These days, customers have high expectations for how they wish to interact with a business. While you can sell a product, it’s the aftersales services you provide that differentiates a good business from a great one.
Investing in customer support helps you grow your customers through positive word of mouth. So, how exactly can you make your customer service better? Here’s how.
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First of All, Create a Valuable Product
The first thing, one that comes above all else, is a great product. When you have a high-quality product, you’ll have fewer complaints and returns, since your customers are more likely to have a great experience with it.
However, on the off chance that the product doesn’t work or has a problem, the customer will come to you for assistance. If the product is bad, the customer is more likely to replace or return the product, rather than come to support for assistance.
A great example of this are Apple products that are reliable, last long, and don’t have a lot of design flaws, leading to fewer complaints. If they do have a problem, they know that the company will cater to every customer.
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Cater to All Sorts of Customers
When you’re a huge company, you can expect to have customers from different locations and cultures who speak a variety of languages.
This is why it’s crucial to provide them with multilingual support to improve the customer’s experience as well as improve retention. Having multilingual support allows you to have an expanded reach which leads to increased revenue.
A great example of this is the Cox, which, in addition to English, provides customer support in Spanish, the 2nd dominant spoken language in the U.S. They go the extra mile and provide a separate support page at Cox servicio al cliente, making it a painless process for their Spanish customers to find them.
However, this just doesn’t end here. You also need to provide your customer with multiple channels to contact your customer support.
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Set up Multiple Contact Channels
Having multiple contact channels means that customers can reach you the way they want, without being bound to a single mode of contact of your choice.
Some customers might be comfortable talking to an agent on the phone, while others might prefer Email, and some find live chat to be more convenient. Regardless of the customer’s choice, you should provide them with the most amount of contact channels as you can. These include:
- Phone
- Social Media
- Mobile Messaging
- Live Chat
- Chatbots
- Video Chat
- Web Forms
- Self-Support
- FAQ Pages
- Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
Select the most effective channels without putting pressure on the team. Airbnb is a huge example of this since they provide their customers with multiple ways to contact them.
But, customer support can’t be “customer support” if they don’t support their customers, right?
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Help Fix the Customer’s Problems
The first thing about providing customer support is knowing your product’s ins and outs. Only then can you actually help fix a customer’s problems. To make sure, train your support team often and audit your current training programs to pinpoint any gaps.
For instance, a positive attitude goes a long way in gaining customer’s trust. A robotic customer support agent is never fun to talk to. Having a positive demeanor ensures professionalism and helps keep the conversation constructive, even when you might be dealing with angry, frustrated, or rude customers.
Focus on resolving the customer’s problems during the first calls and make sure to personalize the customer’s experience by knowing the details about them and their purchase. Go the extra mile by following up on the issue after closing the case.
To close it off, it’s always nice to ask the customer for their feedback. This will help you get valuable insights, not only to improve your product, but also improve the customer support experience.
A lot of companies do this by asking the user to fill out a survey or to press the button at the end of the call to give positive or negative feedback.
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Use Automation Tools to Get an Edge
Customer support automation shaves off a lot of costs associated with customer service while enhancing the customer’s experience. Automation tools are designed to streamline customer service operations while streamlining the customer experience.
By using automation, you can shorten the time it takes to respond to a customer’s query. Research found that 90% of customers want an immediate response. Around 33% of customers say that being on hold is one of the most frustrating aspects of getting help.
With automation tools, you can set up automated chatbots that can help eliminate wait times for customers who only need general help.
By using the methods we mentioned above, you’re sure to not only improve the support experience for the customer but also reduce the costs as well as make sure that the customer always leaves happy. This guarantees that your customer comes back for more, which in turn, improves your business.
