Every business has its own style of delivering customer satisfaction. As they often say, to each its own. But not every business especially call centers and BPO’s, can build a customer centric culture at call center. It takes an expert to do so with a full-scale training experience in the fields of customer service.
Customer service is the golden key to any successful business. If you don’t have it, act fast, and make it a priority. You’ve seen the statistics that prove how important customer service is. When your company’s reputation hangs by the thread of positive online reviews, and years of success can be washed away by one viral complaint on Facebook, your goal is to make sure each and every customer has the best possible experience. You want them raving about your business, telling all who will listen about how much they believe in your company and how well you treated them.
Customer service has evolved over the past years; from call to engagement center. Instead of just one-on-one private interaction in person or via phone call, it is now evolved around social media as well. You need to get from average to awesome, but do you really know how to improve your customer service skills? Most companies don’t. And great customer service is not easy. If your customer service is floundering, you may need to make some big changes in your company.
In fact, you may have to scrap your current service plan altogether and start over. Great customer service isn’t something a customer service department or a sales associate does all on their own. Great customer service permeates every aspect of your company and depends on every single employee, vendor, and leader, whether they interact with your customers or not.
How to Improve your Customer Service Culture
- Clarify Your Mission and Break the Mission into Specific Goals
Begin by understanding your business niche. What do you do best? Who needs what you do? How do you best approach these prospects? These are some questions you might want to stop and think about before you start diving in.
Once you have figured this part out, it’s now time to think about your weekly, monthly, and yearly goals. Start off by setting results goals to measure your progress, and track them closely. Increase your activity and measure the results.
- Solicit Feedback From Customers
Receiving feedback from your customers is essential in order to improve your business overall. Find out ways to solicit feedback, for instance, as a business request telephone numbers or email addresses to text or email surveys to them.
Regardless of the manner, the important thing is identifying whether your business is meeting or exceeding your customer’s expectations. Use the comments you receive to increase your sales by improving your products or service.
- Respond Quickly
The most efficient aspect of social media is that it works fast and is easy to use. It allows brands to quickly connect with their consumers via any of their platforms. Consumers are now also turning to Twitter or Facebook to voice their experiences online – and expect to receive a response from their favorite companies within a 24-48 hour gap.
- Cross-Sell at Every Turn
A great way to increase sales without the added cost of a separate marketing campaign is to make sure your sales reps are cross-selling at every turn. Cross-selling is the act of offering new products and services along with those in which the customer may have expressed an initial interest.
So for instance, if consumers purchase a camera and the salesperson offers her/him a camera bag to go along with this purchase, the salesperson is acting in a cross-sell activity.
The more you add on, the more sales you receive. It’s crucial to have trained your sales and customer service agents this type of skill because it is an effective way to increase sales.
- Provide Educational and Appropriate Knowledge
Customer service should not only be about being responsive, but you should also be offering customers knowledge related to your brand. For instance, if you are a dental office, you can use your Twitter account to easily connect with your patients, while using your Facebook account to post dental tips or educational blog posts.
Sharing knowledge can help to provide value to customers and give them a place to go if they need advice.
- Create Referrals Through an Incentive
Customers love incentives – so the perfect way to gain referrals is to have your customers refer your business to their friends and family and in return receive an incentive.
A study that analyzed a bank referral reward program showed that new customers who were referred to the bank by existing ones were 18 percent more likely to stay with the bank and generated 16 percent more in profits.
- Take the Time to Train Your Front-Line Staff
The heart of your customer service operation should rest with your front-line staff. These employees are the face of your business and if trained well, it gives your business the opportunity to define how your customers perceive your company’s products and services.
You want to make sure these employees are skills at conflict resolution, are empowered to exceed your customer’s expectations, and have the kind of winning personalities that your business’s patrons are unlikely to forget.
- Take the Responsibility But Not the Credit
You’re the team leader of your business; your company looks to you for direction and supports your effort. In order to build a strong support team willing to go the extra mile when you need it, you need to appreciate your team by giving them credit for everything that goes right, and take the blame when it goes wrong.
- Go the Extra Mile
As a successful business, going an extra mile for your customers is vital. Going that extra mile can change a stressful or ordinary experience into a positive and remembering one, highlighting the brand’s ability to not only empathize with its customers but to also enact real change that positively affects them as well.
Showing that you care about your customers allows your customers to appreciate your services and want to continue to build a relationship with you.
- Take Advantage of Negative Feedback
It’s no secret that nobody likes to hear negative comments about themselves or their business – but instead of getting hurt, take it as a great opportunity to turn your customer’s experience around. Nobody runs a perfect business with the perfect customers, receiving any kind of feedback helps you and your company to learn and grow as you go.
Addressing a complaint or bad experience shows customers that their voices are being heard and that each individual is a valued customer. Increasing engagement and value can increase customer loyalty, resulting in continued engagement and sales.
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