Customer service goes a long way, it is literally the key to maintaining good customer-business relationships. If you feel like your business has been failing to provide good customer service, then you need to read this guide. In this article, we have picked some of the best customer service tips.
All the customers want a great customer service experience, but without an authentic customer-centric culture, which allows the company to provide better services. Without trying to stand out from the crowd, you can deliver better customer experiences.
There’s no one-fit solution for all businesses, so you need to apply all the greatest customer service techniques. To help you out, here are the 20 best customer service tips for small businesses.
Tips to Provide a Great Customer Service Experience
1. Rely on Right Technology
Providing good customer service requires you to rely on the right type of technology. Several tools and software are built specifically to improve customer experience. In this digital era, all companies should adopt these technologies.
The best way is to choose a complete full customer experience platform, which can allow you to have meaningful conversations, and enhance your customer service processes.
2. Smile
A smiling face is an old-age technique to provide a customer experience. It is perfect to set the tone of the conversation with the customer. And the best part is you can convey a smile even over the phone. People respond in a better way when you’re talking to them in a friendly and pleasant manner.
3. Focus on Last Impression
The customer experience runs right through to the last impression. Don’t falter during the later parts of your customer relationship.
Make sure to leave the customers with a smile on their faces. Always follow up with your customers who called in with issues, and try to solve those issues as soon as possible. Even if they don’t buy from you right now, they may do so in the near future.
4. Maintain a Positive Attitude
You can achieve a lot of things with a positive attitude. The best example of this is Apple, they have a very specific set of employee guidelines. These guidelines have helped them retain customers and build quality customer relationships.
5. Timely Responses
Most customers think companies should respond to an email within an hour. For live chat, the expected response time drops down from 30 seconds to 1 minute. Keep in mind that you have the right digital channels in place so the ideal agent gets the right type of customer.
6. Apologize for Inconveniences
One of the biggest customer support tips is to own up to your mistakes as soon as possible. A company should always apologize when they’re in the wrong.
Offer a sincere apology and mention that you’re taking action so that this issue doesn’t happen again. If you need some help striking the right tone, you can use existing templates to apologize via email.
7. Advice Customers Politely
As a business, you should know that the customers aren’t always right. Some customers can have the wrong or outdated information. But, when it comes to correcting them, your customer rep should approach them gently. The best customer service tip is to not antagonize them. Make sure to answer them as simply and seamlessly as possible.
8. Offer Incentives and Rewards
Customers love it when they’re offered tons of incentives and rewards. These rewards and incentives help customers get an idea of your business’s view, and this increases their desire to buy from you.
The best way to keep your customers happy is to reward them. Make them feel wanted with great reward programs and bonuses that recognize their loyalty.
9. Listen to Your Customers
Customers appreciate businesses that listen to their complaints. Allow them to explain what they think and take the complaints seriously. Listening to your customers is a great way to learn. Even if you solve a customer’s problem and they don’t feel heard, you’ll end up losing the customer.
10. Never Say No
Train your customer service agents to say no. When they’re saying no, the business itself is saying no. Even if they don’t have a solution, they shouldn’t straight up say no to the customers. Your customer reps need to put a positive spin on the thing.
Another great way to handle things is to provide alternatives. If one solution isn’t available, find another option. Even if you have declined, you should do it in a way that’s a win for the customers.
Customer issues should be resolved one way or another.
11. Don’t Waste Time
Whenever the customers call you, they have a problem they want to be fixed as soon as possible. A great customer service workflow will delight them and improve the impression of your business. If you don’t have a timely solution, chances are you’ll start losing customers.
12. Act ASAP
Building on the previous point, you should never waste the customer’s time. A timely resolution suggests:
- Time to focus on other things
- Freeing up customer reps to fight the next problem
- Not wasting money and resources
- Not wasting customer’s time
To provide the best possible customer service experience, your service reps should try to stop queries from building up. Live chat can help in solving problems quickly.
13. Make Sure Your Team Believes in the Products
If your agents are not trained, they’ll end up hurting your brand’s reputation. To avoid this, you should properly train your employees. Your team should be brimming with confidence about the business’s products and services. Before you let them deal with customers, you need to provide them with an in-depth understanding of their goods and services.
14. Avoid Redirecting
Currently, only 20% of businesses are able to solve an issue at first contact. This means 80% of businesses need at least two tries to fix a customer’s issues.
This isn’t efficient or good for customer experiences. Customers want swift and speedy problem resolution. Redirecting calls through better IVR tools, connecting customers with the right agents, and training your team can help you achieve better results.
15. Customers Should be Up-to-Date
Customers appreciate it when they’re kept in the loop. You should update customers about the status of their tickets, new products, and any processes in which they’re involved.
Always manage your customer’s expectations. If there’s any change of plans, explain the reasons. Your business growth relies on providing updates to your customers about relevant information.
16. Be Empathetic
Showing empathy is what will make your customer support team stand out. Understanding this forms a strong basis for resolutions all parties are happy with. Here are some phrases that you can use to make your customers feel happier and more satisfied:
- “I understand how important this problem is to you.”
- “We understand how upsetting this may be.”
- “We’re trying our best to solve the problem as soon as possible.”
17. Say Thank You
Thank you is a great way to provide an outstanding customer experience. It’s simple and powerful. A thank you at the right time can help in building trust. You should start small, and thank customers for proving their information. When signing off, thanking them for calling is crucial.
18. Use Customer’s First Name
Some surveys done on customer support teams show that only 21% ask for a customer’s name. A huge opportunity is being missed by your customer support team. When a customer rep uses a customer’s first name, it creates a connection and makes them feel familiar.
Although, using first names isn’t exactly a good option when you’re cold calling and trying to generate sales.
19. Value New Customers
If you treat your new customers right, they’ll become the latest set of loyal customers. You should offer a joining incentive or reward. Give them a discount that makes them feel appreciated. Send them a thank you email after they join, or you can use social media to thank them.
Of course, there’s no better way to get new customers than by having a great product.
20. Create a Bond and Trust
If you can manage to build an emotional bond with the customers, you can keep them for life. Gaining trust means understanding a couple of things:
- Reaching out to customers is crucial
- Interact with customers as much as possible
- You have to listen, solve problems, and answer queries
- Be honest with customers
- You should look out for them
- Your brand should live up to customer expectations
Final Word: Best Customer Service Tips
Follow these 20 customer service tips and make sure that your team offers incredible customer support service. Make sure you treat customers well, show empathy, and provide a pleasant experience. If you follow these tips, then you’ll be able to make your customers happy.