Seven Effective Steps to Improve Customer Service

Happy customers are your brand ambassadors, but unhappy ones erode business revenue. Studies reveal that 91% of the unhappy customers never complain, as they just leave, never to return.

Evidently, the quality of customer service is one of the crucial factors when it comes to achieving excellence in customer experience and should never get compromised.

Discussed below are seven immediate steps that can rectify the bottlenecks.

1. Analysis

The first step for resolving inferior customer service is to diagnose the problem to find out where things are going wrong. It is imperative to detect the customers’ dissatisfaction, be it with the product or service. Big data can help as it can analyze a vast amount of data and critical insights of customers. By using Big data, it is possible to oversee the full spectrum of the details of customer interactions by connecting with data streams. Moreover, Big data can help in improving customer service, customer satisfaction levels, increase customer retention, and maximize revenue.

2. Guidance

Your social care team can render immediate and personalized care to consumers facing issues. Business firms have to make customers aware that they are present on social media to address their concerns and should offer a quick response. “DM us” or “Message Us” buttons on the “Contact Us” page can be used effectively for direct interactions. Companies like Hyatt, Ipsy, and Icelandair, to name a few, are examples of brands providing such ideal messaging platforms for the customers.

3. Empathy

Customers want a genuine response from service providers who would empathize with them, understand their concerns and extend help. The service personnel should be creative enough in their response and should be able to provide real and tangible solutions, yet engaging the customers. Efforts should be made to see that the front-end staff is empathetic to clients and address their problems the right solutions. If required, training should be provided for handling complaints, communication, customer engagement, and customer service techniques.

4. Synergy

Listening to the customers without interruption and comprehending the issue is the key. Thanking them for bringing the matter to your notice and offering an ideal solution is vital. If the complaints are more in number, a grievance handling team should be established. The team members should be empowered to resolve the issues without much delay.

5. Prompt Action

The action plan for regular and repetitive issues should focus on urgency. Process lags or problems in the process might create a delay in providing adequate solutions and should be minimized.

6. Follow-ups

Even after the resolution of the problem, it’s better to keep a follow-up plan to ensure that the customers are satisfied. It can be in the form of a call or by sending an email to ensure the problem gets resolved.

7. Engagement

Enterprises should map the customer’s journey with all the touch points and try understanding the ways they can look for when in need of help. These can be websites, user guides, product literature or any other material. Subsequently, all the documents and manuals used in resolving the problems must be developed accordingly. These could include FAQs on the website or other tools that you might provide for the easy and early resolution of issues.

While these steps are far from comprehensive, they are the primary measures that are required to be followed to tackle inefficiencies in customer service. There can be other measures too which may be specific to any business situation. It’s quite natural that problems would occur. The best way to resolve it is to acknowledge them honestly and handle situations with sincerity. There is no doubt that customers would give you a second chance to delight them when you choose to resolve their problems and concerns. Care should be taken to see that your organization is sincere, genuine, and is willing to provide customers the best you can offer in resolving the problems and concerns.

Key Takeaways

• The first step in resolving inferior customer service is to diagnose the problem to find out where things are going wrong.
• The ideal way to resolve customers’ concerns is to acknowledge them honestly and handle situations with sincerity.