The customer experience is something that we’ve all got to fine-tune throughout our business journey. Customer support, when it’s not done right, can easily turn customers away. This is why you need to ensure that you are improving the customer service experience in every way possible, but do it from the inside out. What does it take to deliver great customer service in this way?
Increase Methods of Communication
When we are trying to improve our customer service, we have to remember that the more methods of communication we have with our customers, the better. Customers may be more comfortable using live chat instead of telephones these days, but while you can benefit the customer by providing intelligent virtual agents or chatbots that cover 70% of all queries, we must remember that accessibility is the key component that will benefit the customer, but it needs to be on their terms. A solid FAQ section can make a big difference in the customer experience because it gives them more autonomy.
Using Contemporary Equipment
Such a simple thing, but you need to have contemporary equipment that does the job. From phone systems to support desk software, you can make a big difference in streamlining your efforts and ensuring the customer service agents do a better job.
Many customers feel that when they get in contact with a contact centre, they are, in effect, gearing up for battle. And this means that when there are issues with communication because of technical problems, this is going to make things a lot more difficult and fraught. The right technology can bring down those barriers and make it better for everyone concerned.
Bringing Services Closer to the Customer
If customers feel they have to make a lot more effort to get the answer they need, this is going to be a big challenge when your agents engage with the customer. When you bring your services closer to the customer so they don’t need to make much of an effort, this is going to have a very positive impact on the business as a whole.
If you want to reduce the number of customers hanging up, you need to increase the methods they can get in contact with the business. There are so many different ways that you can do this without necessarily providing much effort on your part. As already mentioned, autonomy can be an amazing tool to help customers.
When you incorporate a FAQ section that really does answer the vast majority of queries this allows customers to become more self-sufficient so they can solve the problem themselves, so you don’t have major problems having to deal with customers in terms of communication issues or technical problems that can drive a wedge between a customer and the business.
Increasing Skills
Productivity is vital and therefore, the skill-set needs to match it. Many customer service agents feel they need to prepare themselves for battle in order to get through the day on the telephone. When customer service agents are receiving verbal abuse, this is not acceptable in the slightest and it is never a great way to help either side. But this is where skills can help a customer service agent to navigate these conflicts.
One of the biggest oversights many businesses have is that the customer service agents are there to fill seats and do the “grunt work.” But you are running the risk of increasing turnover when you are not giving them the tools they need to actually deal with conflicts. When customer agents experience burnout, we need to get new people in, and this is not going to increase satisfaction in the slightest.
Focusing on paying more and giving them training will help them to deal with the job, which greatly minimises turnover.
Locating “Superusers”
A “superuser” is the type of customer who can understand the systems or services you are offering. When you start to identify the super users within your business, they can be a great asset, but you will need to ensure that they come into the business because they are the type of customers you need to keep. Superusers need to be rewarded, which is why a great reward system will encourage them to be engaged with the business.
The customer service experience is multifaceted and invariably complex. When we look at improving the customer service experience from the inside, this gives us a solid foundation for helping our workers really deal with issues in a productive and efficient manner.
