Business owners should always realize that commercialization is not all about earning money but providing the needs of the customers to make them feel important and well taken cared for. We have already heard that in business, the best salespeople almost spend 80 percent of their time listening to their customers than talking to them. This is true because companies should spend a lot of times attending to customers’ inquiries, providing solutions to problems and helping them with all their issues. If these are given, we can say that businesses really know how to provide great customer service that every customer deserves.
But why do commercial businesses need to give so much significance to customer service when they do have the resources to put up more advertisements and take in more customers? The answer is obvious. If you are the customer and you have problems with the items you just have bought and you called the company to complain, would you be happy if you will not be responded well by the customer service? Would you not avoid the products the company makes and won’t you tell your friends to do the same thing?
The role of the customer service is always very significant because they provide all the possible solutions to all customers’ issues so that the customers will feel important. Needless to say, it is the feeling of security and respect that is given to the customers that make them come back for more. As the experts sales consultants always advise, if the customers believe that they can get the attention they want whenever they have problems, they will always come back and will even spread the good words to other people.
Actually, how to provide great customer service is just a matter of common sense. If you do make your customers feel great whenever they need you to listen and provide solutions, they will put their trust on you. Here are the best ten ways on how to provide efficient customer service to your clients.
Considerations to Perfectly Provide Great Customer Service
- Be an example. If you are the leader of a customer service team, lead by example. Don’t show to your team that you can always shout or argue with the customers or your people may do the same. Always try to build your company’s good reputation so you should always be courteous so that even angry callers can feel comfortable with you.
- Hang in the rules. From the training, we have seen set of rules hanging on walls to remind us of our jobs as responsible representatives of the company. You can do the same once you are on the floor to remind you of your responsibilities.
- Treat employees as if they are your customers. This is the golden role of some of the big players in our industries. If customers must be given due respect, the customer service employees must also receive the same attention because they are the people whom you can depend on to be able to build your company’s reputation.
- Provide long term job security to the best performing representatives. In this case, you must do performance rating to your customer service employees and reward those who are giving their best to satisfy customers. If you employ employees on short-term basis, most probably these employees will not be encouraged to become better with their jobs.
- Build your customers’ trust. Whenever customers call and state their name, try to address them by their names whenever you can. You don’t have to sound too formal but more like you are talking to a friend but try to be attentive with the issue.
- Learn to listen to what the customers say. Some customers may always be keen in calling the customer service even on small issues. In this case, you listen and analyze so that it won’t be hard for you to come up with a solution.
- Winning the customers. Sometimes it pays well if you can provide gifts or amenities to loyal customers. You can also offer help even if their issues go beyond your responsibility like helping them with directions or providing them assistance in other ways.
- Show appreciations to your customer service employees. Satisfied employees can perform better if they are happy with their employers. You can provide your employees rewards, bonuses or small tokens to remind them that they are great assets to the company.
- Make your customers your friends. It is not always that customers have issues that they talk to the representatives. Sometimes they only want to emphasize connection. So treat them like your friends.
- Always try to resolve customers’ disputes accordingly. When customers call, they want something done for them and you must solve this quickly to prevent further problems. Avoid matching their agitation with strong emotions because these can only create misunderstanding.
Providing customer service can be a hard-driven job for the representatives because customers are mostly in the angry mode when they call. But this is part of the business. At the end of the day, you always realize that your customers are what make the business going. Also, always remember the 5 A’s in providing great customer service. These are acknowledging the problem, apologizing regardless of the situation, accepting responsibility, adjusting to the situation and assuring the customer that you will follow through with his or her problem. And that is how to provide great customer service in the most serviceable way.