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There’s no excuse for poor customer service, especially with the available resources out there to build and strengthen your customer service department. A positive customer experience is the most important thing for your business because it can’t operate without customers.
With that said, you can’t fix issues that you don’t know exist. The good news is there are common customer service mistakes that have been made time and time again. We’re here to tell you what they are and how you can fix them so your business doesn’t fall victim to bad customer service skills.
As both a customer and someone who has worked in customer service, having strict guidelines for how to respond to a customer issue doesn’t really work for either party.
It can create frustration on both sides, especially if it’s a first-time customer, and emotions inevitably get involved. Below are three better options to help boost customer satisfaction.
Training on each of the scenarios in the script will also ensure your customer service reps are familiar enough with them to cut down on the time it takes getting to each scenario on the phone.
With a lot of interacting with businesses happening on social media these days, you are bound to have messages from customers asking various questions or lodging complaints of some kind. In order to keep up with those and maintain high customer service standards, consider the following suggestions.
It’s often the simplest way customers think they can get in touch with you, so prove them right and make sure someone answers each and every customer inquiry.
Make a rotating schedule where each person takes an hour to check social media and respond to complaints, questions, or general inquiries. That schedule should run continuously throughout your normal business hours at the very least.
We live in a world of instant gratification, so customers aren’t usually happy when they have to wait to speak to a real person about an issue. Mitigate that unhappiness with the below ideas.
No matter what a customer is calling for, it’s the job of the customer service representative to do their best to solve the problem, even if a customer action created the issue. This should be done without causing other problems, especially if your customer service philosophy is that the customer is always right.
If positive customer reviews come in mentioning a specific customer service employee, have a rewards program so that they feel appreciated and other employees feel motivated to follow in their footsteps.
You see it on television all the time. A customer calls customer service and they’re passed around from person to person until they eventually get transferred back to the original person they talked to. Avoid that loop with the ideas below.
However, if your business deals in a variety of disciplines, this next option could work better.
There should be no more than two people that a customer speaks with before getting their issue resolved, which could also drastically cut down on call times and increase the number of calls a single employee can efficiently take.
Checking the website is usually the first step a customer takes if they have an issue, so if they’re calling your customer service department, redirecting them to a place they’ve probably already been won’t bode well for the interaction.
Everyone has bad days, but the purpose of a customer service representative is to greet your customers with a pleasant voice and guide them through an issue. Find ways to encourage your employees to leave outside upsets at the door and put their best foot forward at work.
Many things can impact a person’s mood, and while you can only control the work part of it, making an effort goes a long way.
The severity of the repercussions is up to you, but make sure the policy will be taken seriously.
These activities will allow employees to keep their focus; they’ll appreciate that you value their well-being and will in turn want to deliver great customer service.
Customers love when they can chat with customer service from their phone or computer. It’s especially handy for those with phone call anxiety, but there’s nothing more frustrating than getting automated responses that aren’t helpful and you end up having to call customer service anyway.
Maybe the problem can be solved without chatting with a live person, but if it can’t, you should offer that feature.
There are plenty of resources out there for how to improve customer service, but it’s hard to know what you need to improve upon without knowing the mistakes you’re making.
This list aims to provide you with the most common customer service mistakes and how to fix them. If you find yourself in any of the above situations, implement a new policy as soon as you can to avoid deeper issues in the future.
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