Customer service is one of the most important elements in business operations. When an element of a transaction goes wrong, customers expect to have the matter resolved as quickly and satisfactorily as possible. A good customer service interaction can create a loyal customer for life, while a poor one can lose business permanently. Every business needs to allocate enough resources to customer service to ensure that the experience will be a positive one every time.
Why Good Customer Service Is So Important
It seems obvious that having good customer service is a benefit to any business, but how important is it? Extremely so, according to REVE Chat, a live chat software platform that aids companies in providing customer service. Fifty-one percent of customers who receive poor service just once say they will never again do business with that company, while a quarter will warn their friends and family not to use the company. This bad word of mouth may also extend to posting bad reviews online and taking to social media to express dissatisfaction.
Today’s marketplace contains more shopping options than ever before. Not only are there local brick-and-mortar businesses to visit, but the Internet opens up options from all around the world. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the trend toward Internet shopping, which is unlikely to change even as the worst of the pandemic passes.
With so many options available, customers can be more discriminating in where and how they shop. Along with this newfound freedom is a massive amount of information available to anyone with a computer and a good search engine. Customer reviews are easy to find, and more and more people are using these reviews to decide on where to shop. Bad reviews stay online forever for any new consumer to browse at their convenience, and reports of poor customer service can quickly lead to a bad reputation.
Conversely, a good experience with customer service can lead to a long-term relationship between consumer and company. REVE Chat reports that 80 percent of those experiencing good customer service are likely to spend more money with that company. While it is true that customers are more likely to leave reviews after a bad experience, many still take the opportunity to praise those companies whose customer service met or exceeded expectations.
Two of the Most Common Customer Service Problems and How to Avoid Them
Slow Response Time
One of the most irritating situations a customer can experience when trying to resolve an issue is slow response time. When a problem occurs while shopping, most people want the situation fixed as soon as possible and grow very impatient the longer they have to wait. In fact, there is a direct correlation between the time required for a customer service issue to be resolved and the likelihood of a customer doing business with the company again. Twenty percent of customers will not deal with a company that takes minutes to resolve an issue, while 80 percent will not utilize a business again if the issue takes more than a month to resolve.
Fortunately, this problem can be easily dealt with. Better communication channels between departments can greatly reduce wait times. Multiple channels of contact with consumers (email, live chat, phone calls, etc.) can also help to alleviate time concerns. If customers can’t get a rapid response through one channel, they can try another, reducing their frustration level.
Uninformed or Untrained Company Agents
The other top problem in customer service is the company’s agents not being knowledgeable enough to either answer the customer’s question or know who they can send that customer to for answers. The worst thing an agent can do when responding to a customer is to simply say, “I don’t know.” That does nothing for the customer and makes the company look bad. Of course, agents can’t have the answers to every question right at their fingertips, so what can be done in those instances where more knowledge is needed?
First, proper training of customer service agents is essential. This doesn’t mean offering a rudimentary course only upon hiring. Regular sessions designed to keep all agents up to date on the company’s products/services/etc. are a great way to make sure they will be best equipped to do their jobs.
It also helps to monitor the calls and emails of customer service agents to see what the most common questions are. These questions can then be put together with their answers and posted as a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page on the company’s website. Customers can easily refer to the FAQs to see if they can find the answer to their problem before reaching out to customer service. Making life easy for the customer is the key to good customer service, and simple, pro-active steps like creating a good FAQ go a long way toward achieving that goal.