One of the biggest mistakes companies make today is not managing customer service with due care. Neglect in this very important area leads to the loss of consumers, market instability, and increased costs of acquiring new consumers. Improve customer service is crucial for business survival.
After all, if the company cannot serve those who support the business well, it cannot even survive.
Therefore, it is always important to look for new tips to improve customer service in your company. Firstly, it is essential to understand what this sector is and how important it really is; then, you can discuss the principles that serve as the basis for good support.
Next, it’s good to find out how technology can help improve customer service. From this, it is possible to achieve better results.
Customer service works hand in hand with the sales and marketing sectors. A good result in the alignment of these areas implies greater profitability and more sales. If you want to know more, follow the rest of the article.
What is customer service?
Customer service is the sector that encompasses direct communication actions with consumers at various points in the purchasing journey. It focuses on generating value for users at the moment when communication with them is necessary.
From the moment a person arrives at the company’s website to moments after a purchase, with the adaptation to the product or service.
Thus, it is easy to understand how this represents a significant responsibility for the company. After all, it is direct contact with the consumer, the one who sustains the organization and generates profit. Each mistake can be crucial to drive people away, while each success is extremely important to bring them closer.
The objectives of customer service sessions generally vary. One of the most common cases is problem-solving. Once the user tries to use a product or service and encounters some issues, they open a ticket to get help from company employees.
Lately, customer service has become even more important and multifunctional. Today, customers open tickets to clarify doubts, request requisitions, among other goals. In this sense, the area encompasses much more than just user and professional contact: it can involve self-service, interaction with automated systems, and searches in knowledge bases.
To improve customer service can be essential for the consumer at a moment prior to the purchase decision, serving as a benchmark for the company’s efficiency or even a solution to product-related questions. In other cases, it can be activated to assist in using a platform or website.
Furthermore, support also becomes important when used as a tool in after-sales. The customer success area is derived from support and applies some of the same principles, with the purpose of helping customers adapt systems to their business contexts. Communication is crucial at this moment.
In addition to everything that has been said, it is worth noting that customer service is a component of what we call the customer experience. It is also decisive for establishing a relationship between the consumer and the company, allowing the consumer to become loyal to a brand and even recommend it to acquaintances.
What are the principles of good customer service?
Now, let’s discuss the principles of customer service that make a difference.
Consultancy
One of the most important aspects is, without a doubt, consultancy. It involves communication focused on solving the customer’s problems with empathy and attention, entirely focusing on their needs. Consultative service is not about a problem or a product, or even about the brand. It is customer-oriented, addressing what they feel and attempting to understand how they can achieve their goals with the support of the company.
Education
Education and kindness are crucial in customer support. These elements should not be absent in any type of interpersonal relationship, even those guided by commercial motives. Customer service that prioritizes these aspects prevents headaches and a negative impression on the public. Similarly, it represents a positive image for the company in the market. It’s like having a specific, personal, and human conversation.
Humanization
Moreover, another relevant factor is humanization. Humanizing contact with the customer may seem like an easy task, but with the advancement of automated solutions and technological infrastructure becoming an intermediary between the consumer and the company, this aspect has become a necessity. This includes the support’s ability to be empathetic, kind, and convey human values to the customer. It’s important for the consumer to feel that they are dealing with real people and establish a connection with someone trustworthy who will help them solve a problem or answer a question.
Multichannel
The channels of communication are as important as other components. Or even more important. These are the environments where support is provided, and the limitations of each channel are decisive for the quality and accuracy of the assistance offered. One of the most relevant principles today, however, is multichannelity. In other words, it states that the company should be present on various channels simultaneously. In other words: it should be available whenever the customer needs it. To this concept, we should add the idea of omnichannel, which observes the need to integrate these channels and make the transition experience between them seamless, organic, and natural.
Personalization
Personalization deserves attention as well. Support should focus on the specific needs of each customer and follow their journey. This means that it’s essential to define customer service as a long conversation, with each session being a part of that conversation. Thus, with each new call, employees need to be able to retrieve important information about the customer, such as purchase history, service history, and other factors. This way, each interaction will be perfectly personalized and consultative.
Proactivity
One of the best practices in terms of customer service is proactivity. It means always being ready to provide the customer with something more than they think they need at the moment. It’s about offering value and anticipating the consumer’s needs. As a result, the relationship grows based on trust and constant value generation.
What characterizes good customer service?
Beyond the principles, which function as fundamental aspects, there are some characteristics of what we could call good customer service. These are factors that elevate quality and win customers over. Let’s see what they are:
Problem Solving
First, we must mention efficiency in resolving issues. Considering that one of the main reasons for customer service is to solve a problem, precision is crucial. In other words, good support takes the user from pain and need to a clear and practical solution that contributes to helping them in their daily life.
This is a delicate matter, however. After all, there are many cases that fail to actually solve the problem requested by the customer, involving people in a spiral of disorganization that leads to dissatisfaction. Therefore, it is necessary to have a good, well-prepared team and reinforce processes and technology.
Time
Another very important and sensitive aspect is time. It doesn’t matter as much if you can objectively solve a problem when that solution only comes after a long time. Suppose the consumer needs several calls and days to arrive at the solution to something. This will likely resonate as a negative experience and leave a bad impression that hinders a healthy relationship with the company.
Therefore, agility is a key point when it comes to customer support. Ideally, reach a resolution or an answer to questions quickly so that the session is not an impediment for the consumer to continue addressing other issues in their life.
The combination of problem-solving and swift response time is what leads to successful customer service. However, there are other factors that deserve attention and that we will mention below.
Organization
Regarding organization, it is important to note that this greatly impacts the quality of customer assistance. When we talk about organization, we mean how the company organizes itself to access information and how it adjusts hierarchically to solve daily problems. If there is good organization, the user does not need to speak to numerous people to obtain information X, for example.
Transparency
Transparency is crucial as well. It involves precise and honest service that does not hide information or make solutions more difficult to understand than they seem. With well-prepared and engaged employees in the company culture, you can achieve support that is transparent about the company’s policies and methods, transmitting everything clearly to the customer.
Language
The structure of every communication and dialogue session is based on language. Without it, there is no interaction. Therefore, it is essential that every support call shows care in how subjects are addressed and information is conveyed. The language needs to be adapted to the audience, be kind and helpful, with a comforting style.
Adapting to the audience is probably the most important tip. In the case of a younger audience, agents can adopt a personal communication style, similar to that used on social media, for example. For serious and professional personas, direct and professional communication is interesting.
Good language establishes the breakdown of the first barrier between the audience and the company. From there, the conversation can flow, and the customer instinctively begins to trust the company more, feeling that it truly understands them.
Security
Data security is very important and sensitive in our times. For this reason, good customer service also focuses on this. It is necessary to convey the image of protection and care for data to customers so that they feel comfortable mentioning their information.
What are the objectives of customer service?
The goal of customer service is to optimize communication with the customer, as mentioned earlier in this article. Furthermore, another purpose is to achieve maximum customer satisfaction.
In other words, the ideal is to reach a solution to a problem quickly, with an approach that is personalized and fully pleasing to the audience. In this way, the company can ensure some of the main benefits, such as making a good impression.
Support should be focused on practical value offered to the consumer, but without forgetting that this represents value and impacts the customer journey.
What is the importance of providing good customer service?
Now, let’s delve into understanding the importance of providing good customer service.
The first point is customer retention and loyalty. Excellent customer service is crucial to encourage consumers to make repeat purchases from a company and become loyal brand advocates. If the audience can find quick solutions to problems, even the most complex ones, they will perceive it as additional value generation to the product or service.
This issue is related to the concept of customer experience, which is recurrent and relevant in the times of digital transformation. Support that considers the principles and characteristics we mentioned can stand out and optimize the overall experience.
Another result is the reduction of churn and account cancellations. These are significant challenges for companies that provide periodic services and are responsible for financial instability. With efficiency, prompt response to inquiries, a consultative approach, and other factors, it’s possible to decrease these rates as customers feel more satisfied.
Even if the product offered is not the most perfect, the overall experience also includes customer service. For many customers, good support that is always there when they need it is as important as the main product features and aids in day-to-day usage.
The customer acquisition cost significantly decreases with support and service optimization. As a result, the sales process and journey become shorter, yielding more organic results. This happens simply because the number of people recommending the company increases, which in itself is a way to attract new audiences.
As a direct consequence, expenses on marketing and promotion decrease. Spontaneous customer acquisition, driven by consumers, becomes a complement to internal team efforts, even reinforcing what is stated in marketing with a higher level of trust.
The increased satisfaction and trust of customers lead to enhanced credibility and authority in the market. This, in turn, boosts competitive advantage and brand awareness.
What are the main customer service trends?
Now, let’s talk about the main current trends in customer service:
Self-service
Self-service can improve customer service, and it is extremely relevant nowadays, especially because it aligns well with the autonomy of the modern consumer. This customer in the digital age seeks quick solutions and wants to find some of their answers independently, in a practical and fast manner.
This type of assistance involves approaches that enable this connection between the consumer and the necessary knowledge. It could be a knowledge base, a frequently asked questions (FAQ) section, chatbots optimizing service by providing quick options to categorize sessions, audible response units, among others.
Omnichannel
Omnichannel also emerges as a strong trend of our times. It is increasingly crucial for companies to strive to integrate their channels, aiming to create unified and incredible experiences.
In this context, it is worth highlighting the transition between offline and online channels with security and precision, to convey the idea that the organization is unique and provides distinctive value across all communication channels.
Personalization to enhance customer service
Personalization is valuable in the present day, as it stands out as an element of competitive differentiation. When customers are valued and served according to personalized aspects, they feel confidence in that brand and know that they won’t waste their time by continuing to engage with it. As we mentioned, this is one of the principles but also a trend.
The trend lies in the solutions used to achieve this. We can mention the use of extensive data to build profiles about customers, predicting needs with predictive analysis, as well as data integration to optimize understanding of consumers. By using each session and interaction as a way to learn more about them, the company can segment approaches to the maximum.
Focus on customer experience to improve customer service
Another issue is customer experience. It is estimated that this concept will continue to become more powerful and relevant over time, driving cultural changes within companies. The idea is to optimize customer service to be a part of the memorable experience promised to consumers.
In this sense, support should prioritize some aspects that customers value: mobility, agility, consultative approach, distinctive features, among others.
CRM in customer service
The CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system practically assimilates the pillars of CRM culture and makes them available through functionalities. We are talking about an application that allows the recording of all interactions with each customer, centralization of information, data security, tracking of the customer journey, automation of communication and message flows, etc.
CRM can improve Customer Service, becasuse it is also possible to manage data, reports, and dashboards regarding team performance. Thus, a 360º view of marketing, sales, and, of course, customer service is achieved.
Some applications go even further by using artificial intelligence to analyze the sentiments of consumer messages and offer intelligent insights about them to agents. Therefore, understanding what CRM is is essential.
What are the benefits of applying them?
By embracing these innovations and trends, companies join the race for digital transformation. In engaging with this phenomenon, they can, in turn, gain a competitive edge and enhance their processes and approaches. What’s interesting about the implementation of these technologies is that they automatically align the culture with a customer-centric focus.
Therefore, achieving the aforementioned benefits becomes easier and more intuitive, as part of something the company’s culture is already driving. The generation of value is achieved organically and integrated, as a collective effort across all sectors.
Integration and automation are common elements in these innovations we discussed. Both factors are powerful in taking customer service to the next level in terms of excellence. They ensure all fundamental principles and essential features are in place, resulting in distinctive and unique support that, in turn, portrays your company as exceptional and unique.
By utilizing these solutions, information will be more readily available, service will be faster and more efficient, fewer errors will be made, and the company can actively generate profit from the sector.
So, how to improve customer service?
To improve customer service, consider implementing the following strategies:
- Empathy: Train your staff to understand and empathize with customers. Acknowledge their concerns and demonstrate that you genuinely care about their experience.
- Effective Communication: Ensure clear and concise communication. Provide information promptly and avoid using jargon that might confuse customers.
- Timely Responses: Strive for quick response times, whether it’s addressing queries, resolving issues, or acknowledging feedback. Customers appreciate timely and efficient service.
- Personalization: Tailor your interactions to individual customer needs whenever possible. This can include using their name, understanding their preferences, and offering personalized solutions.
- Continuous Training: Keep your team well-trained and updated on product knowledge, policies, and effective communication techniques. This empowers them to provide better assistance.
- Proactive Problem Solving: Anticipate potential issues and address them proactively. This can involve providing additional information, troubleshooting guides, or preemptively solving common problems.
- Feedback Mechanisms: Establish channels for customers to provide feedback. Analyze this feedback to identify areas for improvement and make necessary adjustments to your customer service approach.
- Multichannel Support: Offer support through various channels such as phone, email, chat, and social media. Ensure consistency across these channels to provide a seamless experience.
- Use of Technology: Leverage technology like chatbots and automated systems for routine queries, freeing up human resources to handle more complex issues. Ensure that these tools enhance, rather than hinder, the customer experience. So, technology will improve customer service.
- Customer Education: Provide resources and information to help customers understand your products or services better. Knowledgeable customers are likely to have a more positive experience.
- Employee Satisfaction: Happy and motivated employees are more likely to provide excellent customer service. Prioritize employee well-being, recognition, and a positive work environment.
How can a specialize by focusing on these aspects, businesses can create a customer-centric approach that leads to improved satisfaction and loyalty.
How can a specialized company help?
However, we must emphasize: to attain the mentioned benefits, careful attention to the tools and methodologies used is crucial. It is not possible to enhance customer service with outdated and poorly personalized solutions. In other words, you need systems and applications that will specifically aid in this transition.
Additionally, you also require consultancy to assist in choosing the solution and implementing it according to the specific conditions of your business. To avoid wasting time selecting from the myriad options available in the market and adjusting the system, external support is crucial.
The assistance of a specialized company also provides training and ongoing support for the software, even after implementation. In other words, technical support encompasses everything from the selection phase to when the system is up and running, generating benefits. The goal is always to maximize advantages and ensure the best possible utilization.
Customer service is a sector that deserves careful management. It is essential for improving the company’s image in the eyes of customers, as well as enhancing brand credibility and authority. Thus, it is possible to generate profit by acquiring new customers and retaining existing ones through a solid and helpful relationship.
Enjoyed the content? Learn more about a CRM that can help your company ensure the mentioned benefits, the Dynamics 365 Customer Service.
