Outstanding customer service is the foundation of any great company.
The way your customer service team interacts with its clients significantly impacts the public’s perception of your business.
Effective interactions can provoke positive feedback and improve business profitability. Likewise, poor interactions can receive less-than-desirable retaliation.
For this reason, it is important to examine your business customer service processes and measure the impact that they have.
Take a look at the following ways to improve customer service tips to develop business operations and progress profitability.
5 Great Ways to Improve Customer Service in the Workplace
Keep Company Communication Transparent
First and foremost, it is important to keep team communication consistent and clear. This is especially true for your customer service team.
Consider the following scenario:
A customer contacts your team and is following up on an issue they had previously asked about. However, the team member they had been emailing is out of the office and hasn’t shared this client’s information with the team.
Instead of digging through emails to find the right client information, you can put processes in place to keep communications transparent.
For example, numerous customer service teams use a shared inbox, such as Threads, to streamline communication.
With tools like Threads, your outbound emails will be sorted and shared according to your unique settings. Additionally, you can use a shared inbox’s intelligent search function to locate important communications that previously took hours to find quickly.
Make Customer Conversations Personal
When it comes to excellent customer service, almost half of consumers shared that personalised service and customer appreciation are crucial to creating a good experience.
With this preference for personalisation in mind, one of the beneficial customer service ideas to consider is a focus on the client relationship. In other words, how much effort is spent on making a connection with your customer?
Naturally, a customer wants to feel their needs are being heard, and they are not simply another number on a long list of clients. All in all, by considering how to talk to customers best, you can find ways to improve your customer relations.
Provide Timely Customer Service
Making sure that customer service is provided in a timely manner can seem like a challenge. Each client has a unique timeline that will work best for them. So, what are some ways to improve customer service in the workplace without trading speed for quality?
Let’s revisit the example of a shared inbox mentioned.
Within this tool, you can create client contacts to keep track of what communication is done with whom. Additionally, you can easily see all of the topics discussed with a particular client.
This organisation is helpful towards more timely customer communication because you can easily keep track of things such as the last time you spoke to a client.
With this intelligent message hub, you can quickly refresh yourself or share information with a teammate. Then, when reaching out to the client, you can make it clear that their needs are your priority.
Encourage Customer Feedback
If you find that you can’t think of customer service ideas, one valuable tactic is customer feedback. Using feedback from customers is a great way to get a third-party perspective on your services. Additionally, it gives your team some insight into what good customer service looks like for your particular client base.
Feedback doesn’t always have to be constructive criticism, either! In fact, one study shows that millennials are more likely to share positive customer experiences they’ve had rather than negative ones.
One tool to use when reviewing feedback can be through call transcriptions. Essentially, tools like this can provide your team with a comprehensive record of various client phone calls to review later rather than trying to check sparse meeting notes.
Let’s say a call with a potential client goes well, and they provide positive feedback on what made their experience great. Afterward, you can easily use this transcription in training meetings.
Automate Customer Service Solutions
Understandably, your customer service team is not in the office 24/7. Nevertheless, your clients may need a time-sensitive answer to a question outside of business hours.
A great way to meet this need is by using tools that automate customer service. Some examples of automated customer service include chatbots and resource pages.
With these tools, your customers can quickly find an answer without needing to wait for a response from your team once the office is open. Plus, if a potential customer can learn about your services at any time and even build rapport with your brand.
Are you curious about how Threads’ intelligent message hub can help you improve your customer service? Contact their team today to learn more!