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9 Best Customer Service Examples for 2024

25th June 2020 Learn, Tips

Customer care and support are essential as they can determine how well a company performs. If you are looking to upgrade your service, check these best customer service examples and give them a try!

Best Customer Service Companies for 2024

From small gestures to quick responses to individual care, customer support can go a long way in securing valued customers and clients. Here we list 11 best customer service examples of companies that try hard to offer quality customer care and please their valued customers.

1. Amazon.com

Amazon has risen tremendously in the past decade. Almost every individual uses Amazon to purchase gifts, household equipment, clothing, books, and more. In fact, users tend to look at Amazon first to get products that may not be available in any other physical or online retail store. Plus, the e-commerce giant is quick to offer refunds and even makes the return process easy with multiple drop-off locations. This makes Amazon one of the top customer service examples to model your support team after.

2. Google

Google, like Amazon, has grown into a service most people use on a daily basis. From its search engine to Google phones, Chromebooks, and apps, to marketing and advertising, Google is embedded in almost everything we do. It is, therefore, necessary that they pay attention to how we use the service. The company is extremely accessible via live chat, email, and phone. They even have an extensive forum for common issues and frequently asked questions. This helps users get quick answers to their concerns and resolve them successfully. They also offer deals and discounts (and at times, even gift products for free) to valued and loyal customers.

3. Chewy.com

Chewy has been steadily growing and earning its place in customers’ hearts. The key is to genuinely care about the pets and animals they are providing resources for. If a customer is unsatisfied with a product, they are quick to respond with a refund and possible solutions or alternatives. All the while keeping the interaction friendly and empathetic. With pets, it is often possible that you purchase a product that might not work out. Having a customer support team to right that wrong in the easiest way possible can be a huge load off your shoulders.

4. Publix

Publix is another top pick from great customer service examples because they’ve been voted the “South’s Best Grocery Store” and selected as one of “America’s Best Supermarkets,” both in 2019. In 2020 and 2021, Publix has continued to care for customers as well as their own employees. Employee satisfaction is an essential key to good customer service. If your employees are unhappy, how do you expect them to translate happiness to customers? Publix has this nailed down!

5. Starbucks

Starbucks pays great attention to details and uses that to meet exceptional customer service standards all over the world. Each type of drink is uniquely made with a precise pattern and ingredients that are easy to imitate elsewhere. From specialty drinks to cozy store designs to even their own music profile on Spotify for customers who care about music, Starbucks has been innovating in regards to customer care for years and continues to do so.

6. Chick-Fil-A

The customer service team at Chick-Fil-A is known for being professional and courteous. In fact, in 2016, they were rated the most polite employees for always including the magic words “please” and “thank you” in their interactions.

7. Aldi

Aldi has won many customers’ and shoppers’ hearts over the years with their low cost, high-quality items, and selection of produce. Even though the store is a supermarket, it creates a personal feel that appeals to customers of different sectors.

8. Costco Wholesale

Costco is a favorite all over the United States. Their low prices, top quality, bulk purchasing, easy policy, and free samples make them one of the best customer service examples, easily. And these factors are the reason why they receive loads of new members every year while retaining the ones they already have.

9. JetBlue

JetBlue is considered one of the top best customer service examples because they use small gestures to make their customers feel valued and cared for. In fact, in the 2019 North America Airline Satisfaction Study, this company was awarded the Top Customer Satisfaction Honor Among Low-Cost Carriers. From cheap cancellation fees to complimentary snacks, JetBlue makes an effort to take care of its customers and offer a worry-free service.

Why are These Customer Service Teams Successful?

The reason why these companies and businesses are mentioned in lists of top customer service examples is because they are doing something right. So, what are they doing well? These companies:

  • Are accessible through different channels.
  • Customize and personalize wherever applicable to make users feel special and involved.
  • Practice active listening and quick responses.
  • Study customer behavior and preferences in an attempt to serve better.
  • Provide self-service content and FAQs.
  • And are highly motivated to serve well.

Let us leave you with these questions to consider: Is your business trying to achieve these goals? Where do you see room for improvement? How can you enhance customer experience and service? What is the next step?

Related: 23 Incredible Customer Service Tips for 2024

8 Tips to Design a Customer-Friendly IVR System

26th May 2020 Tips

Want to improve caller experience and customer satisfaction? Start by fixing your IVR system and making it more user-friendly. Here are 8 helpful tips to help you redesign your automated system and improve customer interaction.

Designing a Customer-Focused IVR System

IVR technology, or an interactive voice response system is an automated voice system used by businesses. This system interacts with callers before an employee does. It provides company information, identifies the purpose of the call, assists callers with possible solutions, and transfers calls to agents when needed. And by doing these tasks, it helps create a more organized and well-functioning communication system.

1. Offer 24/7 Customer Support

Your IVR system should always be open for business. That is to say, aim to provide 24/7 customer service with a well-executed IVR. Use prerecorded messages to provide support, instructions, and troubleshooting help. Offer basic information and answers to simple inquiries such as:

  • Company information (store hours, location, directory)
  • Product descriptions
  • Account balances
  • Shipping information, and so on

This way, even during off-hours and on the weekends, callers can get help for simple, basic concerns.

2. Use Voicemail and Callback Features

Part of providing 24/7 customer service is offering a callback option in the event callers are unable to resolve their call. This is helpful during heavy traffic situations, after-hours, and over the weekends. Create personalized voicemail messages for these types of situations and have the IVR system forward the call to voicemail. This way, they can leave a voicemail and wait for a call back from your business.

3. Avoid Providing Too Many Options

Too many options and overly-detailed prompts may lead to confusion and more misplaced calls. If there is too much to choose from, callers may not know what to choose and may select the wrong option. This leads to frustration and an unresolved call. Provide only the necessary options and details. Additionally, keep the language and easy-to-understand; avoid overuse of technical terminology and jargon.

4. Simplify Categories

Keep your IVR system structure simple. When you map out your IVR strategy, consider the main categories you want to provide help and information for. Under each category, try to stick to 4-5 options. Add a “Press # to hear these options again” button so that callers can hear the options again.

5. Use Human Voices

Callers connecting with a business are generally doing so to get a problem resolved. And they typically want to talk to a human representative immediately. Interacting heavily with a robotic automated voice may create some frustration in the mind of the caller, especially if they cannot find the right menu option or solution.

Most IVR service providers will allow you to upload voice recordings of your choice. Here is an opportunity to add a more human touch to your IVR system. It may not be possible to implement this at every step of the IVR, but try to do so whenever you can.

6. Pay Attention to Customer Concerns

An IVR system that provides irrelevant options or information is not useful to a caller looking for specific help. For this reason, it is important to be able to predict customer concerns and what they would be calling about. Watch what your competitors are doing. Conduct market research. Collect feedback from current customers. All of this will help you identify common issues and questions that you can include and target in your IVR system.

7. Cater to Your Audience

Depending on the type of business you run and the demographic you cover, you may want to consider a multilingual IVR. This will help with the different markets you want to target as you are providing a way for them to connect with your business. Make sure you have agents who speak those languages on the team as well so that your callers are fully satisfied.

8. Ask for Feedback

Finally, get feedback on your IVR system. After building and updating the system, you need to know how it is working. Ask your callers if they’d be willing to take a quick IVR survey. This could be a phone survey or a followup email or text message that they can complete on their own time. The point is to study how customers are interacting with the IVR and if improvements need to be made.

Get IVR Technology with Us

Global Call Forwarding offers a highly-customizable IVR system along with virtual phone number plans. Sign up today or call us at 1 (888) 908 6171 to learn more!

Push Your IT Business Towards Success with Good Customer Relations

30th March 2020 Learn

The most important part of running a business is maintaining good customer relations. Whether this relates to selling new products or offering troubleshooting services, your IT business must focus on how it interacts with its customers so that you can serve them better. This, in turn, will lead to greater customer satisfaction and retention.

Build Stronger Customer Relations

What are some ways you can create better customer relations and have them return for more?
Developing a useful and high-quality product and marketing it well must be the first step. It is, therefore, necessary to present your product as a solution or one that your target audience needs. Think from your customers’ perspective, what can you do to draw them closer to your service?

1. Make it Easier for Customers to Contact You

Not all customers are going to interact with your business in-person. They may come across your brand or product over the internet or through ads. But how do you convert the interest to sales? Give them a reason to call you. Most customers know what they are looking for and if your business provides that, they will make a purchase. But there are individuals who need more information. And so, calling your company with queries can ensure they understand your product and follow through to making the purchase.

Toll free numbers for IT companies provide a free way for interested individuals to call your employees. Whether it is a new customer or a returning one, being able to reach your company easily lets them know that you care about their business. Furthermore, high first call resolution rates, where callers are able to resolve issues on the first call, leads to higher customer satisfaction rates. And an IVR system for IT companies can help achieve this by directing callers to the right department. And in some cases, you can even set up the IVR to assist callers in completing tasks without the help of an agent or rep.

2. Track Quality Assurance

Besides making your business available and accessible, you want to ensure that employees are doing their best when interacting with customers. Here’s where quality assurance becomes significant. Do you need employees to be informative and educational? Should they follow a certain script or can they customize interactions based on who they speak with? Are they following up with callers, as promised?

Monitor quality assurance with call recording for IT companies. Use recordings to study employee interaction and customer behavior. Which tactics are more successful than others? Additionally, you can reward good customer service, further incentivizing employees to do well. You can also use recordings as training material to teach new employees what they should and should not do. Better training leads to better customer service which vastly improves customer relations.

Connect with New Customers

Another way to improve customer relations is to use outbound calling for IT companies and be in touch with potential and existing customers. You can use this service to call local and international audiences for a reasonable price and by evading high long-distance fees. With outbound calling, you can:

  • Welcome new customers
  • Help new customers with setting up products and services
  • Generate new leads
  • Collect feedback
  • Conduct market research
  • Follow up with clients
  • Offer company updates or information about new products
  • Reward customer success efforts, and more

Global Call Forwarding’s Outbound Calling service gives you the opportunity to connect with potential customers across the world. If you purchase multiple local and toll free numbers, you can override the caller ID to display specific numbers when calling certain areas or regions. For example, you can display a Dallas local number or a Mauritius toll free number when you call those regions.

Customer Satisfaction = Better Customer Relations = Closer to Success

Connect with target individuals and serve them better with these communication tools. Improve customer relations and watch your sales increase. For more information on how Global Call Forwarding’s services can help, call us at 1 (888) 908 6171.

Improve Customer Success and Retention for Your Online Marketing Service with Outbound Calling

5th March 2020 Learn

For many businesses, customer success and service can vastly impact how well they succeed and how long they survive. You will find that your online marketing service is no different. And so, you need every tool and feature available that can support your outbound calling needs which, in turn, will increase customer retention rates. Let’s see how all these elements work together.

What is Customer Success and Retention?

Customer success and retention are business functions that focus on providing customers with the necessary tools to succeed and achieve their goals. And, thereby, convert them into a returning customer. Customer success is a proactive approach where employees or reps reach out to customers to work together and find better solutions. Some tactics include suggesting other products, offering upgrades, cross-selling, providing market research and analytics, etc.

To ensure your marketing service is offering customers the best quality of work, customer success enables you to:

  • Develop strong customer relations by understanding their needs and goals
  • Take into account metrics and analytics for improvement
  • Help them reach their long-term goals
  • Present your product or service as the solution.

Customers who find value in your service—and can track their growth and success—will come back for more. These are the customers who will further recommend your marketing service to others.

Cold and Warm Contact with Outbound Calling

Because of these reasons customer support and retention are extremely crucial for the successful running of your company. So, why do we recommend using outbound calling for marketing services? This service offers a way to reach as many customers as you want, anywhere in the world for a reasonable subscription rate.

Outbound calling supports high outgoing call volumes. Whether you are conducting market research for a client or welcoming new clients or want to stay in constant communication with customers to help them achieve their goals, outbound calling will enable steady, reliable, and high call quality.

Reach More Customers by Switching Your Caller ID

More importantly, however, outbound calling gives you the ability to reach customers, clients, and markets across the world through your phone. How can you do this? First, you buy multiple local and toll free business numbers for areas and markets you want to target. Then, through our outbound calling feature, you can override your caller ID to display one from the list of numbers purchased.

For example, say your company is based in India but you want to expand to Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, and Mauritius. You can purchase numbers from Global Call Forwarding for these countries and then when you call Morocco, you can have the caller ID on your prospect’s phone display the Morocco number. Likewise, it can be coordinated the same way for the other countries you are doing business with.

Give Customers a Reason to Trust Your Service

The benefit of using virtual numbers and outbound calling for sales and marketing services is that you don’t have to pay high international calling fees. This is because your calls are routed through the internet instead of traditional phone lines. Calling and managing global clientele has never been easier.

Additionally, prospects are more likely to answer calls from numbers they are familiar with. And they are also more likely to ignore calls from areas and country codes they don’t recognize. So it is necessary to increase customer loyalty and confidence in your brand by being there for them proactively and demonstrating that their success is valuable to you.

How Can Global Call Forwarding Help with Customer Success?

Global Call Forwarding has local, international, and toll free numbers for more than 160 countries across the world. You can purchase multiple numbers with your outbound calling plan and pay only for what you subscribe to. Sign up for a new number or call us at 1 (888) 908 6171 for more information. We are here to help you achieve your goals and satisfy your loyal customers. Take advantage of our services today!

Call Center QA: Effective Quality Assurance Strategies

5th December 2019 Tips

When running a call center, it is important to pay attention to Call Center Quality Assurance (QA). Call Center QA is a process that focuses on and ensures customer service and interactions are aligned with business goals. QA is customer-centric. That is, it is concerned with understanding customer issues and concerns, improving customer experience, and improving communication. QA is typically conducted by identifying ideal customer service agent behavior. Maintaining a good schedule and interacting in a professional tone are just a few ways to achieve good customer service.

Call Center QA

It is best to look at QA as an on-going process. This way, customer service agents or representatives will be motivated to always be on their best and most efficient behavior. Representatives should be made aware that their calls, emails, and chats are being recorded. This is important because these are the most crucial areas of customer communication that affect the business.

Essential QA Strategies

There are different ways to ensure good customer service practices benefit your company. Analyzing call and customer metrics include monitoring average response times, call logs, handling times, customer ratings, etc. You can determine QA data through assessments made by team leaders.

Call Center QA Effective Quality Assurance Strategies
Source: Depositphotos.com Lic#166638900 ID#25727499

Training and Motivating Your Agents

You should make call recording a significant part of the supervisory process. This way, you can review calls with customer service agents and help them identify areas to improve. Here you can also encourage and acknowledge their strengths, keeping them content and motivated to continue their good work. Additionally, knowing their calls are being recorded will give them an incentive to do a commendable job.

Appointment setters are responsible for contacting leads to generate appointments. Essentially, the company suffers if the appointment setter is unable to do their job. So, how do you make sure that appointment setters do a good job? Train them to learn the script and sound excited about the product they are offering. It is important that they are knowledgeable of the product so they can efficiently answer customer questions. Additionally, they should have the ability to listen to their customers’ doubts and queries. This way, they can make the customer feel heard and respected. Finally, they should send email confirmations with important details immediately after phone conversations.

Another way to train your agents is through evaluation. Evaluating agents will ensure they understand what is expected of them and are able to meet your standards. When assessing an agent’s interaction with a customer, using a Call Center QA Form will help you judge important elements. Here are some examples of assessment questions:

  • Did the agent greet the customer?
  • Did the agent ask questions to understand the customer’s needs?
  • Did the agent answer the customer’s questions accurately?
  • Did the agent follow protocol?
  • Did the agent display a professional, yet empathetic manner?

With questions like these, one can evaluate the agent’s strengths and weaknesses, and rectify areas that need refinement.

Utilizing Customer Feedback

Customer service feedback provides companies with a good idea of the customer’s perspective. With such feedback, companies can understand what they are doing well and which areas need improvement. To improve call center productivity, use recordings to compile data to set future goals and develop more effective approaches. Here, you can also identify frequently asked questions and develop customized messages to save time. Using an interactive voice menu can also answer questions by letting customers select a number to hear frequently asked questions. Such interactive voice responses (IVRs) can be set up by your virtual phone number provider and they are highly customizable.

You can also utilize call recordings to learn more about your customers and their preferences. For instance, how do they respond to certain questions? Why do they prefer one product over the other? What issues or concerns do they have? Are they asking for a product or service your company doesn’t offer and should you consider investing in it?

Consider Virtual Phone Numbers For Your Call Center

In conclusion, virtual call center software solutions focus on increasing productivity and reducing time spent on answering calls. Virtual numbers also make it easy to facilitate remote agents. Therefore, enabling you to host your call center from anywhere. Global Call Forwarding provides virtual phone numbers with additional features such as call recording, call transfer, IVR, customized greetings, and more. Call Global Call Forwarding 1-888-908-6171 for help with your call center QA today!

SMS Forwarding Makes Connecting with Customers Easy

2nd October 2019 Learn

Happier customers will stay loyal to a business for a longer period of time. Therefore, these same customers are also more apt to spending money with your business and referring your products and services to others. Communication is at the core of every great customer experience. The SMS forwarding feature allows you to make connections with customers in a simple, quick, and effective manner that is convenient for your customers. So, this helps to increase customer satisfaction and retention.

What is SMS to Email Forwarding?

SMS forwarding allows businesses to receive incoming text messages from customers in email format. This service feature helps businesses to become more accessible to their customer base by offering another way to communicate effectively and efficiently.

How Does SMS Forwarding Work?

SMS to email forwarding works by sending incoming text messages to a specific email address. For example, a business owner will purchase an SMS enabled virtual phone number to receive text messages from select countries. Next, incoming SMS content is quickly and conveniently forwarded in email format along with the sender’s caller identification information.

Advantages for Businesses Who Use SMS Forwarding

  • A business will incorporate the feature to forward all SMS messages to email automatically. Some of these advantages include:
  • An additional option for mobile communication between the business and the company’s clients and customers.
  • A business owner can easily update the email address where messages are sent if needed.
  • Virtual numbers with the SMS feature receive incoming texts directly to an email inbox.
  • This feature is another way to stay up-to-date with mobile-friendly trends related to communication.
  • Empowering your customers with an additional option to reach out to your company.
  • Because email is mobile, you can receive SMS messages forwarded to email anywhere.
sms forwarding enhance customer service
Source: DepositPhotos.com – O#183562746 ID#27446420

Speed and Convenience

Many factors contribute to great customer service. Likewise, speed and convenience are among the most important. Each of these impacts the customer relationship with the business and, ultimately, customer retention and value. Speed and convenience go hand-in-hand. A business owner’s customer service strategy should reflect both of these characteristics. SMS forwarding of messages is an excellent way to accomplishing this.

Ongoing Customer Engagement

Every business owner aims to keep the company’s customers around longer and increase their value. However, to accomplish this, you have to give them a reason to stay. SMS messages are great for sending reminders and friendly updates. Customers can reply to you and their messages go straight to your email inbox, allowing you to quickly and easily attend to whatever they are saying. That is a good business practice!

SMS Forwarding For Virtual Phone Numbers

Virtual phone numbers work perfectly with the text forwarding feature due to the overall flexibility and mobility they provide. A business can purchase individual virtual phone numbers for individual tasks and departments, allowing the business to handle incoming texts in a more organized manner.

How Do I Get SMS to Email Forwarding For My Business?

Setting up SMS to email forwarding is a quick and easy process. A business owner just has to purchase a virtual phone number from a reliable provider, such as Global Call Forwarding, and then request to connect the SMS forwarding feature. It’s as simple as that. 

In Closing

Recent studies indicate that many customers prefer using text messages to communicate over a phone call or face-to-face. A business owner provides an easy-to-reach virtual number to customers while having the text forwarding feature in place. This is an extra route to support relationship building with customers by providing quick responses to inquiries, feedback, and any other information your customers need. A business owner is able to access all SMS information, such as date, time of day, and content through their control panel. Using this feature for relationship building and record-keeping helps to solidly support business success. If you’d like to have the forwarding SMS to email feature, call us today at 561-908-6171.

FreedomVoice vs Grasshopper Phone Number Provider, Service, and Pricing

26th August 2019 Reviews

Phones in the business realm aren’t going away anytime soon; instead, more and more businesses are populating as a result. But, with all of these providers, choosing among them to fit all of your needs is difficult. Additionally, competitive pricing is very important. Two of the top-rated VoIP phone service providers in the nation include Grasshopper and FreedomVoice. But, what are the differences between these two companies? And, which should you choose for your business phone service needs?

Pros of FreedomVoice as a Business Phone Provider

The most notable and highly reviewed aspects of FreedomVoice’s business VoIP service is that it’s easy to use. Since it doesn’t require any additional software, you can purchase the service, install it, and have it running in just a few minutes. Plus, once it is set up, most reviews note that the software application is quite easy to use and operate. Furthermore, you can pick and choose from any additional features you may need. And, set these up before you make your first call, right from your smartphone device. Some of these features include customizable greetings, simultaneous ring, and call transfer.

Cons of FreedomVoice as a Business Phone Provider

While FreedomVoice boasts ease of use, there are some cons to choosing this phone provider for a VoIP phone number. For starters, they don’t offer as many features as other competitors, including the virtual phone numbers from Global Call Forwarding. For example, you can’t send team messages or conduct conference calling from the VoIP numbers through FreedomVoice. Secondly, with this company, there is no ability to merge integrate VoIP lines with business software systems. These are systems that are used every day like your business CRM (Salesforce, Asana, etc.). Finally, with rates starting at $9.95 for one cloud phone number, there are certainly more inexpensive options available.

FreedomVoice vs Grasshopper Phone Number Provider
Source: Depositphotos.com O#S-4820344 ID#204678092

Pros of Grasshopper as a Business Phone Provider

Just like FreedomVoice, Grasshopper is a virtual number provider. Benefits of choosing this company include ease of set up and the ability to add features to business VoIP numbers. This organization also provides the option to include other, additional features. Some of which can make doing business much easier. This increases overall customer satisfaction when it comes to doing business over the phone.

Cons of Grasshopper as a Business Phone Provider

Unlike FreedomVoice, Grasshopper requires you to have an already established business phone system. A multi-line system or a physical VoIP unit are both examples. This means that choosing FreedomVoice for VoIP management could mean having to fork over money to pay for phone units. Would you rather have the ability to make calls from any device you want, including mobile devices? And, not have to purchase brand new equipment just to make these types of calls? If so, Grasshopper is not for you. Finally, with a starting price of $26 a month, even FreedomVoice is cheaper than this option. So, if money is an important issue for your business endeavors, it isn’t the best choice.

A Better Choice: Global Call Forwarding

Still not sure if either FreedomVoice or Grasshopper is right for your business? That’s because there is a better option available! Global Call Forwarding is more competitively priced than both of these competitors. And, it’s just as simple to set up and use and doesn’t require the purchase of additional equipment to start. Finally, it is competitively priced (with the lowest priced plan starting at $7.95 a month).

Choosing Global Call Forwarding for Cloud Telephony Needs

There is a more affordable way to conduct business without the headache. To set up cloud telephony services with Global Call Forwarding, contact us today.

What Makes a Good Customer Service Agent

5th August 2019 Learn, Tips

As you may be aware, competent call center customer service agents are hard to find. And it’s no wonder, as dealing with the needs of customers can be a daunting task. In order to be the best customer service agent, they must have the right personality, skills, and adequate training. Because customer service directly impacts revenue and how your company is perceived, building the best customer support team should be a top priority.

This article will cover the traits you should be looking for when hiring new customer service agents. It will also cover those that you should emphasize when training your team. 

Patience with the Customer

Perhaps the primary trait you should foster with every customer service agent in your company is patience. Being able to handle the pace of each customer’s unique situation can lead to a positive customer service experience. This is especially important when callers may be irate, confused, or unknowledgeable. Those at your inbound call center should know that each customer simply wants their problems solved in the most efficient way possible. Unclear issues should be explained in a level-headed manner without assuming that a customer’s negativity is in any way a personal attack. To develop patience, part of every customer service agent’s call center duties should be focused on resolving problems with empathy. 

Clear Communication

Part of being a good customer service agent is clearly communicating what callers are trying to get across and responding in ways that ultimately make sense to each caller. This includes company protocol, grasping the issue at the heart of the call, and troubleshooting technical aspects beyond their grasp. This is especially important for tech-heavy industries, where simple definitions and explanations can be used without delving into jargon and complexity. However, when the occasion calls for it, your customer service agents should be able to explain more advanced concepts that are understandable for all levels of comprehension. 

what make a good customer service agent?
Source: Stockphoto.com – O# 100062207713 ID#100186088462

A Positive Attitude

Moods are infectious. Therefore, having your customer service agents focus on projecting a positive outlook and looking on the bright side is paramount to success. This can be difficult when customer service agents encounter constant negativity, especially when customers despair at their problem, or maybe at their wit’s end. First, part of call center duties should include the ability to uplift callers and gradually shift their thinking as inquiries are solved. Try to see part of the job description as being a well-spring of positive emotions. For instance, you may want to train your agents to take callers on a journey towards happiness; at first, a caller may be upset, but as the problem nears resolution, a positive outcome can be reached – even better and more efficiently than a caller realizes. In a fast-paced world where callers may feel that it is them vs. the world, encountering a positive, smiling voice on the other end of the phone can be a breath of fresh air. This is something that reflects well on your company’s public image. 

Be Creative with Your Solutions

Customer service agents should be trained and rewarded for using their creativity when it comes to problem-solving. Being able to provide customers with uniquely tailored solutions to their problems and understanding the frame of mind that they present requires the ability to think beyond standard procedures. Encourage your customer service agents to come up with their own ways of troubleshooting problems. For instance, if a customer continually has problems with their billing, a customer service agent can suggest ways that fit how the caller prefers to do business. This, of course, requires that your customer service agents have a deep knowledge of your business, as the more you know, the easier it is to see a wider range of options for any given obstacle. When these dilemmas present themselves, agents can devise solutions that may call for out-of-the-box thinking when particular issues arise. 

The Top Reasons Customer Service is Your Company’s Lifeline

6th June 2019 Tips

Is customer service the reason your business is suffering? Customer service is one of the most critical areas of your company, and when it hurts, your entire company will fail. Think about it; customer service representatives are the direct line between your business and your customers. Do you think that your team is representing your business well? In the highly competitive small business industry, your customer service team could be the ‘make it or break it’ aspect for your company.

Customer Service Puts You Ahead

Companies with highly trained customer service staff will always come out on top, compared to other businesses that spend their time looking to other avenues such as marketing and ads. Marketing and advertising are essential aspects of the company but did you know that it’s better to focus on your existing customers? It may sound counterintuitive, but it’s true. A loyal customer is for life, and when doing business long-term, loyal customers can make a difference in your longevity.

If you are still skeptical of the benefits of customer service, then read on to learn the top reasons customer service is your company’s lifeline.

1. You Save with Customer Retention

Customer retention by 5% can increase your profits by more than 25%. If that math seems a little wonky to you, think about it. If you have one loyal customer, they are much more likely to continue to purchase from your brand. If you sell tissues, toilet paper, and paper towels, they are much more likely to buy all three products dutifully every week they come into your store. Contrast that long-term purchasing with the customer who decided to try your product one time when it was on sale. If you gain enough customer retention, your brand will sell itself, saving you money on operating costs over time. What does all of this have to do with customer service? You gain loyal customers by being loyal first. Be available 24/7, listen to their needs, solve their problems, and always let your existing customers know that you appreciate them.

Customer Service
Source: Stockphoto.com – #O23559 #ID100167049324

2. It Gives Your Brand a Positive Image

You know your mission statement, but just because you’ve got it memorized, that doesn’t mean your customers do. Customers only know from your company what they assume about it when they view you on social media, see your ads, and interact with you on the phone. If you have a positive presence all across the board, they will see your company in a positive light. It’s as simple as that.

3. Happiness is Contagious

A big smile from a stranger can brighten anyone’s day. Imagine you were having a bad day and running late for work. Then, on your commute to work, a baby can’t stop smiling and giggling at you. It would be hard to continue focusing on your bad day when so much happiness has entered your sight-line. The same goes for customer service agents. A positive customer service agent on the other line can help set the mood for a disgruntled customer on the other end.

4. Word of Mouth

Money can’t buy you word of mouth advertising, but it is one of the most worthwhile forms of advertising. We’ve all done it when we are impressed with a brand; we can’t help but talk about it with our friends. If you have a pleasant experience with a company, it stays with you, and that’s why having a strong customer service team is so important. We revisit and reorder from the same places over and over again because something impressed us. Whether that’s a happy server at a restaurant or no-hassle, free-shipping on returns at a fashion company.

5. People Are Willing to Spend More on a Brand They Trust

This is something that is not very obvious, but very relatable. If you’re shopping online and looking for a particular product, you’re going to go with the brand that you trust over another brand with cheaper products but a bad reputation. When you’re looking for a restaurant to go to with friends, you might check out Yelp. If there are rave reviews for a more expensive spot you’re more likely to check that place out then to head to the dive bar with one star.