Tag - customer service

Difference Between Whatsapp API and Whatsapp Business

Whatsapp Business API and Whatsapp Business are two different apps that you can use to develop your business. Both these apps offer the same features like sending instant messages, making calls, and much more. However, there are some differences between them that you should know about before choosing one of them.

What is Whatsapp API?

Whatsapp Business API is a commercial solution that enables you to send professional messages, including photos and videos, to your customers and potential customers. The API uses the power of WhatsApp’s text messaging and voice-calling features to deliver your messages in real time.

What is Whatsapp Business?

WhatsApp Business is a messaging app that allows you to create groups, share files and send messages. It is easy to use and allows you to communicate with your clients, colleagues, and employees without worrying about the cost of calling or sending text messages.

The Subtle Difference Between Whatsapp API and Whatsapp Business

Even though both are Whatsapp programs, they differ in several ways. Here, we’ll examine how they differ from one another.

Whatsapp API message is sent with a registered phone number of the company.

When you send a message with the Whatsapp Business API, it is sent to the phone number that you registered for your company. This means that if someone else were to send an SMS or MMS with this number, they will be able to view it as though it were sent from your device.

However, when sending a WhatsApp Business API message using your account and not being logged in as a venture’s owner (or vice versa), all messages are sent through Whatsapp’s servers and not directly onto another person’s device. The only way someone could see this type of message is if they somehow figured out their IP address – which isn’t easy.

Whatsapp Business API can only be used by companies approved by WhatsApp.

Only the companies that Whatsapp has approved can use WhatsApp Business API. It’s a part of WhatsApp Business. Companies can use it for marketing purposes only and not for personal use.

Whatsapp API is an ideal choice for businesses 

  • Whatsapp Business API is an ideal choice for businesses to send instant messages or alerts in bulk to their clients and customers.
  • It’s a paid service, so you don’t have to worry about losing money with this platform.
  • The Whatsapp API provides you with the opportunity to reach out to your customers. The channels include SMS, emails, and mobile app push notifications at any given time of day or night.

Whatsapp Business App is a free application 

Whatsapp Business App is available on Google Play Store or Apple App Store. Users can download it on any device with an active mobile number and internet connection. The app is available for both Android and iOS platforms. Anyone with a smartphone or tablet can use it, irrespective of the operating system they use.

You can also make use of this tool if you want to build your own business through WhatsApp marketing strategies.

You can have everything with a Whatsapp Business account

With a Whatsapp Business account, you can have chats, make calls, write stories, change display pictures and status, etc. This platform lets businesses communicate with their customers in real time. You can check out the features of this platform here: https://business.whatsapp.com/.  

Both applications are useful for business purposes

Both Whatsapp API and Whatsapp Business are apps for commercial purposes. But the way of developing them is different.

WhatsApp API is a service that companies can use after getting approved by WhatsApp. Therefore, it is an ideal choice for businesses to send instant messages or alerts in bulk to their clients and customers.

On the other hand, it’s difficult to use WhatsApp Business without their approval. You need their help because of some limitations regarding their usage. Some of these limitations are 50K characters per message and alert etc.

Conclusion

We have discussed two different types of Whatsapp: Whatsapp Business API and Whatsapp Business and how to use them. Now you know the difference between these two, which one is better for your company? We can answer this question with a simple question: Which one suits your business needs? We hope this help you in scaling up your company.

How to Measure Customer Satisfaction Without Surveys?

person marking check on opened book

Customer satisfaction is the ultimate metric to measure how your D2C brand or your e-commerce business is doing in recent times.

It is a way to know whether consumers are satisfied with the product or the services.

However, this is not an easy job to do.

The old technique of executing surveys to know about customer satisfaction is becoming irrelevant day by day.

There are several other techniques to do the job in a simpler way and with more conviction.

The survey’s main constraints are that many do not participate in it, do not respond, and are time-consuming.

This article will talk about how to measure customer satisfaction without going through any kinds of surveys.

Following are some of the alternative techniques that you can apply in your online business to avoid the hassles of a survey.

Studying Customer Correspondences

The first thing to do is ensure that you are open to receiving feedback directly from your customers.

Direct relations must be garnered between your business and the customers via email, chat, text, phone, social media platforms, and messenger applications.

Implementing an omnichannel customer support helpdesk like Mezchip that unifies all your communication channels is one of the most effective ways to handle customer communications and feedback across channels.

person holding white samsung android smartphone
Photo by Solen Feyissa on Pexels.com

Your support agents and/or representatives can collect and study reviews of the customers to initiate future improvements.

Collecting all the info from the customers is extremely crucial.

It helps the business to collect data to predict their report card showcasing both the good and the bad aspects according to the customers. This opens the door to making all the vital improvements that can further enhance your customer service.

Collecting and studying customer correspondences also helps you track your quality of service, pricing of your products, speed of services, trust, difficulties or objections, customer emotions, and services required.

Customer Loyalty Metrics

person holding pen pointing at graph
Photo by Lukas on Pexels.com

Another data point that reflects customer satisfaction is how many times customers repeat their purchases.

The high volume of Repeat customers shows that they are satisfied with your services or product.

It also ensures that satisfied customers are likely to suggest your services or products to others. And this will ensure that your business grows fruitfully.

You can track your metrics for customer satisfaction by tracking your repeat customers, their frequency, regular cost per order, and your customer’s lifetime value.

Examining Reactions to Promotions

It is vital to assess how customers react to promotions, bonuses, and coupons. If customers show positive responses to your promotions, they have developed a liking or satisfaction for your product.

And the best part is that you know it without even doing a survey.

red product tag
Photo by Artem Beliaikin on Pexels.com

Some promotions that you can try out to measure consumer satisfaction are –

Personalized Deals

Social media is a good platform to create engagement with your consumers.

You can provide exclusive discounts on your social media base so that they become more connected and engaged with your product.

You can do the same for your email base also.

Promotions on References

Give away exciting promotions to your present customers if they recommend your product to their network. This is the best way to grow your business beyond your current base.

Regulating Social Media Remarks

Social media has become the platform where customers convey their experiences with a product. They also share their frustration and disappointment regarding a company’s product on social media.

Customers’ feedback regarding your product or services on social media is vital to know customer satisfaction and customer concerns.

Final Words

These were some of the ways in which you can assess customer satisfaction for your business without collecting age-old surveys.

Gather all the references and results to satisfy the consumers better.

Maintain monthly and yearly overall data to know about customer satisfaction and make vital improvements.

After all, if the customer satisfaction graph goes higher, it will be directly entwined with the success of your business.

5 best WordPress helpdesk plugins for customer support

woman in white blazer sitting by the table

WordPress helpdesk plugins allow you to provide centralized and rapid assistance, resulting in more user interaction and conversions.

Getting more conversions means you’ll be able to go around with a smug expression like Simon Cowell, which is always a good thing.

Pic source: on-a-limb.com

In today’s post, we’ll show you our top picks in WordPress helpdesk plugins in the market, so you can add a fully working support system and get more customers. Even with the most excellent WordPress helpdesk plugins, outstanding assistance comes down to one thing: availability.

Suggested Read: 5 Best WooCommerce Chat Support Plugins

Without further ado, let’s get to work. You will find the below-listed plugins reasonably priced and simple to set up. With any of these, you should be able to establish your support system in less than 5 minutes.

KB Support WordPress Helpdesk Plugin

If you are looking for a WordPress help desk and knowledge base support tool plugin with an easy-to-use interface, Your go-to option is KB Support.

With this great tool, you may design and fully configure as many ticket submission forms as you need. And the most significant thing is… You may use the ticket management system by email using the Email Support extension. Your customers may submit a ticket with a problem and handle it without having to create an account on your website. The same is true for the agents keeping your customers pleased and stress-free.

AH Tickets Helpdesk Plugin & Support

This WordPress helpdesk plugin is known for its ease of use and responsiveness.

The attractive design, an incredible list of features, and an excellent buyer rating give this plugin a definite edge over the others. The core architecture of AH Tickets is the Bootstrap framework. It is future-proof and responsive.

You can link AH Tickets to Mailchimp to expand your mailing list and let your visitors log in with their preferred social network account. It is rated as, one of the best WordPress helpdesk plugins available.

Mezchip

If you have customer queries coming in from various channels like social media, email, phone etc, Mezchip is the helpdesk to go for. Mezchip is an omnichannel helpdesk platform where Customers contact you through their preferred channel of communication, including phone, email, Whatsapp, and social media. Mezchip enables you to gather and respond to inquiries from a single interface. Mezchip’s deep WooCommerce shop integration feature collects background information about your customer so you can have a customized dialogue and take action without switching between channels and WooCommerce stores.

Customer inquiries can quickly become overwhelming! You may use Mezchip to prioritize and arrange requests across channels, resulting in a seamless experience for your agents. Mezchip connects your WooCommerce store to your existing support channels to enable you to provide the best customer experience possible for your company.

WSDesk – Helpdesk for ELEX WordPress

You can quickly create a comprehensive customer support system for WordPress with WSDesk. To get started, install and run the setup wizard. Because you own your support platform, you can add all of your agents at no extra cost. The same is valid for tickets. There is no limit to the number of submissions your clients can make with WSDesk.

You can also add agents, statuses (unresolved, pending, solved), and tags to your tickets to keep them organized. Furthermore, unlike other alternatives, WSDesk saves all of your data on your site, giving you complete control over your customer and support data.

WSDesk additionally has built-in tools to help you with support. Configure email notifications, automatic ticket closure following inactivity, department assignment, etc. Make prefabricated replies available to your agents. Examine your team’s performance utilizing the agent ratings and ticket reports. You may also use IMAP or Google OAuth to create tickets automatically from unread emails.

TotalDesk WordPress Helpdesk Plugin

Perhaps you’d prefer to reduce the number of hours you spend providing customer service. Maybe you’d like a more passive method of assisting your guests. You’d want to reduce the number of customer support emails and one-on-one phone conversations.

With this plugin you can construct a knowledge base. You can even connect to a self-service customer helpdesk, ticket system, and live chat.

TotalDesk includes incredible features like drag-and-drop post reordering, live search and FAQs. It has numerous notification choices, ticket reports, custom widgets, multi-lingual support, and much more.

Conclusion:

WordPress helpdesk plugins allow you to improve user experience, increase conversions, and save time. Whether you opt for a paid or free helpdesk plugin, make sure you respond to support issues on time. These plugins allow your customers to contact you and receive help whenever they are stuck on your site.

5 best WooCommerce chat support plugin in 2022

two white message balloons

Isn’t it a little impersonal when you browse the internet?

To offset this sense of isolation, adding some personal touches to your website can help you reap the benefits in the form of substantially higher conversion rates.

A chat support plugin is unbeatable when it comes to adding a personal touch to your website. By rapidly resolving customer problems, a chat support plugin allows you to

  • give great customer service
  • answer sales inquiries in real-time
  • Minimize buyer friction

Ultimately providing you a reassuring human presence until customers are ready to pull out their wallets.

In this article, we will talk about some of the best WooCommerce chat support plugins that you can add to your arsenal to personalize your communications and grow your business.

Also read: 5 best CRM for WooCommerce in 2022

Facebook Messenger Chatbot for WooCommerce by FmeAddons

Facebook Messenger Chatbot is a WooCommerce Chat Support Plugin where you can easily automate customer service on Facebook. Customers are engaged in predefined queries and options by the Chatbot, which then suggests the best potential responses.

Features

  • Automates customer support with Chat
  • Chat replies in text, URLs, or postback form
  • Set up to three postback replies (Facebook allows three)
  • Send images in initial chat messages
  • Write default Chatbot messages with titles
  • Create conditional questions as auto-replies
  • Enable product, category, or post search in Chat
  • Show Chat bubble on shop, home, or single-product pages
  • Connect your Facebook business page
  • Change the connected Facebook page when needed

Priced at 49$/ month

WhatsApp chat for WooCommerce by FmeAddons

Another WooCommerce Chat Support Plugin that helps you add WhatsApp messenger to your WooCommerce store encourages customers to engage in a friendly and informal conversation with the support team.

Features

  • Add WhatsApp messenger to chat with customers
  • Create a complete support team for WhatsApp chat
  • Define availability of support staff
  • Predefine messages for customers
  • Enable floating button for WhatsApp chat widget
  • Display floating button on multiple store pages
  • Online/offline messages about support staff
  • Choose a position for the WhatsApp Chat widget

Priced at 49$/ month

Live chat support plugin

LiveChat is a feature-rich premium live chat support plugin that allows you to connect with your customers in real-time with a customized chat widget

Features

  • Choose a colour for your chat widget, add your logo, and make a variety of other changes.
  • Tracking options that allow you to check your clients’ cart details during a chat
  • Product details, product count, and latest order details are all available.
  • Send timed invitations to unsure shoppers.
  • Multiple chat sessions can be held at the same time
  • canned solutions to frequently asked questions can be sent.
  • chats can be tagged, and files can be sent to clients via the chat widget.
  • Collect the tickets with messages that customers leave while you’re out of the office and respond to them when you return.

Priced at 16$/month/agent

Woo Bot for WooCommerce by WP1

Woo Bot is a WooCommerce Chat Support Plugin that fully customizes a basic ChatBot that lets your consumers swiftly and conveniently search for products.

It is a consumer engagement tool that connects online retailers with their customers and automates live chat chats with customer care.

Features

  • ChatBot intelligently answers queries and allows the owner to set up unanswered questions.
  • On exit intent, open the conversation bot.
  • Search for products.
  • In conversation, there is a product thumbnail with a link to the product page.
  • Configuration of the chat icon.
  • Configure the chat icon and background color.
  • Configuration of the chat popup theme (dark/light).
  • Configure the background picture for the chat popup.
  • Add responses to frequently asked queries in the backend.
  • New question alerts through email.
  • For a chat call to action, use a simple shortcode.
  • With the chat log, you can keep track of all of your conversations.

Priced at 29$ billed annually

Whatsapp chat support plugin and Omnichannel suite by Mezchip

Mezchip is an omnichannel customer support helpdesk designed for WooCommerce stores.

With Mezchip’s WhatsApp chat support plugin you can easily add a Whatsapp chat widget to your Woocommerce Store and manage all your customer communications across WhatsApp and social media dm’s in a single place.

Features

  • Add Whatsapp Chat Widget
  • Get Whatsapp Business API
  • Send customers from other channels to Whatsapp without losing data
  • Get order details of customers
  • Assign tickets to team members
  • Converse with customers on any channel
  • Enable floating button for WhatsApp chat widget
  • Display floating button on multiple store pages
  • Online/offline messages about support staff
  • Choose a position for the WhatsApp Chat widget

Priced at 25$/ month

Chat Support Plugins are important and good to have as they give a face and voice to your online store. Customers find themselves in good hands if they are given immediate support to their queries. Chat Support plugins can not only increase your conversions rates but also helps you build customer trust and loyalty.

How to handle social media comments for e-commerce business

customer service on social media

“When you assume negative intent, you’re angry. If you take away that anger and assume positive intent, you will be amazed.”

Indra Nooyi

Today, social media is one of the most significant avenues for customer service.

However, some e-commerce businesses are wary of devoting too much time to social media customer support.

If spending time on social media comments is a bad idea, I would encourage you to think about it again.

Why do customers use social media channels to communicate?

The most successful e-commerce companies, come as close to their customers as possible.

They pay attention to their customer’s comments and input and establish lines of communication on their terms.

Image: https://pixabay.com/photos/smileys-customer-satisfaction-review-5617876/

Customers give significant comments on your social media posts and advertisements for the following reasons:

  • It aligns with their user flow. Customers don’t want to leave their favorite social networking platform to contact you elsewhere.
  • So many e-commerce firms thrive on social media customer care. Consumers expect brands to respond to their comments.
  • Customers want to feel as if they have direct contact with your company. This extends beyond simply receiving a response.
  • Customers want to know that their voices are being heard. That they are being seen by your company. They want to know that you provide actual customer service rather than simply basic assistance.

A staggering 83 percent of global customers demand a response time of fewer than 24 hours.

It’s all about engaging and interacting with your audience on social media.

This means that you respond to your customer’s social media comments even if they aren’t always the kindest.

Knowing how to communicate with customers as a company can be difficult.

Therefore, we’ve put up this guide on the types of social media comments you’ll encounter and how to reply to them.

Let’s get started!

Types of social media comments

We’ll go over four different types of social media comments, each of which requires a different strategy.

1. Positive feedback or comments

When someone positively responds to one of your posts or mentions your company, you should always thank them for their time and recognize the comment.

2. Unfavorable remarks

Not every comment is a glowing endorsement or a disgruntled consumer.

Some are neutral, such as when a user asks a question, comments on a product, post, or photo, or even tag a buddy in the comments.

3. Negative feedback

Resolving issues such as order or product issues can help turn a negative comment into a repeat customer.

Comments with an angry tone, general criticism or questions of your company’s behaviour, or communications directed at specific persons are examples of this.

4. Remarks concerning a crisis

A crisis for social media teams could be a significant worldwide issue that affects customers, or it could be a period when your company is suffering public relations or legal repercussions.

Creating the ideal customer care response on social media

Customer service representatives and social media managers can’t anticipate every scenario. Social media comments can catch you off guard at times.

Image Source: https://pixabay.com/images/id-5187243/

Follow these steps every time you want to provide outstanding social media customer care.

1. Take the time to completely comprehend the situation.

While it’s necessary to answer promptly, you don’t want to respond too quickly. If you respond too quickly, you may overlook a vital detail.

2. Prepare an answer

You can start crafting your response once you’re certain you have all of the contextual information you need. Make certain you cover the following crucial points:

  • Questions about the product:
    • Clarify your response to the inquiry.
    • Back up your response with real, detailed product facts and specifics.
  • Positive feedback:
    • Thank the consumer in a way that is consistent with your brand’s tone.
    • If it’s a good fit for your product, ask them to keep you updated on the progress.
    • If they have any queries, let them know you’re here to help.
  • Negative feedback:
    • Demonstrate empathy for the customer.
    • Accept their criticism with maturity (as opposed to disagreeing with them or attempting to silence them)
    • Discuss a possible solution.
    • Customers should be sent to your helpdesk, knowledge base, or customer care staff (as appropriate)
    • Before reacting to a sensitive subject, seek approval from management.

When companies reply too quickly to provocative comments, they might find themselves in hot water.

If the topic is about sustainability, equity, diversity, and inclusion, or the founders’ political beliefs or actions, you may need to run your response past your PR or communications team.

  • Respond to the comment and, if necessary, create a ticket via Mezchip

Leave a remark once you’ve received the appropriate response. Remember to tag the person to whom you’re responding.

3. Ensure that customer service follows up on the issue until it is resolved.

You won’t have to remember to check if the person responded if you have a ticket open in your helpdesk.

Instead, you’ll be able to see the open ticket and then proceed to the article or ad with the comment thread by clicking through.

You can use omnichannel tools like mezchip to get all your queries from your social media pages and follow up on tickets.

If the issue is critical (the client wants a return or hasn’t received their stuff in the mail), post a second comment and tag them to ensure they read your response.

You’ll acquire new customers if you follow these social media customer service principles.

If you follow these social media customer service principles, you’ll win new admirers while strengthening your existing relationships.

RichPanel vs Mezchip for WooCommerce

richpanel vs mezchip

Customer service expectations are shifting.

Customers expect quicker responses, less back-and-forth, and greater transparency.

Increased customer expectations are giving rise to newer problems. Therefore, it is important that brands ensure their teams are ready when it comes to service and support.

We frequently embrace new tools to assist us in meeting new client expectations.

However, sorting reviews and determining if a certain tool will be valuable to your organization may be extremely challenging.

Choosing a customer support tool begins with determining the functionality you require.

In this blog, we have compared RichPanel vs Mezchip as customer support tools to help you decide the best way to manage your customer communication.

Richpanel 

Richpanel is a WooCommerce CRM and Ticketing System that allows retailers to respond quickly to customer inquiries via chat, email, Facebook, and Instagram from a single dashboard.

Richpanel
Source: https://betalist.com/startups/richpanel/visit

Features

  • Customers can contact you via chat, email, and WhatsApp*, and you can manage all your conversations in one place.
  • Inside the helpdesk, Richpanel pulls customer orders, website activity, and previous chats. Agents will have the complete context to promptly handle client inquiries.
  • You can easily connect with your team members 
  • Use the live chat to convert visitors to customers
  • Utilize its chatbots to free up your agents from monotonous data collecting.
  • Richpanel also tracks agents that have most impact on sales and long-term customer connections. Tags, channels (live chat, email, social), and agents can all be used to filter reports.

Pricing:

Starts at $99/month for 350 conversations

Mezchip

Inbound contact has the potential to convert sales at a rate 10 to 15 times greater than other leads. 

Mezchip is an omnichannel customer communication tool that helps you manage customer communications across support channels.

You can use Mezchip to communicate with potential and existing customers via email, Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp.

You can also respond to customer queries, and engage with your potential customers. 

Mezchip Dashboard

Mezchip gives you a separate platform dedicated entirely to your support staff.

Deep integration with your WooCommerce Store empowers your support staff to send personalized messages to customers. You can also manage returns and cancellations without even entering the store.

Features:

Manage customer queries across Email, Facebook/Instagram DM’s, and Whatsapp from a single platform

View and Respond to customer queries across support platforms all from one place. Save time, get repeat customers and build your brand value.

View and manage your Store orders from a single platform

Just enter order number and view order details of customer. Track shipments, update order details, and cancel orders all from one place. No more juggling between your Store and support channels.

Create Custom Channels & Close dialogues

You can create custom channels for support queries from phones or messages. Also, you can track in real-time unresolved dialogues.

Get Push Notifications

Get instantly notified of customer messages across any channel. No more missing out on leads or customer queries. 

Integrate Multiple Stores and channels

With Mezchip you have the ability to integrate multiple Woocommerce stores and support channels all from a single dashboard at a very low cost.

Collaborate with team members

Assign tickets to team members, set up rules to auto-assign dialogues to the team, collaborate and respond to multiple queries at the same time

Pricing :

Starts at $29/ month for 750 tickets 

When it comes to choosing customer service tools for small businesses, our best suggestion is to look for something that is affordable and easy to use.

When it comes to technology, a common mistake small businesses make is putting together separate pieces of customer support software.

Having various apps for different customer communication can cause customers problems to go between the cracks. This can result in the loss of satisfied consumers.

Finding a single platform for all client interactions is the safest bet for small businesses. Read more on How Can Small Businesses Provide Great Customer Service.

With 95% of consumers sharing negative experiences, a single negative review can lose your company an average of 30 clients. Check out this post to know the reasons, Why are my customers dropping out? That is something we do not want to happen to you.

This is why we have created Mezchip | Omnichannel Customer Support Platform for E-Commerce Stores, an affordable omnichannel tool for all your customer service needs.

Book a demo now to get started with your free trial!

5 habits of a customer service oriented company

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.

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 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.

How Can Small Businesses Provide Great Customer Service

A great idea, seed capital, and some human resource on the job is not sufficient to get a new business going.

Right from the initial stage, great customer service helps in building a solid base for further growth and development of a business.

“Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.”

— Walt Disney

There is a thin line of difference between a good company and a great company. Customers feel more valued and regarded when associated with a great company.

Irrespective of the size and scale of the company, customer service occupies the topmost position in the list of company objectives.

“You’ll never have a product or price advantage again. They can be too easily duplicated. But a strong customer service culture cannot be copied.” — Jerry Fritz

Understanding Customer Service

It is the support provided by a business to its customers prior to and post-purchase of products or services.

It also includes keeping a track of the usage and experience of the customers during an entire customer’s buying cycle.

Customer retention is a primary objective. And an improved image of the brand comes as an added bonus.

These days customer service is not just limited to the traditional telephone support model rather it has now evolved to providing support and engaging customers across channels like:

  • Email
  • Live Chat
  • Text messaging
  • Social media, and
  • Self-service support, where customers can get answers on their own, irrespective of the time of the day.

So How Can Small Businesses Provide Great Customer Service?

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Customers can build their perceptions within seconds about a business. Particularly, when it comes to small businesses, creating the first impression is important.

Using the magic words, “Please” and “Thank You” goes a long way in earning customer trust, loyalty and appreciation.

A “can-do attitude” helps businesses become more dependable and worthy of customer trust.

It builds certainty with customers and reinstates their decision to buy products of the brand.

Phrases such as “I don’t know,” “I can’t,” and “You have to…” reflect complacency and a laid-back approach signaling a negative attitude.

Such phrases are unhelpful and act as triggers for already frustrated customers.

Adding a personal touch by giving calls to the customers goes a long way in staying connected with the customers.

Although in today’s fast-paced era, short personalized emails can be helpful instead of overloaded and lengthy emails.

Following up and maintaining contact with clients helps customers realize their value and highlight the importance of customer experience for the business.

Impact of a Great Customer Service

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Running a small business invites competition from bigger & better market players. Small businesses have a smaller bunch of customers to manage which in turn gives the chance to impress and retain the customers for longer periods.

Lasting impressions are embedded in customers. These impressions get transferred to their acquaintances via word of mouth leading to new customer acquisitions.

Great Customer Service has the following 5 advantages for small businesses:

1. Escalating trend of sales.

Managing an existing set of customers might land a business in a laid-back position, thus, finding new customers has to be a priority.

Customer service helps in increasing sales since not only the existing customers but also the prospective ones have questions to ask.

As per recent reports, 52% of customers are willing to abandon online purchases if they don’t find the information they’re seeking.

2. Retaining customers.

As per an oft-quoted statistic, acquiring customers costs 6–7 times more than retaining your existing ones.

Keeping in mind the time availability and resources with a small business, satisfying customers becomes more critical in running and operating a small business.

As per a report by the U.S. Small Business Administration, 68% of customers tend to leave since they were upset with the treatment they’ve received.

Hence, swift and considerate service for the customers goes a long way in earning their loyalty.

3. Discovering opportunities for cross-selling and upselling

With the advent of advanced systems such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and platforms like Mezchip, everyone in the company are aware of the customers.

  • Support agents have access to order histories, open opportunities, and shipping status.
  • Salespeople are aware when a customer requires assistance

4. Improvising the products and services being offered

The support team serves as an important link to the external business environment as they establish a connection on a real-time basis.

The inputs derived from their interaction with the customers serve as important leads for improving the quality of service delivery and products being offered.

5. Make better business decisions.

Customer service tools have multiple uses.

Apart from providing service to the customers, they contribute to the virtual improvement of various business aspects.

That includes customer satisfaction scores and performance of the agents which further aids in taking better and improved decisions for the business.

For a majority of people, good customer service is an expectation, customers need their queries to be answered and issues resolved but that’s not sufficient to stand out from others in the competition.

So how do you stand out?

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The answer lies in transforming good customer service into a Great one!! Small businesses do not require a big budget or a big team to do that, just some brainstorming, the right tools, and an empathetic thoughtful attitude towards their customers.

Looking for ways to manage your customer support better and stand out from others? Book a demo at mezchip to let us help you better!!