Can you remember the last time you were thrilled with customer service? How about the last time you were deeply disappointed by a brand?
If you are like most people, you linger longer over bad customer service experiences, and share them with about twice as many people than happy customer service stories. In fact, 78% of us have bailed on a purchase midstream – literally walking or clicking away – because of unacceptable customer service.
It’s important to have an outstanding customer service strategy that informs your team how to make your customers feel good about choosing your brand.
The thing about a customer service strategy is that it must evolve: In a world where technology is always changing, your strategy needs continual adjustment.
So how do you evaluate your current customer service strategy? Ask yourself some tough questions:
Is your customer service team passionate about your purpose?
Your purpose, as it relates to customer service, is how you want your customers to feel while interacting with your company. There should be an emotional message behind what you do, bringing your customer service representatives and your customers together.
Let’s take a gigantic company, American Express, and look at their mission statement: “…we have a mission to be the world’s most respected service brand. To do this, we have established a culture that supports our team members, so that they can provide excellent service to our customers.”
You do not have to grow organic carrots and make wildly delicious juice from them to make people feel good about what you do: You can offer them a culture that you are proud of, and employees that love their work.
Are you meeting your customer’s expectations in terms of technology?
Did you know that, according to McKinsey and Company, most customers expect online service within 5 minutes of making contact with you? Are you meeting that standard?
Do you have a chatbot or an actual human being that chats with your customers while they are visiting your website? If not, you should. You can learn about what frustrates your customers – and about what they love –by chatting with them as you sort out their problems. You can also clock chat times, missed chats and other variables that indicate how you are serving your customers online.Additionally, using a shared inbox for managing customer inquiries can help you develop better customer service strategies and build more positive customer relationships.
Consider offering your customers a treat – like a discount – for completing a survey for you, that will help you to get to know them better.
You have a customer journey map, right?
Businesses who provide outstanding customer service understand the journey of their customers, from the moment they begin to loathe their dining room table to when then grab their smartphone to fill out the survey you sent them, asking them to rate your delivery service.
If you don’t have a physical customer journey map that serves as a compass for your entire team, you should consider investing time and money to create one. It has become an indispensable tool.
Remember, things are happening fast as the physical world and the cyber world become closer to being one.
You must continually evaluate your customer service strategy, and adjust it so that it meets your customer needs. Everything from developing an inclusive statement of purpose to remaining focused on evolving buying and communication channels, to putting yourself in your customer’s shoes and walking their journey regularly, so that you can see how to make it better.
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