Your customers are the life and soul of your business. Therefore, it’s essential that you have excellent customer service. If you’re unsure how to improve your customer satisfaction rate, continue reading. Here’s more information on the importance of your customers and how you can make sure you put them first!
Make every customer experience matter
No matter what field you’re in, whether its SEO services or web design, it’s essential to make every single customer service experience memorable for the consumer.
Unique experiences are key if you want people to trust your brand. Most consumers prefer to do business with a business that displays that they’re in it for the people. Not money. This seems more transparent, and consumers are likely to feel more comfortable spending money when they’re not being exploited.
Customer experience leaves the biggest impact on customer satisfaction. Therefore, it’s best to start focusing on this aspect of your business if you have been neglecting. Start creating a new plan. Strategize so that you’re putting their needs and their level of comfort first!
But how can you do this? Improving customer experience is easy said than done. However, you can start by implementing these tips.
First, always refer to your customers by name. One of the best ways you can offer a more catered experience is by using their name when speaking to them, whether you’re sending an email or speaking on the phone.
This humanizes your customer service approach, so the consumer won’t feel as if they are speaking to a robot. Their guard will lower too since they’ll realize they are speaking to a human being!
You can also personalize your approach even further. Send personalized messages and replies when communicating with the customer. For example, if they shoot you an email, try your best to respond in a more personal and catered way to prevent that cold disconnect.
Most marketers have found that you’ll receive more transactions, click rates, and open rates when you personalize your messages to your customers. Use their name in the email. Also, try to send an email to the customer in their native language if they are based in a different country.
Lastly, instead of using outdated language, try to use familiar and warm language when speaking and writing emails. How would you address a good friend? You don’t want to sound TOO casual, and risk sounding unprofessional. However, there is a good middle ground that you can reach. This is another key factor when trying to improve customer experience.
Give your clients personal contact
There’s nothing wrong with calling your clients to personally thank them for working with you. You can also send a handwritten card if you have their address on file.
Paul Graham once said that maintaining proper relationships with your current clients is just as important as finding new ones. This is true. Make sure to always thank your customers for working with you. Don’t simply put up a note on your business or storefront. This is not a personalized approach. Many businesses lose service because their buyers felt as if the brand was indifferent towards them. Avoid this!
Brand awareness may help. Hire a team to ensure that you’re doing everything you can to put your customers back on top. You should also understand that taking the time to thank your customers shows your brand’s views. You see them as people, not as dollar signs.
Ensure that your notes are hand-signed if you want to level up. Sending a generic note, without even an addressed name, can have the opposite effect.
This is a common business model with sellers on Etsy. Many retailers and small business owners will throw in a free gift or write a handmade note to the customer, thanking them for spending money at their shop. The customer can then share this freebie or note on social media, which will drive more traffic to the seller’s page and business. It’s a win-win situation and a smart model that anyone can implement!
Learn from your mistakes
Another way that you can improve your customer service is to learn from those inevitable mistakes. This will apply to your business, no matter what field you’re in — even if you work for a digital signage solution company or standard marketing office.
If a mistake happens, and it’s the company’s fault, do not dwell on this mistake. Even if the client is at fault, you should always try to make things right. Take the high road! This will show how much you care about your clients.
Train your employers to seek these opportunities out. If there is ever a chance for them to fix a client’s mistake, they should take it to benefit the company’s brand. However, ensure there is a dedicated budget for offering free services like this. You don’t want to go bankrupt because an employee promised a lifetime of free products and services to fix a simple mistake!
Make sure to reward your loyal customers
You should also never forget your most loyal customers. They are the heart and soul of your brand, as they come back to your company time and time again!
They deserve the extra perks. Run a loyalty program. This program will make it easy for you to collect data and see who is using your product or utilizing your services the most.
Most consumers are happiest with a loyalty program that offers some kind of personal factor. The more they spend, the more awards they should gain. If you’re able to track the data and discover that your consumer spends 100 dollars a month on your products, send them a free gift at the end of the year.
You’ll enjoy all of the free PR and shoutouts, and the client will enjoy their free product.
Make sure your customers can reach you easily
In a client’s eyes, there is nothing more frustrating than trying to reach customer service and have it be a hassle. Your clients shouldn’t have to spend hours out of their day, searching for the best number to call! You should make it incredibly easy for them. Likewise, they shouldn’t have to wait on the phone all day.
If you’re struggling to find the time to reply to your messages and phone calls, outsource this work. Data center services may find this especially useful. Your customers expect a quick response to their issue. Not receiving this can make your company look unprofessional and unreliable. You will not improve the customer experience by dodging questions.
People these days don’t have a lot of free time. They can’t afford to spend more than 20 minutes waiting to speak to a representative. If you fear that you’re not doing enough to improve your customer experience, here are some ideas that can improve these types of encounters.
First, make sure there are multiple channels of support where your customers can reach you. Ensure there is a phone number and customer service phone number on your website, no matter what industry you’re in.
You can also install a live chat widget on your website so that your customers can send you messages in real-time. This way, your customers won’t feel confused or lost when they encounter an issue. You have helped them by making customer support an easy route to navigate!
You can also use social media as a tool to connect and help customers.
This is one of the easiest ways for clients and customers to get a hold of the brand. If you choose to open up several social media pages for your business, ensure that you can respond to messages quickly. One of the great things about social media is how fast and easy it is to communicate. Don’t let your messages pile up. Check them daily, especially if you spot a complaint in your inbox.
If you have the budget, consider hiring a team or individual that can help you sort through these messages and respond.
Tell your team to personalize each response and avoid non-generic replies. You can also provide self-help options to enhance the customer experience.
Add an FAQ page to your site. Take a few months to compile your top client questions. Write these down, along with their responses, and create an easy to navigate page for your clients. They will appreciate this, as most people tend to prefer self-help options over calling customer support. Furthermore, you can also create a gallery of helpful video tutorials.
If you can’t offer self help solutions, ensure your office is easy to get to. This way, clients can visit your office or place of business instead. Look into parking for businesses.
Constant support is also crucial. If you are able to hire a team that can answer questions around the clock, it’s worth the investment.
Feedback should be a key part of your brand
No one is perfect. However, you can learn from your mistakes. Your clients can offer some great feedback so that you can improve your brand and grow your business.
Asking for feedback also goes a long way. Your clients will see your company as a group of human beings who are constantly learning about their trade. People rarely wish to work with a business that refuses to admit its faults. This simply looks like an unwillingness to learn and grow. Actively ask customers for feedback after a sale. You can send an email with a survey attached. Be proactive, and seek these answers yourself. If they have an issue, rectify it before they taint your name on social media.
You can also ask them to simply rate their customer experience by using a star or number system.
Polls are also brilliant. They are more detailed, and you can easily discover new ways to improve your business model.
Share this feedback across all departments. Also, do your part and reply to the feedback constantly. It doesn’t matter if the feedback is positive or negative. If the client says nice things, wonderful! However, if their responses are negative, don’t leave them hanging! Offer up a well-thought-out response. Then, ask them how you can improve their customer experience.
When you ask enough customers for feedback, you will receive a useful set of data. If your customers are all saying the same thing, you will be able to identify your weak areas.
Identifying weak areas is key when attempting to improve your strategy. You’ll be able to identify what’s working and what needs improvement!
Check-in with your clients often to find this data to enhance your server resources or another service.
Make sure shipping is on-time
When you’re optimizing your shipping contract with your carrier, make sure your company doesn’t sign a carrier GSR waiver. This is a waiver in a package shipping contract that businesses shouldn’t sign because it gives their carrier the ability to deliver packages late without being held accountable for customer refunds. Instead, the business has to pay for the customer’s refund and the customer is likely to leave a bad review.
Final words on improving customer experience
Customer experience is key if you wish to create a more trustworthy brand. You will impress your current customers and lure in more people when you put their needs first. However, this isn’t always the easiest thing to do overnight. Therefore, take the time to implement these tips and tricks into your business plan. Your customers will feel more valued than ever, and business will pick up. Ensure you treat every customer like a person, and not simply another business quota to hit!
