10 Cast Iron Customer Service Tips

Providing great customer service is essential for any business, from the local high street shop all the way up to the largest multinational corporations. Customer service however is not about simply providing countless sales and promotions; it is about building relationships, strengthening your reputation and ultimately achieving a healthy bottom line. But how do you build these relationships? Here are ten practical tips on how you can deliver the service your customers demand.

1. 1. Give your customers a exceptional experience
   Ultimately, your customers want two things. The first is for you to meet a need that they have. The second is to meet this need whilst delivering an exceptional experience.
2. 2. Keep your word and over-deliver
   Only promise what you can deliver and do everything you can to keep that promise. Broken promises breed distrust, so keeping your promises helps to build loyal relationships with your customers.
3. 3. Apologise when a customer complains
   The first step of resolving an issue is to always apologise to your customers if the company has made a mistake. Then try and ask them if they have accepted your apology so that you can go forward and find a solution.
4. 4. Treat customers as individuals
   Every customer wants to feel as if they are being treated like they’re the only customer in the world. Treat your customer as an individual, don’t generalise because of the limitations of your processes, at the front line, personal service is essential.
5. 5. Give them that WOW Factor
   Do something to wow your customers, something out of the ordinary. For example, keeping your contact centre lines open 24/7 so your customers can contact you at the time most convenient to them.
6. 6. Make them feel secure
   If you can prove that you can deal with queries quickly and efficiently, showing that they will always encounter a good helpful member of staff, your customer will feel more secure with keeping their business in your hands.
7. 7. Never ever say No
   Never say No to a customer. Use language wisely, for example you could instead say that the request is outside of your service and that you will try your best to find the right person to fulfil the request.
8. 8. Listen to your customers
   Nobody likes being ignored and customers who do not feel like they are being heard will go elsewhere even if your product or service is best. Subsequently, you can try to take on board their comments and work them into your service, at the very least, make them feel like they are being listened to.
9. 9. Pay attention to the little things
   In the day to day delivery of customer service it is easy to become complacent. For a customer however this is an important interaction meaning they will notice the little things. So pay attention to them and the big things will take care of themselves.
10. 10. Do something extra to create a positive memory
    When you’ve finally resolved your customers complaint, do something extra for them to leave them with a positive impression of you and the brand i.e. give them tips on how they can use the product or service better.

These are just ten of the considerations you can make if you want to deliver great customer service. Ultimately, if you make your customers feel special, deliver on your promises and listen to them when they comment you are setting the foundations of a solid relationship that over time will achieve repeat custom and positive word of mouth.

Forget Fearing Change; Embrace it!

It’s a fairly common assumption that people do not like change but as a rather simplistic view, it fails to recognise that people will typically respond well to positive change. People make changes every day, new jobs, children, marriages, travelling and on the whole these are made voluntarily. It shows that even massive changes aren’t resisted by people – as long as it’s positive and will improve their lives.

Negative change on the other hand is naturally resisted, for instance, having to reduce the size of the workforce without changing the workload is a negative change, one that could well be caused by a crisis.

Change, regardless of whether it is positive or negative requires careful consideration for businesses, not only for the reasons such change is being initiated but also in the way it is presented and managed.

What causes change?

Market forces

Marketplaces are in a constant state of flux, and as such it is vital that businesses commit to changes to innovate, to maintain a competitive edge or to continue providing the right level of service to their customers.

Technology

In similar vein businesses must also react to technological developments, to ensure that they stay ahead of the curve and do not miss out on a potential advancement that could improve productivity and enhance services they deliver.

Customer needs

As the world evolves, customer needs change and grow, creating demand for new types of products and services. Reacting to these changes can open up opportunities for companies to meet these evolving needs.

The economy

The economy plays a huge role in organisational change. A strong economy increases demand for products and services meaning companies must expand operations to cope with this demand. A weak economy will result in a business making difficult decisions that will have an impact on employees and stakeholders.
Managing the business through good and bad times is important to maintain a strong brand and strong relationships, although this should be achieved without jeopardising the business’ ability to react to change in the future.

Why agility is essential

In order to respond to these causes in a successful and timely way, it’s important to be agile. Agility can be gained in a number of ways, including the utilisation of outsourcing where possible, which limits the financial and logistical restraints of enacting rapid change, particularly as they take the financial and operational weight of staffing and technological investment. The right outsourcer can actually be an instigator of change, and in a successful outsourcing partnership you would expect to see a two way discourse of ideas on ways to change operations, identify new markets and maximise the service delivered to customers.

Why it’s important to change

Change is important for growth within a business; it can enable the exploration of opportunities, facilitate creativity and increase security. Businesses benefit especially from change that results in new ways of looking at customer needs, new ways of delivering customer service and new ways of strengthening customer interactions.

In today’s world of disruptive, 24/7 change, responding well is critical to success. Being unprepared for change could quickly lead to becoming a victim to shifting socioeconomic conditions. Change is always a risk, but in many instances it is a necessary risk to develop new avenues for revenue generation. Outsourcing this risk is sensible, as it minimises the implications to your business whilst allowing you to diversify revenue streams and become more robust in the future.

How Volunteer Games Makers Revealed the True Meaning of Customer Service

Amidst the accolades being given to the athletes at the recent Olympics it is fair to say that the volunteer Games Makers deserve just as much recognition. Before the Games started many people did not realise how pivotal these volunteers would be to the overall success of the event. But with their enthusiasm, commitment and outstanding service they not only pulled off what has been considered a major accomplishment for the nation, but gave visitors and competitors alike a world class customer experience.

Lessons can certainly be gained from the success of the Games Makers. Just as the athletes trained to ensure peak performance, the volunteers underwent training and development programmes. These programmes gave them the tools of communication, empathy and problem solving so key to achieving great customer service.

But while the technical abilities of the volunteers to solve customer issues were demonstrably important, the culture of enthusiasm and motivation created by the organisers also played a vital role. This culture was at the heart of everything the volunteers did, and it clearly shone through in their dealings with members of the public.

So what lessons can be learned for businesses?

If the volunteer Games Maker programme has taught us anything it is that making people feel part of something special is crucial in achieving a first class service culture. When staff have a sense of pride and are enthusiastic about their role, it will be evident during their engagements with customer, leading to fantastic service.

It also shows us that putting customers at the heart of everything and radiating a positive attitude around the working environment are both fundamental in motivating employees and injecting enthusiasm into the way they deliver customer services and go that extra mile. Such a customer centric approach transcends industries, sectors, products and services; it is relevant for all businesses.

The Games Makers were aptly named; for many they made the Games. They showed the rest of the world that Great Britain can deliver a first class customer service culture and that we have the people, skills and motivation to do it. The next step is for businesses to take up the torch, set up effective training programmes and create company cultures that put customers at the core of every activity, motivating staff to provide outstanding customer service in every interaction.

7 Reasons to Integrate Your Marketing and Customer Service Teams

Consumers have always had opinions on the products and services they buy (and the service they receive), but the growth of social media has made voicing these opinions easy to do and therefore more visible than ever.  As a direct result, how your customer services handle these opinions is now in the spotlight. As marketing operates in the same channels, bad customer experiences can have a seriously detrimental effect on your marketing activities. The result is that marketing and customer services can no longer operate in isolation and here are 7 reasons why collaboration between the two departments is essential.

1. Improving Customer Service on Social MediaYour social media manager is unlikely to be the most qualified person to handle customer service on social media channels. To improve effectiveness, bringing members of your customer service team into the equation means they can deploy their expertise and participate in the handling of enquiries or complaints.
2. Creating Engaging ContentYour customer service team understand the needs, wants and problems of your customers. As such they are a source of valuable and engaging content. Using their experience in the creation of content benefits your marketers’ efforts with information that contains true insight.
3. Understanding Purchasing BehaviourThe basis of effective marketing campaigns is understanding your customers. As the personnel on the front line, your customer service team is likely to be the most valuable resource at your disposal in discovering the triggers and reasons that drive your customers purchasing decisions.
4. Managing Customer Expectations The offers made during marketing campaigns unfortunately may not always deliver what they promise. In such instances the customer service team are ideally placed to help marketers understand which elements were misleading and how campaigns can be improved in the future.
5. Unifying Your Messaging and GoalsFor many customers the first port of call with a question about a campaign goes through the customer service team. As a result it is imperative that the team know which marketing activities are being carried out, so they are adequately equipped to handle any issues or questions. Briefing sessions or documents are a painless way to implement this unified approach.
6. Identifying and Promoting Customer SuccessesCustomer services don’t just handle negativity and equally, positive experiences feature. Having your customer service team pass these positive customer experiences onto marketing is a fantastic source of marketing collateral. The feedback can be used in case studies and testimonials for PR or customer-centric marketing campaigns.
7. Realising the True Worth of Your OfferingMarketers base much of their work on the supposed benefits of a product or service. But these benefits, often developed internally may not actually align with the real world advantages of your offering which can be sourced from customer services, helping to make marketing more effective.

The increasingly joined up world in which marketing, sales and customer services operate has made these departments indivisible. Inter-departmental communication, combined with collaboratively developing strategies and plans is the best way to achieve successful campaigns that are perfectly aligned with the needs of your customers and the objectives of your business.