What’s the most important thing a business needs to do to improve relationships with their customers and keep them coming back for more? The answer is pretty obvious, and yet so often overlooked: providing a delightful customer service. No matter how good your product may be, or how competent your customer service team is, the only thing that matters is how your customers feel about your company. And the key to providing an exceptional customer service lies directly in the ability of your team to deliver a positive experience. If you are a customer service manager, you are probably aware that it’s your team that is the face of your company, and your customers’ experiences will be driven by the skill and quality of the support they receive. As a customer service manager, it’s your ability to drive both customer satisfaction, and employee engagement, that defines your own success. Happy agents are more likely to go above and beyond while servicing your customers. And customers who feel they are cared for, are the ones that will return. The bottom-line is that you can’t have delighted customers with disengaged, or even disgruntled employees. That’s where you need to start.
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7 Social Media Customer Support Secrets That Never Fail
It is no longer a secret that social media channels are used for assisting customers on a daily basis. Customers tend to ask questions and resolve their issues publicly. In fact, 90% of consumers surveyed by Social Sprout have used social media in some way to communicate with a brand. Over a third (34.5 %) said they preferred social media to traditional channels like phone and email. No doubt that listening to customers on social media has become the main priority for any business today. And the main challenge is how you respond to your audience. Obviously that building better relationships with your customers through social media can add up to huge wins when it comes to customer loyalty and your brand reputation. Before we start exploring the main secrets of social media customer support, here are statistics you cannot ignore:
Continue readingYour Customers Don’t Want to Call You for Support Anymore (Infographic)
In spite of all the tech advancements available for businesses today, many still operate under the presumption that their customers prefer the “good old days” of picking up the phone and relying on a human agent for all their customer support needs. While there will always be place for phone in customer service, in reality the majority of customers don’t really want to go back to the “good old days” and call you to get their questions answered. The infographic below provides some impressive stats drawn from various researches proving that self-service, online chat and social media are becoming the preferred customer support channels for a growing number of consumers. It’s no wonder that customers all over the world increasingly leverage these channels for customer service, as they allow them to get quick, accurate and relevant answers with no need to being put on hold or having to deal with unfriendly agents.
Continue readingHow Consumers Are Changing the Face of Customer Service (Infographic)
In today’s digital, fast-paced world customer expectations and the rules of customer engagement are rapidly changing. What used to be acceptable and satisfactory in customer service a while ago is no longer enough. Being able to recognize and adjust to these new dynamics is absolutely vital in acquiring and retaining customers. While failure to address the changing consumer needs can put your business at risk. Consumers are mobile and self-reliant: they are talking, texting, browsing, chatting and tweeting more than ever. Their lifestyles demand fast and convenient access to information anytime, anywhere. And, not surprisingly, they will no longer tolerate poor customer service. In fact, 72% of consumers already stopped doing business with a company because of a bad service experience.
Continue readingHow to Deal with Customer Complaints Effectively
All businesses, even the most successful ones, will have unsatisfied customers every once in a while. But most of unhappy customers actually never bother to complain. They simply leave and switch to competitors without even letting you know when and how your company failed to meet their expectations. On the bright side, statistics says that 95% of those who complain, are ready to give you a second chance, if you manage to handle their initial complaint successfully and in a timely manner. So how to do it effectively and turn every complaint into a positive customer experience to win those customers over for life? It’s all about the attitude The key to successfully dealing with complaints is in the right attitude towards them. As simple as that. In fact, customer complaints should be embraced and seen as unsolicited feedback which is always a valuable source of information about your business.
Continue reading15 Statistics Shaping the Future of Customer Service (Infographic)
The world is rapidly changing, and so is customer service. If you think your business is offering outstanding service now, the truth is that with the ever changing customer expectations, what seems satisfactory today might simply be outdated within half year. Is your organization keeping up with the pace? As customer service and customer experience have become key diffentiators for brands across all industries worldwide, it has never been more important to know as much as you can about your customers, their preferences and service expectations. In fact 75% of companies already recognize service as a competitive differentiator.
Continue reading5 Types of Complaining Customers And How to Handle Their Complaints (Infographic)
No matter how hard we try we simply cannot please 100% of the people 100% of the time, that’s why customer complaints are inevitable in customer service. Whatever the problem might be, the way you address unhappy customers and handle their complaints can have a major impact on your company’s reputation. Obviously, ignoring complaints and failing to resolve them can make your customers leave and spread negative word of mouth. On the bright side, 56%-70% of the customers who complain to you will do business with you again if you resolve their problem. If they feel you acted quickly and to their satisfaction, up to 96% will do business with you again, and they will probably refer other people to you.
Continue readingTop 20 Customer Service Soft Skills to Master (Infographic)
Today’s customer service involves more than a conversation face-to-face or on the phone. Email, live chat and social media have become important channels for consumers to engage with brands and seek for customer support. No matter how customer service is given to consumers, soft skills are essential for a successful customer service interaction. In fact, soft skills are even more significant than technical skills as at the end of the day what your customers will remember is how they felt about your service. It’s the soft skills that make the difference between an average customer service professional and the one who can make customers feel fantastic about the help they got from your company.
Continue reading15 Ways to Improve Customer Service at Your Business (Infographic)
We’ve all been victims of poor customer service in the past and we perfectly know what disappointed, dissatisfied and angry customers mean for a business. On the other side, great customer service can do wonders by creating happy, loyal customers or even brand advocates. While there can be numerous and various reasons why so many businesses fail at providing great customer service, let’s focus on how exactly you can make it better. In fact, even small changes in your customer service strategy and daily customer service operations can actually have a huge impact. This Infographic shows you 15 simple yet powerful ways to dramatically improve customer service at your business, no matter how big or small it is, and no matter what industry you are in. Have something valuable to add to this list? Feel free to share your thoughts, ideas and experiences in the comments.
Continue readingWhy Do Businesses Still Provide Terrible Customer Service?
As most business owners already know, it’s all too easy to lose valuable customers in today’s competitive, accelerated, consumer-powered marketplace. And providing terrible customer service is one of the fastest ways to make it happen. So why do we still see so many examples of companies offering awful customer service? There might be 6 major reasons for that: Failing to realize the cost of bad customer service Some businesses simply fail to realize and acknowledge the importance of customer service and, particularly, the financial impact of poor customer service on their organizations. Here’s some curious statistics to get you rethinking your customer service strategy:
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