Did you know… 82% of consumers have stopped doing business with a company because of bad customer service.*

The money your company generates from your consumers is no gift! Great customer service plays a huge part in customer satisfaction.  It’s time to think about how you can cultivate your training, communication, and processes to ensure increased positive customer experiences. Great customer experiences result in increased brand loyalty, reduction in customer acquisition costs, and increased profits!

Tip #1: Are you listening?

Communication with the customer is imperative to great customer service and increased brand loyalty. Don’t assume. Communicate with your customers. Take the time to listen to their needs. Customers are like snowflakes – no 2 are exactly the same. The process may be different to satisfy one customer as opposed to another even if the job itself is the same. As I’m fond of saying “Ask. Listen. Deliver.”

Tip #2: Know what you are doing.

We don’t all have all the answers all the time. Don’t claim to either. Don’t promise things you can’t deliver. If you make a mistake, take accountability – own your mistakes and make good on resolving them. Don’t try and shift blame. Make sure someone is accountable to the customer.  Make sure those people are trained on what processes to follow to resolve such customer service related issues.

Tip #3: Be Responsive to Issues.

Be responsive – when a customer has an immediate need don’t give them the run around, get back to them right away – if you are their POC and don’t know the answers then go back to # 1 and #2 above. Poor process and communication practices internally lead to very slow responsiveness to customer needs and concerns. If processes do exist for customer resolution – make them simple to understand and follow and educate customer facing employees on how to execute such processes to promptly respond to customer concerns.

Bad customer service can cost you.

The moral of the story is simple. You need to be willing to take steps toward continuous customer service excellence and loyalty. If you’re not paying attention to your customers and continually trying to maintain their loyalty, someone else will. And when they do, they’ll take your customers away from you, and the profits along with them.

So stop pretending the problem doesn’t exist and do something about it before it’s too late.

Need help improving your customer service?  Contact us for a complimentary consultation.