Issues that Lead to Customer Service Problems

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If you don’t solve your customer service problems today, you could be missing out on a lot of business in the future. Today, we are taking a look at some company who’s website is not customer service friendly. We would like examine four customer service problems your website could be causing.

1. No Contact Information

This sounds somehow, but there are companies that forget to add contact information to their website. As a result, visitors have to search online to find an email address or phone number. This may help cut back on customer service inquiries, but it also angers your audience.

Rather than take this approach, make it simple for your visitors to find the contact information they need. From live chat to email to phone, you should always be available.

2. Inaccurate Information

A website that provides inaccurate information is one that can lead to a variety of customer service problems.

For example, if your website describes a product one way but it’s different when it arrives at the customer’s home, you are sure to have a customer service nightmare on your hands.

The best way to avoid this is to review your website in great detail, paying close attention to any information that may be inaccurate or misleading.

3. Conflicting Information

Does one page of your website say one thing while another contradicts it entirely?

With this, you can expect to hear from customers who are unsure of what is right and what is wrong.

As you review your website for inaccurate information, pay close attention to contradicting details as well.

4. Complicated Navigation

You want visitors to your website to be able to find exactly what they are looking for, all without the need to contact you via phone, email, or live chat. This is why clear navigation is a must.

Some people will be coming to your website to read your blog. Others will be looking to make a purchase. And of course, there are those who care about nothing more than reading as many pages as possible as to learn more about your company.

Complicated navigation doesn’t do anyone any good (in fact, it causes a lot of harm). If this is a problem on your website, you can expect to hear from people who are unable to find what they are looking for.

Conclusion

These are just a few of the many website issues that can lead to customer service problems. Since you want to avoid these problems at all costs, so that you can provide a high level of service, you may need to make some changes in the near future.

It goes without saying that no website is perfect. Even if most visitors enjoy your site, there will always be those who find something wrong. While you can’t please everyone, there are things you can do to reduce customer service problems and provide a better user experience.

Have you come across any website issues that were causing your company’s customer service problems? How did you deal with these? Share your personal approach in the comment section below.

Smart Growth: How to Avoid Biting Off More Than We Can Chew

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Read below in other to understand the phrase ‘biting off more than we can chew’.

To bite off more than one can chew means to take on more than one can deal with, to attempt to do something that one is not capable of accomplishing. This phrase is also employed in the warning don’t bite off more than you can chew, meaning don’t take too much work or responsibility upon oneself.

As a consultant working on a project, it can be easy to fall into the trappings of a large or high-profile project. Getting caught up in helping a contractor move to the next level in his or her career path, while attaching your name to the project, can sometimes be a bigger pitfall than a benefit. The same is applicable to customer service.

These situations can escalate very quickly, compromising the professionalism and trust between customers and their agents, as well as the quality of the project.

Once a customer loses faith in a contractor, it becomes very hard to earn that respect and faith back. In speaking with contractors, most have no problem with good competition, which yields competitive pricing and increased value. However, problems arise when consultants or contractors bite off more than they can chew. The consequences can negatively impact more than your company, but also the industry and your competition.

Smart Growth Means Smart Planning

While some may say that taking on bigger projects is the only way to grow a company, that growth needs to be tempered with good planning. It’s important to take the steps to grow a business and move up in the size of projects that consultants are undertaking, but if there is an obvious struggle to complete simple residential garages and trouble finding qualified labor to do that, how are you going to handle a large casino project with very tight time constraints and high demand for once-and-done application?

Know Your Crew

Before you start considering larger jobs, really get to know the abilities of your crew. If you find that your crew gets overwhelmed with fast-paced projects, bringing them out to projects on tight timelines may not be the best option. It’s common to see contractors struggle to keep crews focused when projects are difficult. Often, they end up not being productive or leave jobs altogether.

Since the industry is closely knit, a lot of contractors bring friends and kids to projects. The key is making sure they know how to work. Including friends and family on a job just to fill a body count can be counterproductive. Well-oiled crews that work together and know each other’s next move are efficient and effective. Another solution to finding a great crew is to consider teaming up with a contractor who may be able to handle a large project. If it’s your lead, you will be learning the ins and outs of handling a large project, giving you valuable experience to take on those projects by yourself in the future.

Mistakes Happen…Plan for Them

Every contractor has had a situation where bids don’t quite work out, or the work needs to be redone. Always try to bid the project so you can make money, but also cover a few unforeseen costs. Knowing that these will come up, and more importantly planning for them, can take a lot of stress off of the consultant or contractor. Instead of writing them off as a loss, consider them as a corporate investment.

Engage with Your Crew

Making a crew feel invested in the project is important. If concerns exist about damage, take the time to show the crew how to service equipment and give them the responsibility of fixing any broken equipment as soon as it breaks. The more time and effort you invest in educating your staff about cleanliness, organization and mindfulness, the greater the chance they will follow your lead. Also, have a formal equipment sign-out and hold crews responsible for bringing the equipment back.

No matter the size of your company, check equipment out with your staff every day and give the tools a thorough once-over to ensure they’re available and in proper working order. Some easy items to add to your crew engagement checklist include:

Educate them on a pattern of compliance, or they will never know what you mean about keeping equipment running.
Provide them with access to reps and/or maintenance companies, which can help maintain or repair equipment to create a sense of greater ownership and better stewardship of the tools and resources at their disposal.
Take time to show them how to organize their tools and to keep them in proper places.
Manage the equipment with quick visual checks to make sure everything is in its place.

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Customer Service Skills: The face of your business relies on the tone

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Millennial customers today are like an entirely new category in their own light. Where previous generations prefer more one-on-one connection and personal relationships, young people today lean towards self-help solutions and fast-paced interactions.


The 4 Most Important Customer Service Skills to Master

Your business’ millennial customers today will bring about the next generation of confident and well-researched purchasers. In terms of customer service skills, and in our own experience, here are the top few that agents need to truly master before that next generation comes.


1. Professionalism The face of your business relies on the tone, grammar and writing style across digital ways of communication, as well as the professionalism and conciseness of any phone interaction.

Some rules for professionalism in email or chat customer service: no abbreviations or lingo, check your information, and definitely never be pushy or leading.
Being understanding, friendly, informative and quick to respond to any customer service interaction is the best way to remain professional and help a customer resolve any issues with lightning speed. When in doubt, one of the best ways to promote better professionalism is to craft standardized decision trees and agent scripts that follow your company’s voice and brand perfectly.


2. EmpathyEvery customer wants their issue to be understood and cared for. Customer service agents need to put themselves in the customers’ shoes and broaden their perspectives (and vocabularies, in some cases) to understand where the issue came from and how it can be resolved.
Everyone involved in a customer service interaction is a person — showing compassion and empathy in genuine ways for the problems they are facing, or relating on a more positive note, shows that you care and builds loyalty with the customer.


3. AssertivenessWith professionalism and empathy comes a need to be assertive in customer service situations. Now, we don’t mean aggressive — we mean being completely clear, confident and direct with the information provided and support offered. Taking control of a customer service interaction in a calm and helpful way by asking appropriate, direct questions will help guide support agents to the right conclusion far easier and faster, and the customer is much more likely to feel that the agent they spoke with is the right person for the job.


4. ExpertiseResearch shows the phone to be the most frustrating way to engage customer service.
Without your customer service agents fully mastering the ins and outs of your business and product or service offering, they’ll never feel 100% comfortable and confident helping customers, and in return, customers will be more frustrated.

Customer-facing agents should always be trained experts on every relevant inner working, allowing them to be more empowered to answer questions accurately and directly.