Sadly in this world, too many companies are still providing average customer service. With customer satisfaction in the UK at its lowest level since July 2010, there is more call for customer service departments to go above and beyond what their customers expect from them, in order to stand out from their competitors.
Here are our tips on excelling customer expectations:
- Adopt a situational mind set
When something goes wrong with the customer experience, the common (and often overused) solution that companies use to deal with issues is subtract a portion of the cost or give something away.While this is likely to solve the problem, often is the case that little thought goes into what you give to the disgruntled customer. Instead of treating all complaints with the same response, adopt a situational mind set in which you give the customer something they are likely to actually want.
- Follow up
After a problem is resolved, an agent in most companies will never speak to that client again. Try giving the unhappy customer a follow up call a couple of days later to ensure everything has been resolved. The customer will not be expecting it and will appreciate the after service.
- Empower agents
What a customer doesn’t want to hear on the telephone to customer service is “I cannot authorise that, and my manager isn’t here to authorise it either”. Give your agents thorough training on how to handle complaints and then give them the freedom to authorise solutions themselves. This stops your customers getting frustrated by being passed around.
- Be available on more channels
Problems aren’t restricted between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday and your customers may need to contact you in the middle of the night. Being there at all hours for your customers is a better service than most companies provide. Also, customer service isn’t limited to the telephone anymore, and customers are always looking for easier ways to contact companies. Making yourself reachable on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, as well as email and web Chat, will make you more reachable to your customers and will help improve your customer service.
Need some advice about improving your customer experience? Give us a call on 0800 0931 830, or email us at [email protected].