3 Steps for Better Customer Service

What is the most important thing you can do to improve relationships with your customers? The answer is as obvious as it is overlooked: improve customer service. No matter how great your product is or how talented your staff are, one of the things that customers are most likely to remember is the interaction they have with your company and the overall experience they take away.

When it comes to customer service, a little bit goes a long way. When you exceed a client’s expectations – that’s where customer service begins. How will you delight your clients? Going above and beyond what is expected will not only improve your client’s frequency of visits and willingness to refer new clients, but ultimately, your bottom line.

Here are three customer service tips for identifying ways to better serve your customers:

1. Listen

Listening doesn’t have to just be between people. It can be between a brand and its customers, or its employees. Offer your expertise, but make sure employees are listening as much as they talk. Great service isn’t about forcing a strategy that doesn’t work for the customer. Try to balance being an expert with listening to concerns and providing what customers think is right for their needs. At the end of the day, your customers can give you the best source of real-time feedback, and employees on the front line are typically the first ones to hear from customers.  Together they can expose the good, the bad and the ugly and identify opportunities to create a better customer experience.

2. Be human

Social media is powerful because it enables a direct, authentic connection. Your customers are there because they want a genuine, human response—not corporate, robotic replies on repeat. Plus they are much less inclined to willingly wait on phone hold for extended periods of time. Offer more than just automated email responses, and do not let your telephone prompts or website send them down a rabbit hole. Take full advantage of social media (including social media monitoring) and write responses when your customers post on your page.

Give your agents the freedom to be creative in their responses. Let them be real, engaging, funny, witty and human. Your customers will love you and reward you for it.

3. Execute

Without a clear and definite set of customer service standards, your agents will deal with customers how they see fit. Think about improving interaction quality, information availability, behaviour, and appearance. Brainstorm common customer service scenarios, along with the most appropriate way to solve the scenario. Then, impart this information to your agents and set a standard for customer service throughout the entire organization. If possible, reward employees who go the extra mile for your customers.

Solutions to Improve Customer Service with BARE International

Whether you call them customers, guests, patients, patrons, riders, fans or clients, BARE International can create a program to measure their experience interacting with your brand.

Remember feedback’s importance to customer satisfaction. Unsure what your strengths and weaknesses are? Don’t know why the numbers are dipping? Businesses like yours come to us to find answers to these questions, and stay with BARE because we build relationships and custom, long-term solution programs.

Make an effort to get closer both to your customers and your reps. Explore BARE International’s service offerings to reveal the true nature of your business – Not only will you discover touch points and skills that need improvement, but your customers will see that you are dedicated to providing top-notch, proactive customer service.