Customer service is one of the main success factors of many big and small businesses. The way your team treats customers and their response to their questions can either have a positive or negative effect on brand perception. Improvements, training, and regular communication are some of the ways that improve customer service and allow you to maintain a certain level of it.
Here’s how to improve customer service for your small business.
Better Digital Services
An increasing number of customers are making online purchases. Your team should be ready to provide them with customer support whenever they need it. Your customer support team cannot be online 24/7. This is when you can automate certain responses based on answers provided by a customer. Publish an FAQ on your websites, your customer can also refer to this initially. Make it easy for customers to contact customer support regardless of the device or online platform they are using. Use all relevant tools at your disposal to achieve these.
Automated Personalisation
Find ways to automate some of the responses to customers. Personalisation is important, but your customer service team cannot respond to everyone 24/7. This is when automation and data can help. Gather as much information from your customers. Store these in a database and use smart chatbots that can access this data. Automate some chatbot responses based on the data you collected. This reduces some of the work your staff needs to do without sacrificing the quality of service they can provide.
Consider Self-Service
Some visitors to your website or store need just a few basic things or just need a straightforward answer to their question/s. One way to help them is to consider investing in self-service tools. These are tools your website visitors or in-person customers can use to get a solution they need quickly. If their questions and problems are simple enough, a chatbot can answer or solve them. This reduces redundant tasks and frees your staff from doing repetitive work. Let your team focus on more complex problems and questions.
Close Loops
Improve customer service by closing loops. This means your customer support team acknowledges and responds to all sorts of feedback, whether if it is good or bad. A simple thank you after a positive review creates rapport with customers who made the comment. Even a negative review is an opportunity to close a loop and improve brand perception. In such situations, train your customer support team to respond positively. Their response must be proactive. They tell the disgruntled customer your company plans to improve its processes. Consider offering a discount or a special promotion to incentivise trying your products or services again.
Establish Long-Term Programs
Customer service is vital to the success of your small business. Create long-term customer service programs that your team can use, and your customers can benefit from. Standardised policies make it easier for your customer support team to respond to queries and negative reviews. Rewards programs incentivise remaining loyal to your brand. Offer special promotions, exclusive access to products and discounted prices are some ways to keep customers loyal.
These are some of the practices you can implement to improve customer service and maintain a first-rate level of it. We at Robookkeeper can be your outsourced bookkeeping partner. Focus on internal growth and the improvement of customer service while we update your accounting books for you. We have a team of experienced virtual bookkeepers that provide quality output. We offer reliable small business accounting services.
