In a world where customers need and want to communicate with their favorite brands on a daily basis, having a strong customer service team is paramount. It doesn’t matter if you’re running a seasonal business or a year-round venture, or if you have aspirations to stay a small company in your local market or expand into the international scene, there is no denying that you need a crack team of customer service agents to keep your customers happy. In turn, this will allow you to boost customer retention, and by extension, to improve customer acquisition over the long term.
However, it’s not just enough to have someone pick up the phone every once in a while, no, you need to build a thriving customer service department and use the right tools for communication and CRM in order to increase sales and satisfaction across the board. Let’s break all of this down and show you the five tips you can use to make your customer service department stand out and achieve better results.
It all starts with a personalized service
Personalization is one of the foundational pillars of modern business, whether you’re talking about sales, marketing, internal or external communication, or any other process in your company. The modern customer doesn’t want to be another number in your sales funnel, instead, they want to feel appreciated for their purchase, their loyalty, and their commitment to your brand. If you want to succeed over the long term, you have to acknowledge the individual.
To do that, you need to emphasize personalization in marketing and sales, but most importantly, in customer service as well. After all, customer service is a powerful conversion tool, and it can help you market your brand in a powerful way. Let your customer service agents take a personalized approach to every customer and every problem, and really delve deep into their unique perspective in order to craft personalized solutions that the customer will love.
Look for employees with excellent people skills
In many ways, your employees are your biggest brand advocates, which means that their demeanor and the way they communicate with the outside world can have a profound impact on your brand’s reputation, perception, and authority in the eyes of your customers. This is why you need to hire the right people for your customer service team instead of just hiring anyone to pick up the workload quickly.
Carefully screen all applicants to find talented individuals who possess the right soft skills, but also understand the importance of branding and brand etiquette, and are creative and flexible when facing particularly difficult customers. These people are not easy to find, but once you do, it’s important to inspire them to stay in your team by offering a competitive salary and plenty of growth opportunities – after all, they are the ones who will take your company forward.
Increase availability and call quality with VoIP
No matter how talented your customer service agents may be, you can’t expect them to achieve the results you’re looking for if they don’t have the right tools at their disposal. If your agents are using traditional and outdated phone systems, then there is only so much they can do to keep the customers happy or run an efficient customer service department. This is why VoIP technology is so popular nowadays, as companies need digital communication systems to ensure efficiency and save money.
VoIP represents the best in business phone technology because of its many digital features that allow you to run a productive customer service department from anywhere in the world and keep your teams in sync at all times. However, the biggest advantage of VoIP is that it has a lower cost per call for national and international communication, meaning that you can prevent extraneous financial loss while maintaining around-the-clock support service.
Leverage customer feedback and testimonials
To build a reputable brand image, you have to inspire your customers to leave positive reviews and feedback on your site and other key platforms around the web, including social media, Google, and other review sites. Reviews and testimonials are a true treasure trove of customer information, and they can help you shape your customer service department and improve your marketing strategy, sales, and more. Pay close attention to what your customers are saying, and extract key insights to optimize and adapt every process in your customer service department.
Build a thriving community
Lastly, customer service can have a powerful impact on your online community, so it’s important to use it to inspire people to become loyal customers and brand advocates. Your agents shouldn’t just solve problems, they should also motivate the customers to achieve certain goals, inspire them to spread the word of your brand, and most importantly, welcome them into your brand’s family. This will invariably build loyalty and expand your community, and it will bring quality leads to your doorstep through stellar word of mouth.
Wrapping up
In many ways, customer service can help a company achieve its long-term goals. Now that you know how to make your customer service department stand out, be sure to maximize its potential and use it to build a more successful company in 2020 and the years to come.
Guest Post: About the Author
Lauren Wiseman is a marketing specialist, business writer, and entrepreneur, currently based in Melbourne. She helps clients grow their personal and professional brands in a fast-changing and demanding market environment. Covering finance, technology, and digital marketing topics, Lauren strongly believes in a holistic approach to business. She is also one of the authors behind Bizzmark Blog and a regular contributor to several renowned business blogs.