Ensuring we have peace of mind in our business is about covering so many different bases. While something like cybersecurity or protecting your company in a physical sense can give you some sense of security it’s so important to remember that customer retention and giving the people what they want is going to result in a far more enduring relationship. This means customer service should be an ongoing skill that we refine. There are so many approaches to delivering amazing customer service but how can we be better at it from a business standpoint?
MULTICHANNEL SUPPORT
We’ve got to meet the customer on the patch they are most comfortable with. Lots of customers prefer to engage with a business through online chat, but many customers are also concerned that they are speaking to people who are not either in the UK or don’t understand the business. While there are UK based chatbots that can deliver a great service, there are people who don’t like engaging with a chatbot.
We have to offer support across various channels to accommodate customer preferences, but we also need to remember that people want to engage with a real human being. While chatbots are becoming more sophisticated because of changes in the large language models (LLMs), which can help chatbots learn how to engage like a human, multi-channel support is only effective if you’ve got the option to speak to a human being at the very end of the process.
LET YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE TEAM UNDERSTAND THE BUSINESS
Call handlers confined themselves on the receiving end of a multitude of questions about the business that they have no comprehension of answering. A customer service team in a contact centre or when operating live chat is the front line and therefore they need to understand every single component of the business. The problem is that there are so few contact centre teams that have an insight into the big picture.
There’s a number of reasons for this, predominantly lack of training in addition to poor pay, which can increase mental health problems. If you can cover both of these elements you will have a far more efficient customer service team that doesn’t just understand each part of the business but can engage with a customer to provide any solution. There will be times when a customer service agent does not have the answer but this is where the next point is crucial.
CLEAR & CONSISTENT COMMUNICATION
One of the biggest problems with contact centre staff is that they do not have the ability to navigate customer complaints effectively. For any company to solve problems with customers they need to train this staff to deliver services that exceed customer expectations. There is the adage of underpromising and over-delivering here, but when the issue arises that there is no direct answer for clear consistent and honest communication is a simple thing that will help to regain customer trust.
As a business, we need to show customers that we are committed to resolving an issue and therefore apologising and taking responsibility, unlike the last few prime ministers, will ensure you can go that extra step to rebuild trust. Nobody has all of the answers in life and when we don’t know what we have to do we should not absolve ourselves, but rather show the other person what we intend to do to solve the problem.
Developing strong problem-solving skills will resolve problems efficiently, but this has a lot to do with company mindset which will then filter down to your contact centre staff. If your business has a culture of blame you can’t expect the people who are at the very bottom of your pay grade to embody completely different traits. This is unethical and ineffective because you will only have employees who resent you. The call centre environment has long been associated with a factory line and if we are to be a business that solves problems we have to look after our own. There are many call centres who think that, as long as they do a Christmas raffle, this is all they need to touch base with that idea of a consistent and supporting culture. Those businesses need to work a lot harder.
PERSONALISATION
If there is one thing that builds amazing relationships with people, it’s a personal touch that is on the right side of professionalism. Every customer service agent can benefit from soft skills like active listening and communicating without jargon or technical terms but if we want to make a customer feel special we need to make it professionally personal. Customers will feel valued and recognised when they are heard. Addressing customers by their names and referencing past interactions is vital to giving customers that olive branch.
A good customer relationship management system will provide all essential customer data and an internal system that showcases every single interaction doesn’t just give the customer agent the complete background on the problem itself, but also reduces the frustrations. There is nothing more annoying than having to repeat yourself, which is why personalisation goes a long way to make customers feel recognised.
ANTICIPATE NEEDS
One of the benefits of having a chatbot is that you can see all of the information put into the widget by the customer meaning that if the chatbot is not able to solve the problem it then passes to a customer service agent who is then able to jump on the problem instantly. This goes back to the idea of minimising customer frustration. When we anticipate customer needs before they’ve even asked this will increase trust and give customers that sense of confidence that the ball is rolling. We can do this in our internal processes as well. Streamlining certain parts of our internal processes for example reducing waiting times by implementing a chatbot can guarantee a smoother experience.
LEARNING TO HANDLE DIFFICULT CUSTOMERS
From the perspective of a call handler, there is always one customer who can put a dampener on their entire day. If there is one major issue contact centres have it’s that staff are unable to deal with these difficult customers. When handling these people it’s critical to be patient and professional. But when a difficult customer continually throws up problems or is looking for an argument because they’ve not had a callback or they are at the end of their tether with the product or service this is where having specialised call handlers can make a massive difference.
Ongoing training can help those uniquely skilled call handlers find solutions for those customers but it’s also important to reiterate that dealing with customers can be a stressful experience. Lots of businesses are focused on reducing waiting times for customers rather than solving problems and think that if the numbers are down then the problems will be as well. This is not actually true because this means that if a problem is solved within 60 seconds or is, at least, perceived to be solved, that customer can easily come back and furthermore complain about the organisation. Having quality at the forefront becomes an essential part of giving your business the tools to deliver stellar customer service.
EDUCATE YOUR CUSTOMERS
Customers don’t want to be hanging on the line for a long time and therefore if you want to improve your customer service you need to provide more resources to help your customers make the right decisions. An FAQ section is something that we can slowly build over time to increase customer autonomy. Many people contact businesses because of their problems they can’t solve by themselves, but if you can educate your customers on the ways to solve a number of these issues by themselves you are instantly reducing waiting times increasing customer satisfaction and therefore it will not impact your bottom line negatively.
BE APPRECIATIVE
If there is one fundamental behaviour we need to embody, it is transparency. We need to avoid any nasty surprises that could result in customer dissatisfaction. Being transparent about our pricing and products becomes fundamental. Transparency is essential for any organisation and we need to express gratitude to our customers through discounts or special offers. Great customer service is about recognising that customers are supporting our business and it becomes a continuous effort to ensure that we show them that their loyalty is valued.
Delivering amazing customer service is not about establishing a baseline but it’s about recognising that your business needs to embody the right mindset. We need to be committed to upskilling our employees and allow customers to tell us how we are doing. When we place the focus on the needs of our customers this can underpin many of the most valuable aspects of our business, such as brand loyalty, strong relationships, and contributing to our business success. If we want to be great at customer service we have to look at the concept of delivering it as an ever-evolving entity. We can sell great products and promote to the right people but if customers do not appreciate us, we’ve got a massive mountain to climb.
Thank you so much for reading! – xo N
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this is a contributed post.
New Lune 
I recently started my own small business so this was a very informative post, thank you!
So glad it was informative! Thank you so much for reading ❤️