Customer service essential to your brand
Increased number of consumers switching brands due to poor service
In this day and age, every company is aware that good customer service is essential to their company’s brand and that having a strong brand is essential to success. But recognition of this fact alone doesn’t necessarily translate into a company delivering good customer service.
The customer service industry doesn’t always have the best reputation and according to the recent “Accenture 2013 Global Consumer Pulse Survey,” 51% of U.S. consumers switched service providers this past year due to poor customer service experiences, a 5% increase from last year with consumer goods retailers, cable and satellite providers, and retail banks seeing the largest increases. These numbers illustrate that good customer service has a huge impact on your bottom line.
You may be asking yourself right now, what kinds of customer service experiences frustrate people the most? According to the survey:
- Having to contact a company multiple times for the same reason
- Being on hold for a long time
- Repeating the same information to multiple employees or through multiple channels
- Having a company deliver something other than what they promised
Having the right people on your frontlines when dealing with customers is crucial as more than half of the customers surveyed found dealing with employees who aren’t knowledgeable or don’t acknowledge specific needs or preferences to be extremely frustrating. So how do you prevent losing customers due to poor customer service? The study cites aiming to resolve their issue in the first contact, contacting your customers proactively to inform them of ways to improve their experience with your service and rewarding your loyal customers with incentives to be the best ways to retain your valuable customers.
Utilizing the contact center to provide excellent customer service
Here are a few things to think about when creating your customer experience strategy from the perspective of the contact center, but I think these things hold true for retail and other customer service touchpoints:
1) Hire the right people. This might seem like common sense, but when call center customer service is viewed as a cost center, the quality of the representative isn’t always a priority – you get what you pay for. Whether you do customer service in-house, work with a contact center company, or even just have a small business with a few people answering the phones and manning the desk, you have to have the right people talking to your customers. They should be professionals who understand how to be courteous and empathize with your customers – and skilled enough to handle their issues on the first call or interaction.
2) Train your customer service reps for success. Even the best employees can’t succeed without the proper tools, and training is an important tool. As true brand ambassadors who know the ins and outs of your products and services so they can speak knowledgeably about them, helping to put the customer at ease while provide the information they need. Click here to read an article on how brand ambassadors boost customer service by InfoCision VP of Client Training Monica Ross.
3) Know your customers. Business intelligence technology allows us to track specific details about the buying history of our customers, so that we can craft messaging that makes sense for individuals rather than one mass marketing message for all. Customers who feel like you know them are likely to feel more connected and be more loyal to your brand. Click here to read a case study on how customizing offers can benefit your organization.
If you have any questions about customer service please leave me a comment and I’d be glad to answer.