Six Steps to Excellence in Online Customer Service
These days, it’s no secret that customer service matters more than product quality or price. Consumers the world over are willing to pay more for the same product or service, if they are provided with genuinely excellent customer service along the way. Nevertheless, the number of businesses still getting it entirely wrong when it comes to online customer service is no less than staggering.
So for those who would prefer to deliver the total package and capitalise on the true value of quality customer service, the following six steps could help steer you in the right direction:
Carry out a survey
First of all, you might want to think about directly asking your customers what it is they expect, rather than simply making assumptions. When carving out a customer service strategy for your business, one of the best ways of getting started is to carry out a survey and request feedback. This way, you know exactly what to focus on and how to best invest your time and effort.
Offer a transcript
One great way of building a sense of trust and authority when it comes to online conversations is to give the customer the option of retaining a transcript. Not just because transcripts can be useful resources for future reference in their own right, but it also immediately demonstrates the fact that you are confident and transparent in the service you provide.
Speak simply
There’s nothing more frustrating than an online customer service experience made unnecessarily complicated due to poor use of language. Whether it’s technical jargon, colloquialisms or simply the classic language barrier, the quality, clarity and simplicity of the language you use can and will make all the difference. It’s the exact same theory that applies to the web content and copy you should be providing in general.
Create an FAQ
Or should that be, create a unique and helpful FAQ. This should be a relatively easy job, if as recommended you first carry out a survey. This way, you have the opportunity to collect and consider the actual questions your customers are asking most frequently, in order to then go ahead and produce the kind of FAQ they’ll find useful.
Personal email communication
The difference it makes to the customer experience when a personal, genuine e-mail is penned cannot be overstated. Simply receiving a copied and pasted scripted response regarding any question or query is one of the biggest of all customer service turn offs. By contrast, write a personal e-mail from you to the recipient and you immediately create the impression of a business that prioritises and cares for its customers.
Take complaints seriously
Last but not least, each and every complaint represents an opportunity to both improve what you do as a business and demonstrate your professionalism. Which is precisely why each and every complaint should be taken seriously. Don’t fall into the trap of only ever focusing on the more severe problems and complaints – you could be selling yourself short by overlooking the rest.