Customer service is the day-to-day face of your brand. It’s all very well having a beautifully worded positioning statement on your website, a great logo and strapline but you have to back all of that up with excellent customer service delivery.
Many brands have come unstuck because of the disparity between their brand promise and their customer service delivery – don’t become one of them. Below are 10 ways to excel at customer service.
1. Set performance targets that are communicated to your customers and then exceed them. For example, ‘we will respond to all email queries within 24 hours’ – actually respond within 6 hours.
2. Get to know your customers – Personalise all communications and ensure that your database is updated to reflect the most recent customer contacts.
3. For every purchase give the customer / client more than they have paid for and deliver added value. As an example, an online wine merchant could distribute a free wine guide for every case of wine bought.
4. Have a straightforward refund policy and ensure staff are clear about how it should implemented.
5. Think of each customer as a potential brand ambassador irrespective of their spend levels.
6. If there is a problem – solve it quickly and communicate with the customer/ client throughout.
7. Ask for feedback from your customers via email questionnaire or telephone interview.
8. Empower customer service staff to resolve relatively simple issues quickly – give them the tools to do this.
9. Automate basic customer service functions – order acknowledgment emails, for example.
10. Be available outside of regular office hours. If you can introduce ‘live chat’ functionality more than likely you will be taking a leadership position in your sector.
We hope you have found this information useful.
Kind regards,
Marketing Fundamentals Team
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