customer service

The 10 Commandments of Customer Service

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customer service

Customer service is an integral part of our job and should not be seen as an external extension of it. A company’s most vital asset is its customers. Without them, we would not and could not exist in business. When you satisfy your customers, they not only help you grow by continuing to do business with you but they will also recommend you to friends and associates. The practice of customer service should be as present on the showroom floor as it is in any other sales functions and pertinent in the overall company environment.

 

The 10 commandments of customer service

 

  1. Be a Good Listener: Take the time to identify customer needs by asking questions and concentrating on what the customer is really saying. Listen to their words, the tone of voice, body language, and most importantly, how they feel.
  2. Identify and Anticipate Needs: Customers don’t buy products or services. They buy good feelings and solutions to problems. Most customer needs are emotional rather than logical. The more you know your customers, the better you become at anticipating their needs.
  3. Make Customers Feel Important and Appreciated: Treat them as individuals. Always use their name and find ways to compliment them, but be sincere. Customers are very sensitive and know whether or not you really care about them. Thank them every time you get a chance.
  4. Body Language Is Key: Be sure that your body language conveys sincerity. Your words and actions should be congruent.
  5. Understanding Is Crucial: Your organization may have the world’s best systems for getting things done, but if customers don’t understand them, they can get confused, impatient and angry. Take time to explain how your systems work and how they simplify transactions.
  6. Appreciate the Power of “Yes“: Always look for ways to help your customers. Look for ways to make doing business with you easy. Always do what you say you are going to do.
  7. Know How to Apologize: When something goes wrong, apologize. It’s easy, and customers like it. The customer may not always be right, but the customer must always win. Deal with problems immediately and let customers know what you have done.
  8. Give More Than Expected: What can you give customers that they cannot get elsewhere? What can you do to follow up and thank people even when they don’t buy? What can you give customers that is totally unexpected?
  9. Get Regular Feedback: Encourage and welcome suggestions about how you could improve. There are several ways in which you can find out what customers think and feel about your services. Listen carefully to what they say.
  10. Treat Employees Well: ​Employees are your internal customers and need a regular dose of appreciation. Thank them and find ways to let them know how important they are. Treat your employees with respect and chances are they will have a higher regard for customers.

Credit: the balance

Internal Communication

Internal Communication: Impact On Your Business and How To Improve It?

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Internal Communication

Internal communication refers to the ways you and your colleagues share information, whether in person or remotely, verbally, or in writing. While external communication with customers, clients, and the general public is critical, internal communication is the backbone of a successful business.

According to Gartner, effective internal communication improves productivity by as much as 10% and can increase profits by up to 29%. Avoiding misunderstandings and contradictory messaging also is key to boosting employee morale and satisfaction.

 

Challenges of internal communication across different channels

Today’s workforce uses a variety of communication channels to stay in touch. In addition to traditional face-to-face conversations and phone calls, your team now likely uses several digital channels to communicate, including email, instant messaging, video conferences, texting, and interactive work platforms like Google Docs and Google Sheets.

It is important to choose the right channel for your communication. To do this, consider the following:

  • The type of communication you’re engaging in—whether upward, downward, or lateral.

This is often worth considering when choosing which channel to use. For example, it might be fine to send a quick, casual text to a fellow manager or a direct report when you have a question that needs answering. But when asking a CEO for advice, it may be preferable to send a more formal email or even meet face to face.

  • Your communication style—and that of your audience.

Individuals with personal or intuitive styles, for instance, tend to prefer connecting in person, whereas analytical and functional communicators often respond well to written communications.

Choosing the best channel for a particular task and audience helps maximize the potential efficacy of your message. It means faster responses, fewer misunderstandings, greater levels of engagement, and better relationships between individuals and teams.

Internal Communication

Advantages of good internal communication

Here’s what good internal communication facilitates:

  • Promotes effective collaboration and project management by preventing information silos
  • Improves employee morale by minimizing misunderstandings and empowering employees to ask for what they need to succeed
  • Fosters innovation by providing employees with a safe environment in which to speak up and express novel ideas
  • Encourages a culture of communication by promoting honesty and transparency
  • Streamlines remote communications with guidelines to prevent unintentional overcommunication

Of course, the opposite is also true. Poor internal communication can have a significant detrimental effect on productivity as well as employees’ morale and mental health. This is why improving internal communication must be a top priority for your organization.

Credit: Grammarly

Customer Service Mediator

CUSTOMER SERVICE MEDIATOR: THE CUSTOMER’S ADVOCATE

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Customer Service Mediator

Who holds service providers accountable?

Customers need a mediator that can get their complaints heard and addressed on time by service providers. Service providers hold so much influence over our daily lives because we depend on them for every interaction. From the simplest personal activity to more complex social activities, service providers are the powerful influencers.

The basic human needs which are essential for survival are no longer in the hands of each individual. We depend on enterprises and corporations to help us meet these needs. So who holds manufacturers and service providers accountable?

If customers are the reasons why businesses exist in the first place, then these customers should be able to influence and drive the right kinds of service that they desire and deserve. It is our basic human right or in this case, consumers right, to demand and get quality service that we are paying for. But, it is often unclear what rights consumers have and how far-reaching it is. Hence, service providers for years have taken advantage of this loophole to exploit their customers for maximum profits.

What if there is an advocate for the customers? What if there is an independent body to oversee and ensure fairness in the interactions between service providers and their customers?

Well, there is!

Customer Service Mediator (CSM)

The sole mission of Customer Service Mediator (CSM) is to bridge the service gap between demand and satisfaction. Customers now have a mediator to report to when any product or service provider defaults in meeting the terms of their agreement which has already been paid for. Send your unattended complaints, delayed/unacknowledged issues and poor customer service reports directly to CSM. You can rest assured that they would be taken up with the concerned service providers. CSM will follow up on every complaint until a mutually satisfying solution is reached.

Have you been frustrated by any poor service or product lately? Send in your complaints to info@csmng.org or tag us to your complaints on social media (@csmnig) and we will take it up from there. Telecommunication, FMCG, Transportation, Hospitality, Fast foods and restaurants, IT, Finance/Fintech, Electricity, Social Services, Healthcare, Education, Delivery services, SMEs, prepaid TV services, Entertainment and other customer services issues in any industry will be handled with all seriousness.

Customer Service Mediator

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No matter how little you are paying or how small the issue is, if you are paying for it you deserve to be well-served.

Send in your complaints in video formats, text or pictures.

Let us champion the course of customer service for everyone. Customers should be the real influencers.

Contact us now and get your right!

ETHICS OR PROFIT (What to do when you are in the line of fire)?

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The race to make money is more heated than ever as a direct response to the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 lockdown last year. Corporations and SMEs seem to be more concerned with ROI than customer satisfaction, and the old argument between ethics and profits has become a daily struggle for managers.

 

Ethics And Profit

Ethics is a system of moral principles that guides a person or business’s behaviour or way of conducting activities. While, profit is simply the net revenue generated by a business enterprise minus the cost of production.

 

While profit is the main motive behind any business venture, the matter of ethics will more definitely determine the long-term profitability of that venture. If you sacrifice customers’ satisfaction, excellence, and integrity for profit, you will end up losing more. Because when people do business with you, they are indirectly signifying their trust and endorsement of your services. Satisfied customers are the best form of free promotions and referrals.

 

 What To Do

Sometimes the lines gets so blurred that as a manager you get confused on which path to follow. In times like this, ask yourself these questions:

  • What are the company’s mission statement and values?
  • Do they align with the decision you are about to make?
  • What is the company culture? Or what is the company protocol concerning matters like this?
  • What is more important to the company, profit or image?
  • Is there a solution that can satisfy both the client and the company without incurring unnecessary expenses?
  • Do you need to consult your superior before making a decision?
  • Would you be satisfied with your decision and be able to defend it later?
  • Do you have proper documentation for all the processes and activities leading up to your decision?

Once you answer all these questions satisfactorily, then go ahead and make your decision. Doing what is right for the business all the time is not an easy task, it requires intelligence, corporate awareness, grit and experience. If you succeed in making the right decision, the rewards will be worth the stress.

Ethics may cost you more in production, but it will bring you more in long term profit.

How to identify a bad service

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Not all customers are kings. Although there are plenty of service gurus out there that will tell you that you should go out of your way to satisfy even delight each and every customer, anyone with a bit of business experience will know that in some cases that is just impossible.

Some people are just unfair and are looking to exploit your services. Even more, to keep your service team effective, you should know how to recognize these people.

We are a service company, that’s why we mostly write posts about how to best satisfy your customers. It thus might seem strange to some of you that we are now writing a post about ‘bad’ customers. However, the truth is that you can actually improve your service by timely identifying this group of ‘bad’ customers and taking action.

High Contact Frequency

If a customer contacts you with a frequency far above the average, devouring too much of your team’s time, he might not be worth keeping.

Looking for better customer relationships?

Of course this doesn’t mean that anyone reaching out with requests is potentially a bad customer. But if you have someone who constantly reaches out to you with questions that could have been answered by simply going through your website or knowledge base, if a customer is obviously too lazy to think for himself, he deserves the label of a potential ‘bad customer’.

 

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Complicated people and what you should do

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It is important we understand that, people are complicated and as such, you should make it work to your advantage. Every single one of your customers is an individual with their own backgrounds, experiences, issues and mindsets whether permanent or situation-based.

Whatever emotional or behavioral peculiarities these people come with, you can bet that something completely outside of your control is the cause you can only affect what comes next.

Sounds scary? It is.

Here’s what you can do to understand your customers better, nudge them in the right direction and make them feel good about themselves and your company.

Understand That Being Important Is Important

Esteem, right up there in the Maslow’s heirarchy of needs  theory pyramid, presents the typical human desire to be accepted and valued by others.

A little ego boost has a myriad of positive psychological effects, and even simple compliments and a little bit of special treatment can go a long way in making someone feel good about themselves.

The easiest way to make your customers feel important and valued is to give your undivided attention to every one you communicate with, no matter how “important” the communication may be.

Putting in a little bit of effort to caress your customer’s ego can go a long way in regards to how they feel about your company.

Leave Aside Your Fight or Flight Mode

In angry customer situations (or any interpersonal exchange, really), the first reaction is usually the first thing that goes wrong. When someone attacks, we intuitively shoot into stress and defense mode — fight or flight.

It’s easy to get defensive, however that sort of mindset is not going to help calm you or your customer down under stressful circumstances.

The key to letting go of that completely natural, but dangerous first reaction is understanding what’s causing the stress in this case, it’s the fear of not being able to fix the situation.

Learn to Understand Anger

Instead of focusing on just the fact that someone is angry, try to figure out why they are angry.

People don’t always say what they mean or mean what they say, so it may take some work on your end to read between the lines and find the source of a customer’s anger. Ask yourself the following questions:

  • What caused the anger?
  • Were they ignored, insulted, or treated unfairly in any way?
  • Do they have unmet expectations when it comes to your product or service?

Learning to put yourself in the other person’s shoes is a crucial skill to learn.

Use Names (Theirs and Yours)

Starting each email by addressing your customer by name (and for the love of everything, make sure you spell it correctly) doesn’t just make you sound more respectful and polite; it actually makes the customer happy to hear it:

A person’s name is to that person, the sweetest, most important sound in any language.

Besides using your customers’ names, using yours is just as important. By introducing yourself to the customer, you make things personal and begin to frame the interaction as one between people, versus one between a customer and a business.

Understand the Power of an Apology

There’s one single word that’s absolutely necessary for your entire team to use during a crisis.

That word is “sorry.”

But you have to mean it. No one likes to hear an empty “we apologize for the inconvenience” like you’re some kind of robot.

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Today’s marketing tactics must revolve around the customer

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Truth be told, marketing today revolves around the customer. A customer-centric experience goes further than simply targeting the ideal client

Individual preferences, not clusters, must be heard, honored and catered to. This will ensure customers become loyal lovers of your brand for life.

Why? Surely, you’ve noticed that happy customers generate buzz, as in, they rave about your services to their friends. Word-of-mouth promotion sets off positive ripples that bring in happy returns.

What is Omnichannel Marketing?

So far, we are pretty familiar with a multichannel marketing approach: SEO, targeted offers, mobile optimization, and engagement with followers on social media outlets.

All of these are tools to develop a relationship with the customer. That great and all, and up to now it worked smoothly. Some of these tactics, such as social media, engage followers by keeping a discussion going and generate buzz. Some, like coupons sent via a mobile app, personalize the relationship, making it more intimate.

However, imagine if all these methods were so smoothly tied together as to become one seamless, holistic organism.

As in, there is no separation between the social media site, where they chat with their friends about your services, and your mobile app, where your relationship with them becomes more intimate and on-on-one.

You want them to try your product, buy from your company, remain loyal to you, and keep that loyalty intimate through continued offers. Easy as pie, if you do it smoothly.

Remember to Revolve Around the Customer

While creating this holistic omnichannel marketing organism, the focus should never stray from the individual customer. It doesn’t matter how many customers you have; your marketing should never be generic, and it should never make the customers feel like you are targeting their demographic, or not even targeting them for the right product at all.

Make them feel special. Take them on a date. Take them on two dates. Awe them.

To create that intimate relationship that revolves around the customers, do your research into what they like, target them with those offers, rinse and repeat.

Though every customer experience will be different, well, so is every customer.

 

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HOW TO GET LOYAL CUSTOMERS

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Happy customers remain loyal. When they’re loyal, they continue to buy your products or hire your services.

One way to keep your customers loyal is to improve customer service. So, you should make it your number one priority to give your customers the best experience possible. If your business slacks in customer service, it can lead to terrible losses. Here are a few ways to get loyal customers:

 

  1. Aim for quality interaction

Have you ever made a decision about a business, product or service from the attitude of the sales representative or customer service representative? Even though some customers can be quite a handful sometimes, no one likes to be attended to by a moody or ill-mannered person.

 

  1. Get a good grasp of your product and services

There’s nothing that destroys one’s trust in a product or service more than speaking with a sales representative or a customer service personnel who knows little or nothing about the product or service that is being offered.

When those who are in close contact with your customers are not sharp with their knowledge of what your business is offering, you invite the displeasure of your customer. They get impatient because you’re not fast enough. And that leads to a shattered trust in your product or service.

 

  1. Be sensitive to your customer’s needs

You can’t have a successful business without clients. The more sensitive you are to what your clients need and the more effort you put in to make it available, the more they will be pleased with your service. They’ll know you’re responsive to their needs and that you actually care.

It’s not just about developing your product or services based on the feedback you get from your clients. You also need the feedback to improve their experience with your offering.

Do everything you need to do to be available to your customers. For example, you can set up live chat so that they can always be in contact if they have any inquiries.

 

  1. Create valuable resources

There are millions of people searching for solutions to different problems. Whether it is how to watch the world cup from anywhere in the world, how to use machine learning, or how to knot a tie, they need solutions. Some of these problems can be solved directly by your business, but for some, the little extra information you give could be what will endear your customer to you.

Blog posts, tutorials, infographics, whitepapers, guides and videos make great resource materials your customer can use to deepen their experience with your products and services. This will get them to keep coming back.

 

  1. Get the whole team involved

Excellent customer service delivery is usually heaped on the shoulders of the customer service department. They are the ones in the line of fire of customer complaints and inquiries.

 

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Inspire Your Employees by Treating Them like Customers

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Employee motivation is a critical aspect at the workplace which leads to the performance of the department and even the company. Motivating your employees needs to be a regular routine.

Treating your employees like customers will inspire them to deliver good customer service to the company’s clients. If your employees have a great workplace experience, they will naturally be motivated to create a great customer experience for the company’s customers. Put simply, happy employees make happy customers.

When employees are motivated to work, they will generally put their best effort in the tasks that are assigned to them. Employee satisfaction is important for every company because this can lead towards a positive growth for the company.

There are several reasons why employee motivation is important. Mainly because it allows management to meet the company’s goals. Without a motivated workplace, companies could be placed in a very risky position.

Motivated employees can lead to increased productivity and allow an organisation to achieve higher levels of output. Imagine having an employee who is not motivated at work. They will probably use the time at their desk surfing the internet for personal pleasure or even looking for another job. This is a waste of your time and resources.

Note that this is based on one employee. Try picturing the majority of your employees doing the same thing. This is not a position anybody wants to be in.

 

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4 STRATEGIES TO KEEP CUSTOMERS ENGAGED AND COMING BACK

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Ensuring that your customers are satisfied and eager to return is the lifeblood of a growing business. Providing a quality product or service that exceeds expectations is only the beginning. Turning first-time customers into repeat patrons these days is very important and one must strategize well.

Here are some strategies that can help you keep your existing customers satisfied and coming back:

 

  1. Embrace Customer Feedback

It’s essential to establish tools and practices that encourage customers to provide continuous feedback. A way to do this is to set up easy lines of communication online and ensure that you respond to customers’ complaints and request quickly.

Creating online surveys can be a powerful and inexpensive tool to gain feedback on a new product or service. And your customers will appreciate the opportunity to communicate how they feel directly

With surveys, it’s wise to let customers post anonymously, which ensures they will provide honest answers. It’s that honest level of feedback that will ultimately help you improve your business and customer retention. And speaking of social media, it’s essential to keep tabs on what’s being said about your company on the major sites.

 

  1. Respond Quickly

Seeking out and monitoring customer feedback is only part of the customer retention equation. To close the loop on this effectively, you have to make it a priority to respond on a timely basis, even if it’s just to inform them that you’re working on their request. The goal is to make sure customers feel their concerns are being taken seriously. It also pays to be proactive. Set up a regular schedule to work with.

 

  1. Reward Loyalty

A customer loyalty program is another tried and true way of increasing customer retention. Something as simple as discounts earned through points accumulated from previous purchases will come to appreciate and factor into their purchasing decisions.

And, let’s be honest, such programs are increasingly expected by customers. A loyalty program will pay off in the end, because studies show it can cost five times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one.

 

  1. Offer Flexible Payment Options

Convenience, whether in the form of delivery options, product returns and exchanges, or customization, gives customers more reasons to stick with your business. The same principle applies to payment options.

Technology has led to many innovations in how we access our funds and pay for goods and services. Offering flexible payment options can make the difference between landing a customer and seeing them go elsewhere.

 

Credit: Eddie Davis

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