How great customer service can impact your business

Customer service is the next step to setting up a business. You need to have a great customer service strategy that wins potential customers to you. To do this, you have to answer the question ‘how do my customers want to connect with me?” The answer to this question determines the customer service strategy and platform that would be effective for your business.

Another thing you should know is that your customers want to connect with you the way they want. This means that they would prefer to connect with you through channels that are more convenient for them. So, it’s best to have multiple channels to connect with your customers. The channels you use should be the ones that are commonly used by your target market.

Fundamentals of a great customer service 

Now, we are going to look at the fundamentals of great customer service. What does customer service entail? Here is a summary of what the customer service department of your company is expected to do. 

• Reply emails.

• Answer phone calls.

• Give customers information about products and services.

• Take and process orders and returns.

• Walk customers through setup processes or basic troubleshooting steps.

• Keeping records of customers’ interactions, complaints and transactions.

• Provide professional support and ensure customer satisfaction.

• Communicating with customers through different media channels.

Customer experience strategy

What is a customer experience strategy? It is the plan of action set in place to deliver a meaningful experience across customer interaction channels. Most times, companies forget that their customer strategy should incorporate customer feedback and insight. Feedback is important and helps grow your company. So, include it in your strategy alongside:  

• Competitive insight

• Consumer research

• Mission & vision

• Marketplace data

In addition, there are several questions you need to answer in order to create the best customer experience strategy. Here are a few questions you need to answer: 

• How accessible is your customer service to customers? Are you using  communication channels which your customers are most active on?

• Are you providing a personalised customer service to customers? Your business can do this by using information collected from customer Interaction with your website or communication channels. 

• How convenient is the service you offer? Do you provide customers with start-to-finish online support? You may need to regularly update your knowledge base on your website. This way customers can have answers to their questions without having to reach out to you for help.

• Are you incorporating similar customer experience across all your communication channels? You may need to do that to create an overall customer experience for customers.

• Is your website easy to use? The worst website is one that customers find difficult to navigate especially when they are accessing it on their mobile devices. It’s best to provide   a seamless experience for customers and potential buyers on both desktop and be mobile devices.

Customer engagement strategies

We’ve discussed the steps to creating a customer service strategy. The next important thing is how you can increase sales and establish customer loyalty through your customer service strategy. This is pretty simple as it simply revolves around you providing a personalised customer experience for your customers.  Some of the things you could do include:   

• Know how to greet your customers.

• Add interactive content to your website.

• Engage your customers with simple polls.

• Avoid being too sales-oriented when speaking with customers.

• Utilise personalisation to maximise customer engagement.

• Use surveys to get to know your new customers.

• Use Twitter to maintain a constant flow of customer interaction.

• Make use of videos.

• Promote engagement by asking questions.

• Listen to your customers with empathy.

Overall tips for a good customer service

• Be constantly available when customers need help.  

• Reply in an average time of 1hr.

• Pick calls on time. Avoid keeping clients waiting for long.

• Respond to emails in an hour or maximum 24 hours.

• Be respectful and polite even to unreasonable customers.

• Always solve the problem.

• Create consistency in your customer care processes. Have one department coordinate responses for complaints related to other departments.

• Follow up with an email or text suggesting buying tips or giving them relevant updates. 

• Request feedback to identify your customers’ preferences, observations and suggestions. This will make customers feel like their opinions are valuable. 

• Be customer friendly. These people make customers feel at ease while giving a positive view of the brand.

• Send customer appreciation messages after your customers patronage or special occasions.

Benefits of a good customer experience

There are so many benefits of making your customers feel good about your brand. customer experience for customers.  When your customers feel good patronising your brand your business would begin to enjoy:

Repeat patronage

If customers are satisfied with their shopping experience and the way you handled their complaints, they’ll be sure to patronise you again.

Word of mouth advert  

This is the most effective means of advertisement for your brand. Satisfied customers are highly likely to talk about your brand in their sphere of influence and convert potential customers in their social circles to customers of your brand. 

Positive reviews 

Positive reviews made on your website or social network by satisfied customers will increase sales conversion. This is because people prefer a real life customer’s experience instead of your own assessment of your brand.

A loyal customer base 

Competitors are constantly strategizing to take your customers; a loyal customer base will keep your business in the market. Loyal customers don’t bother about your brand not being as good as competitors’. They love your brand because of the great customer experience they get. 

Great feedback 

Customers would eagerly give feedback about your brand if your company forms a connection with them. Such feedback would help you improve your brand.

Note that your company may be able to specifically define the customer experience it provides. However, it is your customer who decides whether or not the customer service is satisfactory. So, re-evaluate your customer experience often based on customers’ feedback. This is because your customer is always right and you should keep it that way for your business to grow.

Also, consider using applications like Zoho Desk that helps you provide more effective customer support. While providing great customer  support, you should consider improving your sales and relationship with your customers with Zoho CRM. 

Read our article on how Zoho SalesIQ can help your business make 300% sales.