Customer service is a set of well-honed skills used to cater to customer’s queries or needs to ensure a good service experience to the customer. Great customer service can turn around a company’s fortune and help maintain a loyal customer base. A great customer service executive will look at every customer as a relationship rather than a sale. And when a brand or business maintains such a close-knit bond with its users, success will always follow. In this article, we discuss the importance of good customer service and how you can boost your team’’ customer service skills.
Why should you Invest in Customer Service?
Investing in customer service is a surefire way of gaining new customers. Taking good care of your existing clients will ensure their loyalty. Their positive feedback and testimonials can make more impact than other marketing strategies a company can drum up.
Increasing a company or business’ customer retention by a mere 5% can lead to a profit of 25%. A long-standing customer is obviously going to invest more in their preferred business raising profit margins which can make the company cut down on operational costs. Research says that acquiring a new customer is more expensive for companies that don’t invest in customer service.
Customers base their opinions on a company by noting social media presence, advertisements, and other marketing strategies. A customer service team will be in direct communication with a company’s existing and potential customers. They have the responsibility to promote and maintain the company’s brand based on how a company wants itself to be seen. They have the potential to influence customers and give the company an edge in the competitive market.
Read Also Understanding Customer Support And How Your Business Can Leverage It
Speaking of figures, 50% of customers increase their business with a company after a helpful customer service experience. A majority would be willing to invest a quarter more of what they are already paying to get a better customer service experience. Even a small positive or negative experience can influence a customer. A positive experience can ensure customer loyalty while a negative experience can drive them away to other competitors in the market.
Customer service is important for many reasons and there are several ways through which you can ensure a perfect experience for your customer.
12 Ways you can Improve your Customer Service Skills
- Professionalism – Being professional can assure the customer of an employee’s work ethic and can gain their trust. One’s speech, mannerisms, even their attire in the case of one-to-one conversations, can build an aura of confidence and can put their worries to rest.
- Knowing one’s product/service – Knowing every feature or aspect of the product/service that one is selling is necessary to address any issue a customer might face. Doing so will appease the customer’s worries.
- Personalization – Taking note of the customer’s name, the nature of service they require, remembering past interactions can offer a customer a personal experience. Understanding a customer’s particular needs and adapting the situation accordingly will lead to great results in the future.
- Resolution – Resolving a client’s problem as quickly as possible without making them undergo any undue tension can make the customer feel at ease. A truly successful resolution is carried out with a sincere apology and a fast resolution of the issue.
- Meeting Expectations – The best brands have set high expectations for customers. To provide an excellent customer experience for the client, it is important to understand, provide, and when possible, to even exceed the customer’s expectations.
- Active Listening – The customer service team should listen to the customer’s concern keenly. The customer should be made to feel that they can find a quick resolution. Asking follow-up questions, summarizing the conversation at the end will ensure that all information provided and discussed is correct.
- Being Empathetic – Envisioning oneself in the customer’s place and reassuring them that they are understood will make the customer more receptive. The situation can be quickly resolved with a combined effort from both parties.
- Being Positive – Talking to customers in a positive manner can truly make a drastic difference. An employee working to improve customer service skills should constantly go about reassuring the client as to how to choose their options, avoid negative connotations, remain positive, and stay calm even when the customer is angry.
- Working on Technical Skills – One of the ways to improve customer service skills is to constantly upgrade technical skills. Panicking when the customer is on call and not being able to get things up and running can lead to the loss of a valuable customer.
- Clear Communication – The ability to articulate the answers to customers’ questions in a clear and understandable manner is key to customer satisfaction. The conversation should be kept short unless the customer wants more details. This is one aspect of customer service that can always be used to improve your customer service skills.
- Responding in a Timely Manner – Customers usually want quick fixes to their complaints. The priority should be to offer them support by quickly responding to their queries or addressing their concerns.
- Being Patient – The best way as to how to improve customer service skills is by being patient with customers. All customers do not have the ability to articulate their concerns or be polite or courteous. It is, however, important to be patient and gradually resolve their issue in the most helpful manner.
These pointers, when applied to real-time customer service, can make the job of customer satisfaction easier and productive. As can be observed, many customer service skills are soft skills. These skills always have scope for improvement. As one develops their communication, decision making ability, and can work on being more understanding and empathetic, they become more valued assets to the company and can provide high-quality customer service.
Going beyond Conversations
Besides the above skills, there are other aspects of customer service that can be implemented and followed to get better results.
- Ask for Feedback – Customer feedback or opinions are very important to a business. Take every opportunity to ask for a customer’s opinion and genuine feedback. The comments received can be used to work on a flaw or improve a product/service.
- Cross-selling – A great way to cut down costs is when customers are offered to try out new products or services apart from the customer’s original intended product. This is called cross selling. When the customer is in the process of purchasing an item, cross-selling suggests other secondary products under the brand’s umbrella that can add value to the customer and also bring more revenue to the business.
- Provide Incentives for Referrals – The best way to get a customer to refer your business is to offer them incentives. A study reveals that customers referred to by existing ones are more likely to stay on with the business and generate more profits.
- Utilizing Negative Feedback – Every business has its share of negative comments or feedback. It is important not to be let down by such actions and rather use it as an advantage. Conversing and listening and acting on the problems faced by customers can make the customer view the company in a different light and form better opinions.
Outsourcing Customer Service: a Smart Alternative
Companies that have invested in customer service have more returns than those that haven’t. It is also true that a company can’t stray from its core aspects and devote its time and resources to customer support. Customer service, however, can’t be ignored if a company wants to establish a leading business. Outsourcing customer support service duties can be a lucrative option in such cases. Customer service providers can decrease your operational costs, increase revenue, give access to skilled resources and give you an edge in the competitive market.
The highly trained individuals in these companies and can also offer domain expertise and as outsourcing providers offer services for all parts of the world. They are trained to know about every detail of the products and services a client company offers so that they can portray an accurate and exceptional image of the company. More than 50% of companies take third party assistance to connect with customers.
At ExpertCallers we have been providing such assistance for over 12 years. Our main priority is to provide personalized operational solutions for every customer.
Expertcallers offers a comprehensive range of customized outsourcing services specializing in several verticals such as IT, healthcare, real estate, retail, etc. We offer round the clock assistance with 80% first call resolution rate. We have a multi-channel support system in place with services being offered in 40+ languages. Expert Callers also provides helpdesk, live chat, email, phone, and tier 3 support. To know more about our customer service outsourcing options, please talk to our representative.
