What does excellent customer service entail?
In addition to adhering to best practices such as respecting customers’ time, maintaining a positive demeanor, and offering informed and helpful information, great customer service goes above and beyond to surpass rather than merely meet expectations.
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5 strategies for providing excellent customer service
Numerous techniques, as well as the built-in capabilities of help desk software, shared inbox tools, and customer care software, may be used to satisfy your clients and have them telling their friends about your assistance.
These are our top ten suggestions for providing excellent customer service.
1. Be familiar with your product
Since you troubleshoot for consumers all day long as a customer support representative, you must be an expert in your product.
Having a thorough understanding of your product is crucial for providing excellent customer care. You should ideally have faith in your product, be able to articulately explain features and use cases, and demonstrate to your consumers how the product can help them—not to mention solve any issues that may arise!
Helping clients get the most out of their purchases and feel like they received genuine value for their money is your responsibility. In order to wow your clients with prompt suggestions for utilizing new features and services, set out to become an expert in your product.
2. Keep an optimistic outlook
When it comes to delivering exceptional customer service, a happy attitude is crucial.
According to Flavio Martins, VP of Operations and Customer Service at DigiCert, Inc., “having the correct mindset transforms bad customer experiences into positive ones.” Given that the majority of client encounters do not take place in person, your vocabulary and tone of voice should convey your attitude.
The tone of textual communication may be easily misunderstood, while live chat or email might appear aloof. Body language and facial expressions are two of the numerous signs the brain utilizes to decipher another person’s emotional tone, and many of these are not present while someone is online.
If you see that an email or chat conversation is becoming stressful, don’t be afraid to pick up the phone or use emoticons to provide warmth and good humor.
3. Solve problems creatively
Bad customer service has caused more than 80% of consumers to leave. There will always be issues to resolve, therefore you should make it a priority in your support job and thrive on helping your clients.
Everyone is aware of Zappos’ renowned customer service. One time, for instance, they gave a best man complimentary shoes the night before the wedding since the delivery company had misplaced his purchase. By solving an issue and providing exceptional customer service, Zappos gained a lifelong customer and gave him a story he was eager to tell.
As you work to fix their problems, don’t be scared to wow your clients. You might just solve the problem and move on, but by coming up with innovative solutions to satisfy their demands and going above and beyond, you’ll build a loyal client base.
4. React promptly
According to 66% of respondents, the most crucial aspect of any online consumer experience is respecting their time. A key component of providing excellent customer service is promptly answering consumer questions. Particularly for minor problems that can be resolved quickly, speed should be paramount.
Nevertheless, excellent customer service always outperforms speed.
Consumers are aware that answering more complicated questions takes time. There’s a distinction between how long it takes you to reply and how quickly you fix their issues. Consumers will wait as long it takes to fix their problem, but they don’t want to wait in a ticket queue. You ought to.
Respond to your clients as soon as you can, but don’t rush to end the call or close the ticket before the problem has been fully fixed.
5. Customize your offerings
Better human service is what 40% of consumers say they desire. They want to feel more than simply a ticket number, in other words. When they are not regarded as unique individuals, get boilerplate answers, or are treated like a tennis ball by several persons, they become irate.
Consumers want to communicate with individuals rather than businesses. It’s one of the reasons why a lot of companies give their clients birthday presents.
Do you know the birthdays of your consumers in addition to their names? What about their pastimes or interests? Are you able to make them laugh? Going off script and adding a personal touch when you can is a crucial approach to demonstrate to your consumers that you know them and care about them, but it’s clearly not practical to do this for everyone.
Tickets in Help Scout are referred to as “conversations” in order to motivate support staff to consider queued requests more individually. Therefore, think about how the support tool you employ may help you customize your support interactions, whether you’re using Help Scout or one of its rivals.