which is more convenient for customers and also easier for your staff to manage. It’ll also help to improve your phone systems and give you email alerts when customers are trying to get in touch. Good customer service software will help you to respond to queries a lot quicker and offer better resolutions that keep everybody happy.

Ignoring Negative Comments

People base a lot of their purchasing decisions on reviews these days. Most businesses have an online review service and that’s the first thing customers are going to look at. Hopefully, you won’t have too many negative comments on there but every company is going to get a few. That’s not a problem as long as you deal with them properly. Some companies think that the best thing to do is ignore them, but it isn’t. If you ignore those comments, other potential customers will assume that’s your response to customer complaints. What you should be doing instead is coming up with good resolutions and then posting a reply, apologising for the problem and outlining how you’re going to deal with it. Customers don’t expect your company to be absolutely perfect but they do expect you to deal with any problems in a timely manner. Visit www.fundera.com for more tips on dealing with a negative comment.

Excessive Company Policy

Company policy is important and it’s there for a reason. It helps you to maintain a level of consistency across the board but sometimes, it can be a big problem. If you’ve got too many different policies that aren’t logical, and you’re not willing to bend the rules a bit, customers are going to get annoyed. You should let your employees use a bit of initiative and go outside company policy in certain situations where it makes sense and it helps them come up with a resolution for the customer. Don’t let company policy get in the way of good customer service.

These 3 mistakes could cost you dearly if they ruin your customer service and send your valuable customers elsewhere.

What Do Customers Really Want?

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article
 
Businesses like Zappos and Amazon have set the bar high for customer-centricity. Are you an entrepreneur wondering how to match the big guys in customer focus? Have you spent thousands of dollars for setting up a customer survey exercise to understand what customers really want? And has that left you with no better understanding than you had previously?

Well, you are not alone. Every post-2000 marketer has been obsessed with finding the answer to what customers really want. Gone are the days when big market research companies used to deliver the answers at the end of a fat and dusty survey exercise.

Today the customers are openly and communicating honestly about what they want. Do you have an eye on your customer touch points and an ear on your social media? Let us break down into simple actions how we can answer this question of what customers really want. Read more

How to Create Outstanding Customer Service in Your Company

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management ArticleEvery company in the world needs customer service; whether it is the job of the owner or a dedicated team, it is the lifeblood of the business. However, not every company gets this essential part of their organization right, and that can spell disaster. Larger corporations might be able to deal with a bad customer service reputation for a while, but it might spell the end for a small business. Here are some tips for creating an outstanding customer service team that will build your company’s reputation.

Start with Good Training

Not everyone is a natural at customer service; some have to work on their skills more than others. That is why you need to have a comprehensive training program that can give your staff the background they need to succeed. Not only do they need to be good with people and have a calm nature, but they also need to know everything about how the company works. Your customers will come to them with all manner of problems, and they want to speak to someone that knows what they are talking about. It is also important that your customer service team has access to help as much as possible. For example, if they are not trained or have access to all the systems, then they might not be able to help the customer.

Treat Your Team as You Want Customers to be Treated

There can be a lot of pressure on managers to get results, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t be respectful and polite. If you and your managers are not treating your employees with respect, then this will filter down to the customers. Good service is more than a facade, it needs to be the work ethic of the company if it’s to be successful. Part of this includes asking your teams what they think about how the company is running and if they can see any improvements that could be made. Making them part of the process gives them a feeling of value and increases morale.

Good Communication

Communication between your customer service team and the customer is hugely important. If your teams are taking too long to reply to an email, or they say they will ring back when they don’t, then this can be a big barrier to keeping customers happy. You need to encourage your teams to monitor the emails coming into the company closely. As soon as a customer contacts the business, it needs to be acknowledged and given to someone to deal with. There also needs to be guidelines in place that tells the employees how long they have to reply to the customer and what they can do to help them. Utilizing other types of communications can also help, such as social media. By having your customer service team on social media, you are giving customers a fast and efficient way to contact you. You can also use services like business SMS to keep in touch with your customers for ongoing issues.

Listen to Your Customers

There is nothing more frustrating to a customer than not being understood. Some customer service teams are so intent on reciting their company policy that they don’t understand the customer’s complaint or concern. Rectifying this can be simple, all you need to do is to encourage listening to the customer and trying to take on board what they are asking. It is also important not to interrupt them while they are explaining the problem, even if you know what it might be. Of course, there are exceptions to this; for example, the rude or abusive customers. However, even these can be dealt with in a way that is polite but firm. You should also try to avoid passing them onto other team members if possible. If they need another department, then try to connect them first instead of putting them back in the queue.

Try to Offer Solutions

Your customers won’t be happy if their question or request is met with ‘don’t know.’ That reply in itself offers no resolution for the customer and makes the company look unprofessional. Whatever the question might be, it is important to try and find a solution that will be agreeable to the customer. Even if that means that you need to get back to them the next day, at least you are doing something to resolve the matter. Sometimes a suitable solution cannot be found, but the customer will appreciate the effort you used to help.

Go the Extra Mile

Your customers are looking for a great experience from your business. They want to be able to buy their products quickly and easily with a little hassle as possible. However, sometimes there is an opportunity to go that extra mile for your customers and cement their loyalty. It might be something simple like helping an elderly person with their shopping or telling them about a special deal they might not be aware of when they check out. When customers see that you and your staff are willing to do that, they will feel appreciated and valued. That is a powerful feeling that you want all your customers to feel about your company.

Learn from Your Mistakes

No matter how good your customer service is, mistakes will happen. It is part of life, and it shouldn’t be overly punished as you want to maintain morale. However, it is important that you and your teams learn from the mistake and put procedures in place to prevent it from happening again. Have regular meetings with your staff so that these issues can be raised, and solutions can be found. It might mean additional training or a change in the way a system is used.

There will always be those customers that you won’t be able to please, no matter what you do. However, by having the best procedures and staff in place, you can minimize the number of times that happens.

Customer Service: Are You Doing Enough?

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management ArticleBelieve it or not, customer service is the backbone of any successful business across all industries. It only takes a few minutes searching the web for leading causes of customer dissatisfaction and you will clearly see that insufficient customer service tops the list. It is a given that customers will have questions or issues with any product or service but it’s how you deal with those issues and questions that makes a difference. When it comes to customer service, are you doing enough? Here are a few checkpoints you may wish to analyze to see just how well you are doing on that front.

Time is of the Essence

If there is one cardinal rule in business, it would be that time is money. When it comes to customer service, it is vital that anyone running a help desk has instantaneous access to any information the customer may need to resolve their issue. How many times have you been transferred from department to department only to find there is only one person who is able to answer your question, even though it may not be something they would ordinarily handle?

With an IT solution such as SysAid’s help desk, this would not be an issue. It’s only a matter of accessing a user-friendly dashboard to find the solution or department necessary to answer the customer’s question or resolve their issue. Rapid resolution is a way to save time and, consequently, money. Time is money and every minute lost equates to dollars and cents down the drain. Don’t forget that the customer’s time is also valuable. Are you resolving issues or answering questions in the quickest, most direct manner? If not, then you are most definitely not doing as much as you could.

No One Likes Getting the Runaround

One of the most important tools you can give your customer service reps is the information they need to handle calls quickly and efficiently. As mentioned above, altogether too often customers call in to a help center only to be transferred to a wrong department or person. Are your customer service reps equipped with the IT they need to efficiently route calls where they need to go? Do they have the information at hand to answer questions which are not overly technical?

Given the right help desk platform, any customer service rep should be able to answer tier 1 questions quickly and accurately without the need to transfer a call unless the question is beyond what they are legally or professionally allowed to answer. While wasted time is the number one customer service complaint, being given the runaround with repeated transfers comes in at a close second. No one likes getting the runaround which is both frustrating and time consuming.

The Value of Customer Retention

Unfortunately, altogether too many businesses are so wrapped up in customer acquisition that they fail to realize that customer retention is even more important. It takes a lot less marketing money to keep a customer than it does to find a new customer, and this is why customer service is so vitally important to any business.

If you are experiencing a higher than average turnaround in customers or clients, you probably aren’t doing enough in terms of customer service. Although no customer service rep can be expected to be an expert on every level of a business, there are IT tools to give them what they need to satisfy incoming calls. Get this right and you will notice a growing customer base, higher profitability and a customer service desk that does just what it’s supposed to be doing – serving the customer to keep them happy and loyal. In the end, that’s the key to success.