3 Ways to Improve Your Customer Service Department
With all the options available today, both online and in-person, customers can afford to be picky. No longer do they have to suffer through marked-up prices or poor customer service. Businesses may have gotten away with such traits in the past, but no longer.
Now more than ever, excellent customer service is essential. It truly builds loyalty and creates value in a way that no other department of your business can.
Whether your customer service is poor, mediocre, good, or great, there’s always room to be better. In this post, we’ll share with you 3 ways to improve your business’ customer service so you can get started today.
Gather Feedback on Your Customer Service: In order to understand your weak points, take the time to look at your business through your customers’ eyes. How should you gather this customer service feedback? Get creative! Send short email surveys to your email list, offer an optional set of questions at the end of phone calls, utilize website chatbots, or even provide a complaints/suggestions system so you can get to know better what your customers like about you and what they don’t.
Hire & Train Smartly: When it comes to your customer service hiring process, don’t rush. Take the time to carefully vet job candidates to truly understand if they are a match for your team and the kind of service you wish to provide. Are they honest, empathetic, optimistic, and solutions-oriented? Then you may just have a great new hire on your hands! If not, pass on hiring them, no matter how desperate you are.
Once you have new employees hired, don’t throw them into a sink or swim environment with no structure. Take the time to train them carefully so that your whole team provides consistent top-notch service day in and day out.
Measure Success Clearly & Fairly: Provide a clear and fair set of goals for your customer service team to achieve. Ensure that these goals are challenging to reach, but entirely possible with hard work and skill. With this system in place, make sure to establish a rewards system commensurate with each goal to keep your team growing and moving forward.
By setting goals in this way, you clarify to your customer service team what you hope for from them and what they can expect from you each step of the way.
Great customer service is the building block of thriving customer relationships. Without it, customer loyalty will be hard to come by. Make sure to continue to invest in this department for the lifetime of your business. You’ll be glad you did.
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