Running a small business is easier said than done. Not only is it difficult to launch your startup in a marketplace full of big brands and formidable corporations, but it is equally challenging to keep a small business stable in a turbulent economy. With so many similar brands lining the street, why should customers go for your shop? What makes you unique?
Most importantly, what can you offer impatient online users that other businesses can’t? A wholesome customer experience can take you far ahead in the game. When customers feel satisfied with the overall vibe of your small business and how you treat them, they will return for more purchases and bring their friends along, which means more profit for you.
Now, customer service has a direct relationship with customer experience. Hundreds of giant businesses have seen a massive fall as a result of poor customer service. Conversely, loads of companies have also risen from ashes by simply improving their customer service platform. Take TWC customer service, for instance, which is known all across the telecom industry for its exceptional service standard and ever-growing popularity among subscribers. So, if you’re seeing a decline in your monthly books, then tweak your customer service strategy by keeping the following tips in mind and you’ll find your small business at the top of the commercial chain. Without further ado, let’s begin:
Humanize Customer Interactions
Everything changes when you start treating your customers like humans instead of mere prospects. The moment your customers realize that your small business cares about their needs and values their opinions, your profits will trend higher automatically. How can you do that? Humanize your customer interactions. Train your customer service agents to begin their one-on-one sessions with customers, whether on a phone call or a live chat window, with a personalized greeting.
Personalized greeting means addressing the customers by their names and using inviting language, so customers can feel easy to open up. This small step will drastically improve your customer experience and revenue generation rate.
Aim for First-Contact Resolution
People may reach out to your brand for many reasons. One of those reasons may be that they are facing a certain issue with your product or service and are looking for a resolution. This is where you need to train your customer service agents for first-contact resolution.
The first-contact resolution means letting the customer relay their issue, paying full attention to the details of the problem, having a complete database of knowledge about company products and policies, and doing everything in one’s power to solve the customer’s concern in the shortest time possible, preferably on the first call. This proactive approach towards customer query resolution has the potential to create lifelong loyal customers and boost the reputation of your small business.
Utilize Feedback Effectively
Customer demands, needs, and tastes change with time. Small businesses that learn how to anticipate this change and adjust their strategy on its basis make it out of the storm. Those that remain static and don’t keep up with the trends slowly fade away. One of the best tactics of staying dynamic in your field is to open up to customer reaction. People who use your product or service will naturally have something to say about it. This is called feedback.
Requesting feedback from your customers cannot only help you spot the loopholes in your offerings and policies but also address them effectively to improve the performance of your brand. Your customer service representatives can elicit feedback from customers by doing follow-up calls, which will also give your customers the impression that your small business cares about them, eventually warming them up to you.
Increase Social Responsiveness
Presence matters. Brands that are present around the clock for their customers manage to gain a competitive edge in the market. This is the era of social media. So, take full advantage of it and create a social media presence for your small business. But, making a profile is not enough. You need to be available 24/7 to respond to customer comments on posts, answer queries in the DMs, and address complaints lodged by customers on your profile. This is why having a separate customer service team for social media responsiveness is important.
Keep in mind that speed is of the essence. You can deploy chatbots on your social profiles that can give carefully curated auto-replies to comments within seconds after they’re posted. So on and so forth. Once you refine your customer service’s social responsiveness, you will see a positive reaction from disgruntled online users and succeed in building a loyal subscriber base.
Wrapping Up
Therefore, by humanizing your customer interactions, resolving customer problems on the first call, requesting customer feedback and acting on it, and being super-responsive on social media, you can improve your customer service to a great degree and ensure completely satisfied customer experiences.