Satisfaction Guaranteed: 5 Key Customer Service Guidelines
54% of customers have higher standards for customer service than they did one year ago. If your business has any chance of success in the competitive global marketplace, you need to establish some customer service guidelines.
Customer service is arguably the most important aspect of your business. Your operations depend on building customer support. It helps improve brand awareness about your company among other things.
Everything hinges on establishing high standards of customer service. Read on to find out 5 guidelines to ensure every patron of your business ends up as a satisfied customer.
1. Provide a Human Touch
A human touch means a lot to customers in our increasingly automated world. Make sure to hire experienced customer service representatives for customer interactions.
Whenever possible, try to make in-person experiences as pleasant as possible. Your customers will appreciate feeling welcomed and humanized.
2. Respond to Feedback
One of the best ways to take an unsatisfied customer and change their opinion about your business is to respond to their feedback.
If they left an online review about your business that is less than flattering, address their complaint and find out why. Listening to customer feedback not only improves your business operations but helps you win over customers.
3. Know How to Automate
Unfortunately, it is not always feasible or affordable to provide a human touch in all aspects of your business. In certain cases, you may need to automate some parts of your customer service experience.
Making tasteful company phone greetings will help your customers cope with automation and will provide your customers with a humanized automated experience.
4. Go the Extra Mile
You need to learn how to value your customer and make them feel appreciated. Your business will have no hope of competing with the prices or inventory of your large corporate competitions.
You can however compete with their customer service by getting to know your customers on a personal basis, learning their birthdays, preferences, and shopping habits. They will appreciate you going the extra mile.
Handle every customer on a case-by-case basis. Whether they are shopping, complaining, or providing positive feedback.
5. Codify Customer Service Guidelines
You want to be able to provide your employees with a codified set of customer service guidelines that they need to adhere to. That way if there is ever an issue with customer service, you can refer to the standards.
Without a written set of standards for customer service, your employees cannot be held liable for any breach of conduct.
Improve Your Customer Service
Customer service can be one of the most challenging aspects for a new business to handle. That said, establishing customer service guidelines early on is your ticket to establishing a customer base and improving your business.
Apply the five tips in this article to your customer service strategy today. That way your business will leave a bevy of satisfied customers in its wake. For other great news and info like this, make sure to check out the rest of our blog.
