When your company’s reputation depends on positive feedback your number one goal is to make sure every customer has the best possible experience. Here are 10 ways to help you get your customers raving about your business.
1. Examine Each Touch Point – Before you can make any drastic changes, you must first determine what your touch points are and how customers currently feel about each of these areas. Do an in-depth analysis at each interaction to get your starting point.
2. Survey Your Employees – Customer surveys are all too common these days, but they often fail to get to the heart of your customer service problems. By contrast, your employees are really hearing what your customers have to say day in and day out and can point you toward the biggest complaints.
3. Create a Mission Statement for Customer Service – Your employees probably know that they are there to make customers happy, but is that at the core of your business model? If not, creating a customer-centric mission statement will help clarify the mission.
4. Reconsider Your Hiring Practices – If you have been hiring based on resume credentials alone, maybe take a step back and start hiring based on personality traits and cultural fit within your company. Sales come naturally when your reps exude great service.
5. Know Your Goals – Set customer service-oriented goals for your team. This is different from setting sales goals. You want positive surveys coming in, or a boost in positive reviews online. Give rewards for faster response times when a customer sends a query. Make them measurable and attainable.
6. Make It A Long-Term Proposition – The worst time to start caring about customer service is when your sales are declining. If you want to see real results you need to make customer service a priority every single day, especially when sales are already doing great.
7. Make Your Customer’s Lives Easier – Your customers love you because you make their life better. Provide valuable information online where they can find it, make your team easily accessible, and make sure that they can get answers in less time.
8. Lead by Example – It isn’t enough to tell your team to care about the customers. You need to take the lead by showing them how you care for customers yourself. Always go the extra mile.
9. Give Your Team Authority to Act – One of the biggest hindrances to great customer service is when employees have to ask for permission to serve their customers. Give them permission to do whatever it takes to keep the customer happy. No questions asked.
10. Stay Organized – Even if you fail to delight all of your customers, make sure you have an organized system for handling their information. Try and ensure that they always deal with the same rep, or that all reps are taking notes on their accounts, so customers don’t have to relive their bad experience over and over.
About the Author
Ellen Goodwright is a writer and “customer service raving fan”. Ellen is currently working on her new book: “365 Tips for Improving Your Customer Service”.
