Can you think of a time where you feel you received exceptional customer service? What about this experience stood out to you?
Striving to give your customers/patients exceptional service is what can make you stand out against your competitors.
Best Customer Service Practices Using Data:
Kiely Kuligowski stated in her article, Customer Service Done Right: 6 Best Practices that “According to a 2019 study by Microsoft, 54% of American consumers have higher expectations for customer service compared to last year.” She then went on to quote Don MacLennan, McAfee’s engineering and consumer product vice president, “’[With consumers’] ability to amplify their complaints and praises through social media, [and] the lower barrier to switching [providers], modern businesses can’t get away with having subpar customer service.’” This is an important concept to note, with all the technology out there and variety of business, both large and small, customers have the opportunity to choose who they believe will give them the best service and/or product. With the help of social media and websites like Yelp, customers are comparing other’s opinions of the business to ensure they are choosing one that will give them the best product or service experience out there.
It has been shown that satisfied consumers refer, on average, 6 friends while dissatisfied consumers will tell 16 people about their experience with a company. Providing an unmatched customer service experience is crucial in having a leg up on your competitor and getting customers to refer friends and family rather than deter them from using your product/service.
Some Best Practices to Ensure Exceptional Service:
- Treat customers with empathy and give them a personalized experience
- Attempt to make a deeper level connection with people this will build customer loyalty and trust.
- Hire exceptional people.
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If you want to provide consumers with exceptional service, it takes exceptional people with great attitudes to ensure issues are resolved promptly and consumers stay satisfied. Empower your employees to make their own decisions on how to respond to customers that closely follow the customer service standards you have set in your business.
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- Timely Response
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Response time is such a crucial aspect in customer satisfaction. The goal is to respond within 24 hours, even if you don’t have the answer to their question or a solution to their problem. It is important to keep an open line of communication with consumers and let them know that you are working on solving their questions/problems as quickly as you can. Responding quickly lets consumers know they have been heard and that their opinions matter to you.
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“First contact resolution ratio. The number of issues resolved through a single response, divided by the number that required more responses. According to a Forrester research, first contact resolutions are an important customer satisfaction factor for 73% of customers.”
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- Be proactive
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Using data from customer feedback surveys, marketing, social media reviews, etc., you can figure out what issues are likely to occur and address these issues before they arise. Being able to actively anticipate a customers’ needs can ensure increased customer satisfaction.
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- Maintaining consistency creates a seamless customer experience
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All business practices and communication should be consistent across all communication channels (email, social media, in person, etc.). Clearly designed business standards for customer service can aid in consistency. “standards should be specific, concise, measurable, based on customer requirements, written into job descriptions and performance reviews, jointly created with employees, and fairly enforced throughout the organization.” (Excellent Customer Service: A Dozen Best Practices).
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- Never underestimate the value of a great first impression
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The first impression your business makes with a customer can be crucial in letting them know how committed your business is to providing top notch service and/or products and prioritize their needs.
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- Asking the right questions
- Building an effective customer feedback survey will allow you to know what business strategies are working for your consumers and which strategies should be improved.
Tips on Changing a Bad Customer Experience into a Great Experience:
- Listen to the customers’ complaint and empathize with them.
- Apologize- even if you did not do anything wrong, you can still be apologetic about the situation.
- Begin the recovery process- after understanding what problem has occurred you can then begin the road to recovering the customers’ experience and ensuring their issues are resolved quickly.
- Fix the process- this is so you can ensure this problem does not arise again. Customer feedback surveys are helpful in understanding and obtaining data on what strategies are working and which are not.
Real Time Survey Solution:
The RavenCSI team has developed methods to reduce the risk of losing customers by using the latest in instant feedback technology. Capture experience data from customers or patients to enhance your ability to connect to your customers or patients. Our team will build and manage the real-time survey solution accountability system for you to ensure timely response to customer feedback so you can provide service recovery prior to them posting to other social media sites.
Visit for free Demo: https://ravencsi.com/
Contact for free Demo: +1 267 793 1707
Email us: [email protected]
