There tends to be two things that will cause an individual to remain loyal to a business. The company needs to provide a top-notch product or service and, they need to make sure that their customer service is second to none. That’s because when a business provides excellent customer service, it establishes trust and loyalty between them and their customers. And when that happens, companies are able to establish repeat sales, and even new clients too.
So, if you run a business and you’d like some tips on ways that you can improve customer service (and also measure your client satisfaction), we have provided you with five of them below:
Be available through several different mediums. Just about every company has a phone number, mailing address and email address. But if you want to provide excellent customer service, it’s a good idea to be available through as many communication mediums as possible. This would include social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Pinterest and even a YouTube subscription page as well as installing a live chat feature on your website.
Make sure your staff is professional, friendly and knowledgeable. Providing good customer service requires training your staff on how to be as professional and courteous as possible. So, before putting them in the position where they are dealing with customers on a constant basis, make sure they are knowledgeable about your products and services, screen their first several calls to insure that they are always patient and friendly, and also offer incentives to those who constantly provide great service to first time as well as repeat customers.
Keep your promises. In order to establish a true level of trust with your customers, it’s important that you do all that you can to keep your word. For instance, if you tell them that someone will call them back within the hour, make sure that someone does. And if you promise to have their shipment to them within five business days, it’s important to get the item out within that timeframe; even if it means paying a little extra. If your customers know that you’ll keep your word, it establishes the kind of reliance that will make them want to do business with you time and time again.
Be solutions-oriented. There are going to be times when you will have a customer who is not happy with either your product or service or how a particular situation was handled. When they call in with a complaint, no matter how frustrated they might be, it’s important that you don’t take things too personally; that instead you focus on finding a solution that they will be pleased with just as soon as you possibly can. That will calm them down and increase your chances of them wanting to patron your business again.
Go above and beyond expectations. The most successful businesses in the world go above and beyond their customer’s expectations. It’s just one more way to provide great customer service and insure customer satisfaction. For instance, while it’s a good idea to have a live voice answering calls during business hours, you might also want to consider hiring an after-hours answering service to handle customer inquiries after regular business hours too. It provides an extra personal touch while conveying to your customers that they matter, no matter when they try to reach you. For more information on after-hour answering services, visit Contact One Call Center.