Many business owners think that it’s enough to make a great product, that if you make something great, then the buyers/consumers will come. But keep in mind that people are looking for something more than a great product. They are looking for a human connection. They want people to treat them well and to take their problems or complaints seriously. They want to feel cared for. And you can give them this by providing excellent customer service. Here are a few tips:
- Timings: A lot of places advertise that they give customer service 24/7. If this is possible for you, then that’s great. If not, then make sure that your system takes a message and that your rep calls that person back the next day.
- Medium: Nowadays, there are many different ways of providing customer service. You can do it over the phone, over email or over chat. Make sure you give your customers as many options as possible.
- FAQs: One great way to provide customer service is by having a list of FAQs on your website which answer all your customer’s common questions.
- Exchanges/Returns: Whether you’re running an e-commerce website or a store, it’s important to give your customers the option to exchange or return something. Do find out exactly what was wrong with the product so that you can fix the problem in the future.
- Your Clients Are Your Guests: You know how you go to certain salons and they offer you bottles of water or juice/coffee/tea while you get your treatment done? Wouldn’t this be nice in any work environment?
- Communication: The main component of customer service is communication. You need customer service reps who actually enjoy talking to people and solving their problems.
- Listening: If you’ve been receiving the same complaints about a product or service, isn’t it time you took action?
- Personalize: It helps a lot when you personalize emails, calls, cards etc. People usually respond well when you call them by their names. Of course, it’s best to keep things a little formal by saying Ms. or Mr. and using their last names.
- Follow Up: If a customer has been having a certain problem, it always helps to give them a follow up call to find out if the problem is persisting or has been taken care of.
- Time: It’s not a good idea to tell customer service reps to take care of calls within a certain time frame. Some customers need more time to understand how to solve a problem.