Being successful does include making lots and lots of mistakes, but most importantly, it includes learning from them. Anyone can tell you that customer service is probably the most important part of any business. A great customer service will directly influence your sales, and will create a steady follow of customers that are willing to remember and return to your brand.
Customer service is so much more than simply troubleshooting problems and looking for solutions. Great customer service represents the voice of your company and builds trust in your product, and in your business. Having a great customer service can easily justify higher costs of the product. After all, it is the overall experience that counts.
So, what are some of the characteristics of a top-notch customer service department? We’ve boiled it down to 5 characteristics, so make sure to find your approach here.
1. Easy-to-Reach
Good customer support is extremely easy to find. It is prominently displayed on your website, and even on your leaflets. Customer service exists to solve problems or to provide additional information to potential buyers. We are all customers, and we can all agree that, if we’re having trouble finding how to contact a real human to talk to is an extremely bad sign.
You want your contact form to be easy to fill out, and you want your wait times to be extremely short. On the other hand, offer live chat options or direct telephone lines – this will help everyone reach you.
2. Competent
How bad is it when you ask a question and a person doesn’t even know what you are talking about? You’d be surprised to hear that many customer support agents are only willing to dish out premade templates of text or speech. Few are truly willing to think about the problem.
You must think of it this way – your company is represented by your agents. If they are failing to do their job properly, it is going to hurt your business. Everyone working in customer support should understand everything your business is offering, and should be more than capable of talking about your services. Great communication will build trust, and being a good salesman will not hurt.
3. Quick
Not all problems need to be solved immediately. It all depends of the kind of industry we are talking about, but a general rule of thumb is – your customer should reach your support when they want it. This means that waiting times should not exist at all. If you are experiencing a lot of customers calling, hire more people, outsource, do whatever it takes, just do not let an unsatisfied customer alone.
Make sure to have information about the average time a customer has to wait before their problem is resolved. There are many dedicated CRM software tools available that will help you keep track of customers and their particular cases. Simply find some top CRM software, select the one that fits your business model the most, and make sure to keep your bases updated regularly.
4. Understanding
Having an agent who truly tries to understand the problem in front of them can mean the difference between a returning customer, and someone who tries to jump ships the first chance they get. Having great empathy can allow your employees to be cool even when an angry customer is asking for a refund – always try to remember that everything can be solved, and just try to find a reason why someone feels the way they do. Make sure that the customer feels valued and respected, and once that is established, begin troubleshooting the issue.
A top-notch customer service should try to adjust to new customers as well as accommodate old ones that created your business in the first place. Naturally, many things that we’ve mentioned here depend on the customer service agents themselves – and an owner has complete control over that.
Make sure to fill those positions with people who show all these qualities. Those who quickly lose their temper, or simply do not have the patience to hear other people out are probably only going to perform badly – and this can only leave them unsatisfied with their job, and your business will suffer. Finding balance is key, and finding great people to run your customer support department is hard, but essential.