5 Tips and Tricks to Improve Customer Satisfaction
Ever experience really lousy customer service and wonder why that company doesn't make some serious changes? Make sure you aren't that company -- always seek ways to improve customer satisfaction. Any business's success rides on quality customer service interactions. Studies have shown that 64% of customers have made future purchases from a company's competitor after experiencing bad customer service, so make sure to read up on these five tips and tricks to achieve good customer service.
1. Under-promise, over-deliver: Never make a promise you and your company cannot keep. In fact, it's better to under-promise what you can deliver to the customer, and then to surprise them by going above and beyond with the best quality products and services.
2. Read the complaints: Make sure to review the complaints customers leave for you, whether these complaints come directly to your customer service reps, are the result of active solicitation through surveys, or are posted on online review sites such as Yelp!. While there will always be disgruntled customers, noticing trends in feedback is a good way to continually improve your business. Share feedback at team meetings, and ask your team to brainstorm ways to improve.
3. Prompt email response: In this day and age, there are no excuses not to respond to a customer's questions or complaints via the Internet. If you wait until the next day to respond, your customer will know you've been avoiding them, or think that you don't value their business or their concerns. If necessary, task an employee with answering emails and checking social media accounts, such as Twitter, to make sure customer interaction does not go unheeded.
4. Set the tone: Good customer service starts with having a pleasant tone of voice. Customer support is crucial, with 55% of consumers stating they would pay more for a better experience -- so always greet your customers promptly and with a smile. If you're primarily interacting with customers online, train your reps on methods for successful written communication. Emails with grammatical mistakes or spelling errors will be frowned upon, since they seem unprofessional.
5. Toss the scripts: Improving customer satisfaction should entail not talking to customers as if you were reciting bad poetry. Be organic when it comes to the way you talk to a consumer, because they will know the difference.
It is six to seven times more costly to attract a new customer than it is to retain an existing customer, so why waste the money trying to entice new customers when there are plenty of ideas to obtain good customer service when it comes to the folks who already like your products? Start with this short list and find your own ways to improve your customer's satisfaction.