In whatever business activity you are involved, the customer is always king. You must pay attention to the level of service you offer if you want to succeed. Here are six tips to help you improve your customer service.
Multi-channel support
Do not rely on one channel to answer your customers' needs. For instance, you can provide telephone, email and social media support, creating multiple channels of communication between you and the customer. Handle queries professionally, regardless of through which channel they arrive, and keep response delays to a minimum.
Knowledge
Your support staff must have good communication skills to maintain high-quality service but knowledge of your company’s products and services makes them effective solution providers. Keep your staff informed and enable them to respond to most inquiries without delaying for research.
CRM systems
Installing a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system can improve customer service significantly. CRM systems help you track queries and complaints, but also open up data mining -- analysing customer information such as their buying patterns, type of products or services they commonly use and demographics. Data mining can help you better understand your customers' needs, thus providing them with better service.
Non-specific support staff
Encourage all your employees to participate in the support process. Although most companies have specialist support teams, training everyone in customer communication and providing solutions gives the whole team insight into what your company does, how it works and the challenges their colleagues face. Make sure your non-support staff are supervised by specialists to ensure customer satisfaction.
Customer feedback
Get feedback from your customers about their experience. You can do this by creating simple surveys on your website or by sending your customers a questionnaire. Feedback helps you gain insight into what your customers like and dislike about your business, gaps in your support and ways to improve both support and your product offering.
Competitor analysis
Learn from your competitors, especially the ones that have excellent customer support. You could send some of your staff as mystery shoppers or hire a professional to do the job. By analysing the differences between their process and yours, you can often spot ways to improve your support offering.
No business will survive without emphasis on customer service. These tips can help you improve your customer service delivery, taking your business to the next level, but only if you are willing to test your support and make necessary changes.
