Do you want to improve customer service in your business? The below tips will help you identify key areas and potential issues which may prevent you from receiving repeat business.
Your employees are the lifeblood of your company. If you want your customers to receive a great service and to feel valued, you need to invest in your staff. This involves making sure they are trained to a high standard so they feel confident enough to perform well in their roles. You can find out how employees feel by conducting staff surveys which can identify problem areas. By running regular department meetings and employee appraisals you can evaluate morale and operational issues which may hinder peoples sense of self-value.
The main point of good customer service is to create and maintain a good relationship with your customers so they keep coming back. You can promote loyalty by making it easier for people to buy from you in the future. If a customer buys from you on a regular basis offer them their own account manager. A more cost effective way of doing this to implement an online system, this allows customers to login and order online. A system such as this can record past purchase history and provide delivery tracking. It is also possible to use this as another channel to cross and up sell.
Customer relationship management is becoming a bit of a buzz phrase and for good reason. In today's competitive global economy gaining an edge is difficult. But creating clear processes for collecting data and disseminating it across the business can assist in improving service levels and marketing. Segmenting and profiling customers can help you target marketing more effectively as well as improve loyalty. In some cases you can predict when customers will need to purchase again and prompt them to buy. In other instances you can provide useful suggestions of other products which may be of interest. Even remembering their birthday and giving them a discount voucher can help.
Providing additional communication channels so customers can get in touch, enquire or even complain is crucial if you want to keep everyone happy. This could involve adding a live chat function on your site, additional phone numbers with personnel or specific email addresses according to their needs.
If you can offer additional value, do so. This could mean giving advice on which product is best for their requirements or advising on how best to use it. Doing this will enhance the image of your company.
For smaller businesses resources are often tight and it may not be possible to effectively provide customers with the level of service they might expect from larger organisations. This can easily be combated by outsourcing certain tasks to a virtual office. This could involve call handling or mail forwarding. A virtual office can help you free up time so you can concentrate on the operational and profit making tasks without being bogged down with menial day to day duties.
21st century customer service is about using technology to enhance customer experience. If it is utilised to its fullest extent you can cut costs and collect data to improve relevance and opportunity in all other areas of your business.
