Good Customer Service Can Make or Break A Business
You might have the best product in the world but if you don’t deliver on your promise to take care of your customer, you will lose them. Great customer service doesn’t happen overnight…it takes time and effort but the rewards are worth it. Here are 5 ways to deliver great customer service:
1. Know Your Product
Wide-ranging knowledge of your product is a customer service skill that is a must have. Your sales people are there to sell your product but if they can’t answer questions about what they are selling, it leads to distrust and skepticism. They should be able to believe in the product, be able to discuss it in detail and above all, be able to show customers how it can benefit them. If they can make a case for not being able to live without it, all the better! It is important that customers feel that they are getting their money’s worth. Make it a goal to know everything there is to know about what you are selling. Your customers will appreciate it and will be loyal to you because of that knowledge.
2. Have A Positive Attitude
Attitude is EVERYTHING and is another very important building block for great customer service and loyalty. The right attitude can change a negative experience into a positive customer experience. Your positive attitude should be obvious in your language and tone, especially if you are not seeing your customers face to face.
Customers love to stay with companies that provide them with as many positive messages and experiences as possible. We must decide to give every customer our best service, no matter how we feel, whether they deserve it or not, no matter what is happening around us.
3. Respond Quickly
A surprising 66% of people believe that valuing their time is the most important thing in any online customer experience, according to Forrester. Resolving customer issues as quickly as possible is an anchor of good customer service. Speed should be of the essence — especially for smaller issues that don’t take much time to solve.
Having said that, great service trumps speed every time. Customers are smart; they know it takes time to solve complex issues and are willing to give you that time. But there is a difference between the time it takes you to respond to the issue and the time it takes to actually resolve it. Quickly responding will give you the time you need to resolve whatever it is that needs fixing.
4. Personalize Your Service
It’s important to realize that 40% of customers say they want better human service. That means they want to feel like more than just a number. They get angry when they’re not being treated like an individual, like when they receive canned responses, being referred to by a “ticket number”, or being batted around like a tennis ball to different people or a different department. Think about the last time you got lost in a companies voice mail system. How did that make you feel? It makes me want to hang up and go some place else. Your customers are no different. If you must use voice mail, don’t make the menu so complicated that they can get lost in there.
Customers want to interact with a person — not a company. How much to you know about your customers? Aside from their name, do you also know their birthdays? How about their interests or hobbies? Can you make them laugh? You obviously can’t do this for everyone, but giving the personal touch when you can is an important way to show your customers you know them and you care.
5. Keep Your Word
If you promise something, make sure you deliver on it. Don’t let your customers down. Keeping your word is about respect and trust and not delivering on a promise is a sure way to lose customers…fast.
According to research, customers do not feel extra grateful when you deliver more than you promised. They do, however, feel angry if you break a promise. It’s better to under-promise and over-deliver so you can make sure you never break word.
All of these elements combine to produce great customer service. It’s service that keeps your customers loyal to you and your business, and you’ll gain a reputation for being helpful and a pleasure to work with. Repeat business is the best kind and by following these 5 suggestions, you’ll be well on your way to bigger and better things!
