Customer service should not be a department. It should be the entire company.
Tony Hsieh
Regardless of whether it talks directly to customers or not, every department in an organization provides customer care in some way.
If something goes wrong with a customer’s order, customer support staff goes straight to the processing department to fix the problem so that the consumer is satisfied.
It would significantly take a longer time to resolve queries if the processing department was not as motivated as the customer care team.
Disgruntled and angry customers aren’t favorable for an organization’s growth.
It takes time to build a company’s reputation in customer service.
To make it a reality, you need the right people, tools, and processes.
Investing in an affordable omnichannel tool like mezchip right from your early days that enables a customer service-oriented culture, pays off.
According to Forbes, customer-centric businesses are 60% more lucrative as compared to non-customer-centric businesses
As the bar continues to rise, more businesses are attempting to define what it means to be a customer service-oriented organization. Obvious questions to be sought to be answered are:
- Is your company actually focused on providing excellent customer service?
- How can you improve your customer service experience?
- What does it mean to run an organisation that prioritises customer service?
Simply said, customer service-oriented organizations:
- prioritise their customers
- recognise and consider the influence of every action they take on their customers,
- design teams and processes to deliver unique experiences for their customers
In other words, customers’ wants and desired experiences are accommodated by customer-oriented enterprises. Customers are cherished, listened to, and respected when they work with them.
Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
In this post, we will take a look at what it means to be a customer service-oriented company and offer five tips for turning your business into one.
There are six phases in developing a customer service-oriented business.
Develop a customer-centric service culture within the company
The first step in establishing a customer-focused business is to prioritize customers.
Create a set of values across support and product teams that will motivate you to always put customers first.
By continually keeping the consumer in mind, you’ll be able to spot problems early on and enhance the product and customer experience.
Photo by kikashi on freeimages
Many companies miss the mark here. They make judgments focused on what will benefit their company rather than what would benefit the customer.
Of course, there are occasions when this is the proper thing to do, but customer-focused businesses recognize the trade-offs and strive to make decisions that benefit their customers.
They recognize that putting the customer first benefits the company as well.
Value Points:
- Create a set of customer service values and promote them throughout the organization.
- Invite other departments to shadow the support team or perform all-hands support.
- Customer satisfaction should be measured and shared with the entire organization regularly.
Look after your staff
Taking care of your clients begins with treating your personnel well. That’s right:
Satisfied Staff Lead To Satisfied Customers.
Allowing your staff to do their best work will keep them motivated to create a customer-centric culture.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
The interview and onboarding procedure are the foundations of a positive employment experience. It’s just as important to onboard a new employee as it is to onboard a new consumer.
Create a plan for their first four weeks, then revise and enhance it as you discover what works and what doesn’t.
Next, work to eliminate points of friction and annoyance in the employee experience. Giving your employees freedom to act will enable them to deliver creative solutions in critical situations.
Value Points:
- Create a transparent and safe working atmosphere in which your staff are motivated to collaborate and produce their best job.
- Request input from employees regularly, and use the information to improve the employee experience.
- When it comes to onboarding new employees, be thorough and deliberate. Make a plan to demonstrate to each new hire that you care about their happiness.
- Create an internal knowledge base or an agent help bot to provide new employees with the materials they need.
- Give employees freedom to act and ability to enjoy their work
Offer help on all customer-favored channels
Omni-channel support empowers your customers to connect with you using their favored channel.
While for some that could be mail, and for others that may be social media DMS or Whatsapp.
Ask your customers what their ideal experience is with regards to drawing in with your organization.
At that point, work to oblige them and live up to those assumptions.
Use an omnichannel customer support tool like mezchip to connect and engage with your customers in their preferred mode of communication channel.
Whether or not you choose to go omnichannel, you can unquestionably guarantee you’re focusing on the right channels that are best for your customers.
Value Points
- Ask your customers how they like to contact you for help.
- Make it simple to contact your support group. Eliminate any grinding or obstacles with regard to contacting your group.
- Use an omnichannel support tool like mezchip to make better and faster communications
Photo by: clipart max
Be open with your customers
Transparency fosters trust, which in turn fosters customer loyalty.
Whenever possible, use a transparent communication style.
If you manage a software company and are experiencing a service outage, interact with your customers in real-time. Let your customers know if your developers accidentally introduced an issue with a product update.
Instead of leaving customers in the dark about service and feature demands, keep them informed.
Notify the customer as soon as possible if you are going to miss a deadline.
Transparency and proactively addressing faults will aid in the improvement of internal processes and the establishment of customer trust.
Photo by:subpng.com
Value Points:
- Provide easy access to information.
- Make an environment where it’s acceptable to be open and honest.
- Recognize and correct your errors.
Invest in technology to improve customer service
Technology can make jobs easier and, ultimately, improve customer service. This is true whether you’re a technology company or not. Today, every business relies on technology.
Technology can improve the customer experience, regardless of whether you’re a technology company or not. In the 21st century, all businesses rely on technology to help them do their jobs.
Investing in technology can help businesses offer better customer service. This is true regardless of whether your company is in the technology industry.
Photo by: www.consultancy.eu
Value Points:
- Implement the right helpdesk tool like mezchip, to get a 360-degree perspective on your customers, their buy history, earlier discussions, shipment history, and updates.
- Collaborate with team members of sales and support to provide up-to-date customer support and experience.
- Enable your customers to help themselves through help docs, faqs, and other self-improvement assets.
Conclusion
A customer-centric culture is driven when employees, support staff, and processing staff all work in collaboration as well as independently.
Businesses that focus on customer service have a great support staff. Customer service excellence is ingrained in the company’s DNA. Customer centricity is injected into every aspect of a customer service-focused business, from engineering to marketing to design.
While there is no one size fits all solution to develop a customer-centric culture for all businesses. Any business that consistently attempts to develop by adhering to these five cultural habits, will notice a significant difference in its employees and customer experience.
