Posts

COMMUNICATION IN CUSTOMER SERVICE

/0 Comments/in /by
communication in customer service

8 rules for good customer service

Business success depends on strong communication. In customer service, this is especially true. When reflecting on the importance of customer service experiences, recent studies have revealed their direct impact on a business’s customer retention and profits.

The result of a good customer experience: 7 out of 10 consumers are willing to spend more money with a company that provides great customer service.

The result of a bad customer experience: Over half of US consumers will abandon a planned purchase or transaction because of poor customer service.

When every interaction counts, it’s important to take a closer look at the basic dos and don’ts of communicating effectively with customers.

Learn the top five dos and don’ts of customer communication, some general best practices for your teams to keep in mind, and how to tie it all together to build loyalty.

Top dos and don’ts for communicating effectively with customers

  • DO: Build sincere relationships according to leading communication principles. Principles such as communicating professionally, openly, and honestly to attract, engage, and retain customers.
    • Example: If a customer asks a question regarding your product’s features, your team should be honest and sincere about those features and not overpromise on capabilities to secure a sale.
  • DON’T: Disregard your customers’ concerns or let them feel underappreciated. This can often lead to customers disengaging with your brand or being driven to other competitors.
    • Example: If a customer is worried about your product malfunctioning, your team should not brush their concerns off with a curt, “Don’t worry about it.” They should take the time to address those concerns until the customer feels comfortable and satisfied.
  • DO: Communicate proactively to customers, supplying as much relevant information upfront to provide a sense of authority and security.
    • Example: If a customer asks about your product’s use cases, your team should fully answer their question. Additionally provide any supporting documents, links, or information where the customer can learn more.
  • DON’T: Be vague when answering customers’ questions, leaving the customer confused and dissatisfied.
    • Example: If a customer asks, “How does your product work?” and your team doesn’t know, they shouldn’t answer with “I don’t know.” Instead, they should answer truthfully and to the best of their ability, supplying as much detail as possible. If they aren’t sure or did not supply adequate information, they should promise the customer that they will follow up with their teams for more information and then reach out to them once they acquire the necessary information.
  • DO: Automate essential client communication tasks for ease of use and efficiency.
    • Example: Business leaders can either employ a chatbot that can point customers to the right resources for their needs, proactively create a customer-facing FAQ page with the top asked questions and their subsequent answers, or provide employees with a list of the most asked questions and their responses so they are able to best help customers when interfacing with them.
  • DON’T: Omit customer-facing information and resources that provide them with important knowledge they need to make informed decisions about your business.
    • Example: When customers visit your site, they are conducting a search to inform whether or not they want to proceed along the customer journey. Key information, such as “About us” and “Contact us” pages, or a phone number, address, or social media handles should be found there. If your site is vague and omits this key information, they likely won’t pursue your product due to a lack of trust and transparency. Any self-serve information that the customer accesses and navigates without employee guidance should be written in a clear and concise manner, eliminating any chance for confusion or frustration. Using a digital writing assistant like Grammarly Business can help streamline these efforts by scanning content for grammar, spelling, punctuation, clarity, conciseness, and tone within seconds and providing real-time suggestions for improvement.
  • DO: Acknowledge and address problems when they exist so that your clients’ needs are met and their loyalty increases.
    • Example: If a customer experiences an issue or problem with your product, your team should acknowledge their negative experience and work to find a solution that satisfies the customer. Showing empathy is the key to turning a negative customer situation into a positive one.
  • DON’T: Ignore customer complaints and concerns or get defensive when addressing them.
    • Example: If a customer takes the time to share their negative experience or issue with your team, they should never respond with aggression or annoyance. This makes it even more difficult to change that customer’s opinion about your business. This will immediately reflect poorly on the company as a whole—all because of one employee’s actions.
  • DO: Personalize communications with every customer, but ensure it maintains a consistent style and voice aligned with the company.
    • Example: If your team is writing to a customer, ensure that their tone and style are consistent with those guidelines set by your business. This is crucial to maintaining a consistent brand-aligned experience—in addition to proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Digital communication assistants like Grammarly Business can easily facilitate this process, detecting a passage’s tone and style in a matter of seconds, and providing suggestions for improvement.
  • DON’T: Write canned responses to customers that feel impersonal or insincere.
    • Example: Customers, whether they come to your team with issues or not, are unique and expect to be treated as such. Providing canned responses that show no personal touches or qualities will be off-putting to a customer. They expect to be heard, and canned responses do nothing to accomplish that.

These key dos and don’ts provide the groundwork for communicating effectively with customers. But how can you ensure they’re practiced and followed regularly?

Credit: Grammarly Business

CUSTOMER SERVICE EXPERIENCE – 5 Things Your Customers Deserve

/4 Comments/in /by

Think about this: Amazon, Uber, Zoom, and Tesla Motors, what do these brands have in common? They were each, not the first to do what they do, but they did the consumers’ job better than their competitors. And, they consistently give their customers the best service experience they deserve.

They are all disruptors. Walmart disrupted local retail businesses when they came into a community. Uber disrupted the taxi-cab industry. Amazon disrupted the entire retail world, Zoom disrupted physical meetings and office space. And, Tesla disrupted the automobile industry.

So, are you starting in a career or business and it looks like there is nothing new to do? Like everything that could be done has already been done? There is yet a way to disrupt your market. Make an exceptional customer experience your brand identity. Customer service is often overlooked in companies, and, this could be a big opportunity to differentiate your business and attract and retain loyal customers.

For The Best Customer Service Experience, Do These:

  1. Know Your Customers – Who is your ideal customer? What does your customer need? How can you meet that need? Do your research and analyze your target audience. Beyond the service, you want to provide, know enough about them to become a part of their lives.
  2. Design a customer-centered service experience – Your customers are at the centre of all you do, not you. Alongside the product or service you are offering, deliberately put your customers at the centre of your activities by designing a customized service experience. Therefore, if you know them as explained above, this should not be difficult to do.
  3. Respond quickly to every customer inquiry or comment – Know when to read the script and when to use your humanity. Do not ever keep your customers waiting. Never!
  4. Stay in Touch – Adequate use of social media will give you top-of-the-mind awareness with your customers. Be conveniently accessible to your customers and stay in touch. Social media is an extension of brand marketing for you, therefore, use it sufficiently. Something as simple as a good CRM (Customer Relationship Management) program can help you keep track of your customers, what they have bought in the past and any issues they have had.
  5. Celebrate them – Give a human touch to your brand by interacting with your customers’ experiences and achievements. Celebrate their moments with them, and, thank them for patronizing you.

In conclusion, let them know that you are not just after their money, you sincerely want to make their lives easier. 93% of customers are liekly to make repeat purchases with companies who offer excellent customer service.

A confident lady

9 Tips on How to Be a Great Boss

/0 Comments/in /by

A confident lady

Bosses are the most misunderstood persons on earth! Even when they mean well, their actions and inactions affect company morale and productivity more than anything else. Now, not everyone knows how to be a great boss. But we all have stories to share of enduring a bad one. Employees go to work and want to do a good job but it is the boss that sometimes gets in the way of them performing well.

Have you recently been promoted to manager and you are worried about how to get your job
done without any heartaches?

Here’s How to Win the Boss-of-the-Year Award

Boss of the year mug

1. Communicate clear vision: ensure that employees understand the why and what about the organization.
2. Connect vision to daily tasks: get the employees engaged with the company’s vision by breaking down the vision into their specific job description. This way, they’d align their daily tasks with the vision.
3. Set clear performance expectations but don’t micromanage: tell them what is expected in clear terms and leave them to get it done. Trust your employees’ ability to perform.
4. Give good feedback and develop your talent: let them know when they are doing a good job and when they are not meeting targets. Provide opportunities for career and personal development.
5. Find out what motivates your workers (make work fun)
6. Appreciate employee efforts: reward good performance. Offer praises generously in private and in public, this is a sure morale booster.

7. Stay connected and aware of updates
8. Care about the employee as a person: Show empathy, practice emotional intelligence. Employees are happy when they know that the manager cares for them on a personal level.
9. Value employee perspectives: remember that you’re all in it together, listen to their opinions and suggestions. Let them know that their perspectives matter.

Treat your employees how you want your customers to be treated. Be humane and allow yourself to enjoy being a manager. What kind of a boss are you?

To grab your customers attention, surprise them

/0 Comments/in , /by

Ways to grab your customer’s attention  in a distracted world

Who doesn’t like a surprise? The best way to form an instant connection with your customers is to surprise them. Creating a sense of delight among your customers can help them in staying connected with you for a longer span of time

Target the right audience

If you choose the right audience, it ensures that your brand has a higher probability of success. You need to begin with narrowing down your potential audience. This can be done by analysing current customers and studying demographic trends.

Thereafter, you could study the market and figure out the kind of people that would use your product or service. Once you have done this, you could look at the marketing activities of your competitors in order to identify gaps in the market. Finally, after identifying the gaps, you need to create a compelling brand copy that can grab the attention of your customers and hold it.

By choosing the right audience, you are ensuring that your campaigns are reaching customers that are already interested in the product. You just have to form a connection with them. They are also more likely to share your campaigns with others, giving you free publicity.

Keep it simple

Any campaign that you design needs to be simple. This is because complexity can often prove to be a turn off for your customers. You do not want that to happen, especially in today’s world.

Nowadays, people are exposed to brands all the time. Be it in the online world, or in the real world; brands have become omnipresent. This means that there is a lot of competition that needs to be dealt with. Often, simplistic brand campaigns can work like a charm.

People do not have the time to go through elaborate product descriptions and features. Instead, they tend to look for something that is much more simplistic and yet serves the purpose. By keeping things simple, a brand can ensure that it can appeal to the masses and grab their attention for longer periods of time.

Simplistic campaigns also help your customers in making a quick decision. This can prove to be a game-changer in today’s competitive environment. Once the customer begins to feel that they have seen what they want, they are ready to make a decision. This helps your brand in quickly realizing sales and building your customer base rapidly.

If you have a job with no aggravation, you don’t have a job

/0 Comments/in , , /by

A brand not responding on Twitter is like hanging up the phone on customers. With millions watching. Read more

Customer Experience Flaws that Predict a Company’s Failure

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Brands should aim to create customer experiences that find the sweet spot where both relevance and value are present. After all, just because something is relevant doesn’t mean it’s actually worth something to the Read more