The expectations of the average consumer have shifted a lot over the last few years. During the pandemic, customers grew accustomed to brands bending over backwards to serve them. When digital channels were the primary – and often the only – way of doing business, customers were treated to seamless, highly customized experiences. As the world has grown used to our new normal, standards for customer service have remained high. Unfortunately, the labor shortage combined with these new service expectations have led to unusually low rates of customer satisfaction.
There are ways to deliver stellar service despite staffing concerns and high expectations from customers. The customer experience is a fantastic place to focus your investments – invest in your customers and you’ll see your efforts pay off in spades. As you evolve your brand’s approach to service, keep these tips in mind:
Tailor Your Customer Experience
It’s difficult to deliver efficient, personalized service if your team goes into a customer call with limited details about who they’re speaking with and why. Thankfully, new tools make it easier than ever to provide your team with context. New school business phone etiquette means anticipating customer needs. Invest in technology that tells you who is calling, their order history, previous help requests, and more. This allows you to get on the same page as callers faster.
Tailoring customer experiences means streamlining the customer service tasks that used to take several minutes to process. Instead of asking a dozen questions about the caller, you can leap right into a personalized customer experience. This makes callers feel like VIPs. Calling your business will feel like a treat instead of a chore.
Practice Active Listening Skills
Does your customer service team understand the power of active listening? Most people don’t – for the majority of us, the act of listening is more about waiting for our turn to talk than actually truly tuning into someone else’s experience. In a professional setting, active listening means being fully present and engaged when interacting with customers and taking the time to understand their needs, concerns, and feedback.
By actively listening to customers, you’ll gain valuable insights into their preferences, pain points, and expectations. This information can then be used to tailor products, services, and marketing strategies to better meet customers' needs and improve overall satisfaction. Active listening can also help build trust and rapport with customers. When customers feel heard and understood, they are more likely to feel valued and respected, leading to a stronger sense of loyalty and advocacy.
Active listening takes time to master. If you’re hoping to promote clearer communication between your staff and your customers, invest in an active listening training session for your team. A training lesson can help ensure that all customer-facing interactions are conducted with empathy and a focus on understanding the customer's perspective.
Keep Your Customer Service Team Happy
Customer service work isn’t for the faint of heart. It can be both emotionally and physically draining at times. The work can be monotonous, and when customers are stressed, they often pass along their negativity to customer service professionals. These challenges can feel especially insurmountable when working with a skeleton crew. It’s no wonder so many customer service professionals burn out and move onto a different field entirely.
It’s hard to provide stellar service when you’re feeling burned out. If you’re serious about investing in the customer experience, make sure you’re also investing in your team. Take the temperature of your employees frequently to ensure they’re feeling appreciated and supported. Whether you do this via anonymous survey or in one-on-one meetings, your team will be grateful that you asked. Regularly review pay and incentives, too, as compensation can make all the difference. Provide opportunities for growth and be sure to recognize when your employees go above and beyond for a customer. It doesn’t take much to foster a welcoming, enjoyable workplace environment!
Encourage Feedback
If you’re hoping to find long-term success with customers, you’ve got to ask for feedback. There’s no better way to learn about customers’ preferences and expectations. By regularly soliciting feedback, your organization can make data-driven decisions to improve both your products and service offerings.
Feedback is great for learning your strengths and weaknesses, but it’s also a tool you can use to foster connection with customers. By actively soliciting feedback and responding to customer concerns, you demonstrate that you care and are committed to meeting needs. This can lead to increased customer loyalty and word-of-mouth marketing. People are delighted when they feel heard – they’re often eager to share their positive experiences with friends and family. At every turn, encouraging feedback pays off in big ways.
Express Empathy
We’re living in unprecedented times. Though the initial wave of angst sparked by the pandemic has subsided, people are still feeling uncertain about the future. This manifests in surprising ways. Some customers have less patience than they did three or four years ago. Others are more demanding in their expectations for customer service. Some people struggle to advocate for themselves.
Customers typically call in with a problem or a frustration – they’re unhappy. It’s important for your customer service team to acknowledge these feelings and extend empathy, even if they can’t resolve the issue right away. Encourage your employees to see things from the customer’s perspective, even when a person is angry or rude. By leading with empathy, we can help create a more positive customer experience for all.
Enduring Customer Service for Whatever the Future Holds
There’s no way to know what lies ahead for your business or customers. These customer service tips will prove essential no matter what’s in store. A little effort can go a long way to win over callers and keep them coming back for more. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel to make a significant impact on your team or customers. Lead with empathy, solicit feedback, and treat your employees well. The rest will fall into place naturally.