A successful business is able to realise the needs and wants of their customers. They create products or services to meet those needs and wants. They spend time and money for marketing and branding their business. Yet they often fall short on one critical element, and it can cause hard feelings between them and customers or potential customers.
People want to be listened to when they have questions or a problem. They are looking for efficient service, and they are looking for solutions. People don’t like waiting, and they don’t like getting a run-around. They don’t want to be treated as if their issue doesn’t matter. Keep that in mind when you think about the quality of the customer care you offer through your business.
Critical Skills Are Often Lacking
When consumers are asked about what they don’t like regarding many businesses, they will complain about how they are treated when they call in or email. Consumers are often frustrated because they feel those handling the support aren’t well informed about what needs to be done. Sometimes, the response is so generic it doesn’t even really address the issue the person was asking about.
Improving customer service skills for your employees should be a priority. They need to have the skills in place to successfully take care of the needs of every single call and email that comes in. Those employees may be the only personal link the consumer ever has with your business. The impression they get from it will influence if they buy from you now and in the future. It will also influence if they recommend your business to others or not.
Basic skills such as being friendly and polite aren’t always in place, and you shouldn’t assume they are. It is unbelievable how some employees will answer a phone call or respond to an email. It is your job to make sure they are answering each phone call with a greeting you are happy with. It should be friendly and introduce both the business name and their name. They should ask how they can help as that will immediately put the caller at ease.
All calls should be ended with a thank you, no matter what the outcome is. Emails should be professional and formal. If more information is needed, it should be asked for in a way that explains to the customer what is required and why. All emails should be replied to in 24 hours or less. Ideally, your phone support should be offered 24 hours a day. If you have limited hours, that makes it hard for some customers to reach you.
Ongoing Training
Your employees need to know the policies and procedures for your business when it comes to discussions with customers. First, they need to be good listeners. If they are interrupting the customers, they aren’t allowing them to share their needs. Second, they can’t take anything personally. While they shouldn’t tolerate being treated poorly by the person on the phone or in the email, they can’t retaliate and say or type something rude in response.
Employees need to have the right details so they can handle requests for refunds or damaged items. They need to be able to track shipments or find out the status of an order. These are common reasons why customers would be contacting your support team.
The ongoing training you offer them should evolve as your business practices change. If you notice you get a high number of calls or emails from customers about a certain topic, you need to fix that issue within the business so the volume will be reduced. Your employees need to always be armed with the right way to handle anything that may come up.
They also need to have access to a supervisor who can assist them with irate customers or the most unusual circumstances. When they can’t take care of the issue on their own or the customer isn’t happy with the solution offered, it should be escalated to the next person in charge.
You can turn to a professional company to help you with better customer support options. They can evaluate what is offered and show you where you need to make some changes. They can help you with the training so it is customised to include what your employees need to know for your business related issues.
Monitoring and Evaluating
It is important to monitor and evaluate what is taking place with your support team. Recording calls is a common practice. This allows a review team to randomly listen to calls and to critique how they are being handled. Evaluations should be provided to the employees so they can see what they are doing well and where they need to make some better choices.
Monitoring and evaluating should be done with the ticketing system used to communicate with customers via email too. Any employees not following the outlined practices can be given more training. If they simply aren’t willing to do the job correctly, then they should be removed from such a position. Their lack of motivation to handle the needs of customers correctly reflects poorly on you.
Customers should be able to give their feedback too. A survey they can complete after a call or that is emailed to them can give you information you didn’t have before. They can tell you about their experience and how they feel about their interactions with a member of your support team.
A business with top notch customer support in place is going to be well reviewed. There will always be concerns that come up, as no business is perfect. From the customer point of view, it all comes down to how those issues are handled for them. If they are satisfied with the outcome, they are more likely to buy from your business again in the future. If not, you have lost them for good to one of your competitors.
