Good actions to improve the customer service can have a direct impact on your financial results and on your business reputation, after all, good products and services still demand a positive interaction between the buyer and your company.
This does not mean that the demands of your audience must be met every time, but that they will end the call satisfied with the communication established with your business.
With that in mind, we've separated 10 tips to improve your company's communication and a special article with the main errors in customer service that need to be avoided. Check it out below!
Why is quality customer service important in companies?
Customer service is fundamental in the experience of any consumer and, consequently, of any company that wants to retain customers and expand its business.
On the one hand, a good experience increases the chances that customers will recommend your brand and come back to hire your services or buy your products. On the other hand, a negative experience makes a second chance difficult.
Good customer service can help you establish trust in the market, increase brand awareness, earn customer loyalty, drive sales and attract new business opportunities.
At the same time, your revenue can grow, as well as lifetime value (lifetime value), the metric that determines how much your customers are worth to your business.
Here are some ways to achieve these results.
1. Strengthen communication skills
Try to ensure that your customer service team has the best skills to meet the needs of your customers, such as:
- Empathy, Patience and Adaptability to deal with irritated customers, among other mood swings, without altering the level of service provided;
- Clear and positive communication to convey to customers exactly what should be said, with no room for other interpretations;
- Knowledge to answer questions, but also to know who to turn to when necessary;
- Humility to be honest when you don't know the answer, but without sending a negative message. This builds and restores trust, reorients the customer's attention – who will appreciate the honesty and your efforts – to resolve the issue.
2. Invest in customer service training
Of course, not every professional masters the best practices for good customer service, so invest in relevant training to drive your business strategy and service standards.
At the same time, you can develop your own in-house training program focused on product knowledge and skills within the team. Also, encourage your team leaders to offer regular training sessions and provide the necessary resources to do so.
3. Understand customer needs
Good actions to improve the customer service examples are based on understanding the need and profile of this audience. In short, the more you know your customers, the more likely you are to understand their needs and expectations.
Consequently, training and the service itself will be more assertive. As an exercise, ask questions like the ones listed below.
- What do your customers need and how can your company help them?
- How useful is this data and information? What else would it be useful to know in order to better match your needs with the products and services offered?
- How to know more about the customer and anticipate their pain and problems to solve them? Long-term team members who have long-standing customer relationships can provide more insights to develop in-house training.
4. Establish active listening
Active listening is when the listener maintains an effective and efficient conversation, focusing all attention on the interaction and the speaker, thus being able to understand everything that is being said.
The active listening communication technique maintains linear dialogue and improves communication between the company, customers, and other processes.
After the customer speaks, ask clarifying questions to ensure you understand the demand. Finally, end the call with a quick summary to ensure everyone is on the same page. Remember that the customer needs to feel understood, heard and served.
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5. Prevent problems before they start
Knowing how to conduct a conversation with your customer is essential for a good experience between the parties, but what if your company can prevent some setbacks from happening?
While customer service officers are on the front lines of complaints, complaints are rarely operator-related. Usually, problems start in other departments.
When you understand your customer's needs, you can usually get a good idea of how your product or service can improve.
So, how about starting to mitigate the demands that can generate new calls? Or how about providing more in-depth tutorials to help your customer understand the proper use of a product?
6. Encourage and listen to customer feedback
It's not that hard to find out what your customers think about your company, products and/or services. Sometimes reviews are not positive. While complaints can sometimes feel like the end of the world, try to use every experience to your advantage.
Provide your customers with multiple ways to share their feedback, such as through phone surveys or an emailed feedback form. Maybe even establish a complaints system?
This will let you know all about your good and bad experiences when interacting with your brand. With this, you get real insights into what you're doing well and what areas need improvement, a valuable experience to hone your business.
Connecting with your customers for feedback also has another important benefit: it makes them feel that you value them and are willing to solve their problems. This can help establish trust and may even discourage sharing negative comments on other platforms.
7. Prioritize personalized services
When a customer buys your product or demonstrates the intention to hire your service, try to contact them to better understand their demands and make yourself available to help them. Thus, even those who do not effectively become a customer will still have a good experience with your brand to count on.
Also, use friendly communication. Another approach strategy is to use a personalized email to send electronic messages instead of a generic corporate contact (“[email protected]” instead of just “[email protected]”) and mention the customer's name in the message body. It is a way of humanizing the treatment.
8. Use CRM platforms to support actions to improve customer service
Optimize your processes using business management software as a CRM. These systems help ensure that all industries are on the same page – which is important for setting high standards of customer service.
These platforms provide useful information about your customers that can help you understand their needs, sell faster and promote a personalized experience, as well as improve customer interaction and engagement, helping your business build lasting relationships over time. CRM.
9. Develop and demonstrate empathy for your customers
Use more empathetic communication and say things like “I understand how this must bother you” or “I would be anxious about that too”. Building a connection during support is a great way to improve customer service.
This is an important skill to improve company interactions and will bring many benefits, for example, if the people served feel understood, they will become more receptive.
Even if the solution goes against the customer's expectations, it can reduce conflicts and increase the chances of promoting a good experience.
10. Offer omnichannel support
How easy is it for your customers to get in touch with your business? If you are not familiar with the concept of an omnichannel strategy, the multichannel content strategy that an organization uses to converge and improve user experience basically means having a customer presence and experience strategy on whatever channel your audience is on. active.
Today, consumers use multiple channels and devices to purchase and interact with a brand, such as social media, email, phone and chat online.
Covering these bases is convenient for the customer and smart for your business, especially if you consider the tips in this article. Let customers enjoy consistent quality of service. This can help increase your brand's reputation and credibility.
What not to do in customer service
Do you want your team to put these actions into practice to improve customer service? Invest in support and try to motivate them. Teach them to achieve positive customer relationships and friendly communication so they don't forget the importance of positive interaction.
In addition, it is important to understand the main mistakes made at this stage of communication, in order to avoid them and, in this way, avoid negative experiences with the public that could have repercussions and damage the reputation of your brand.
With that in mind, we have prepared an article that will complete your knowledge. Click here to learn about the top customer service mistakes you should avoid.
