As a small business owner, you may not have the dedicated budget for a 24/7 support team. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t take a small, struggling customer support team to one that offers unparalleled world-class support experiences. Regardless of how great your product is or the talents of your staff, one element that customers will remember is direct interaction with your company. Service excellence starts with a consistently helpful attitude, and that begins and ends with your support team.
Strengthening an Empathic and Engaged Team
Your customer support team is the face of your company, and the experiences that your customers have with them are defined by the skills and quality of the responses they receive. A smart business will always be redefining exceptional service. If you are not constantly on the lookout for opportunities to improve service, then relationships will stagnate and you’ll lose valuable customers. Here are the three best ways to help you focus on providing top-notch service to your customers.
- Be proactive, but not pushy. Speed impresses customers, but people also like follow-up emails. This shows that you care about the outcome of their resolution with your support team. Make sure not to follow up too many times as this can be perceived as pushy. Remember that you want to be helpful and courteous, not annoying or overbearing. You will have to set up some internal limits for this, but generally two follow up emails are acceptable.
- Be autonomous. Trust your support team and empower them to make decisions. This helps open up their individual capabilities and their inclinations to truly help your customers. The concept is that the more freedom you given them, the more flexible your team will be when it come to resolving issues for your customers. No one likes a support experience that feels scripted or restrictive. When this is the case, decision-making has been taken away from the support team, leaving the customer without many options. More autonomy can be as simple as enabling your support team to give the customer what they want without the need to obtain approval from supervisors or a chain of command.
- Be flexible. To ensure that your team is adaptable enough to satisfy the demands of your diverse customer base, you should seek out team members that are amenable and flexible. The ability to handle a talkative customer one moment and an angry customer the next is critical. Being able to roll with the punches and not take anything personally enables them to see through the problem and provide an acceptable solution.
It’s important to remember that no matter how proactive you are, you can’t predict every issue, but creating an easily accessible way for customers to give feedback and for your support team to respond goes a long way to resolving unforeseen problems.
Listen to Your Customers
The critical nature of feedback to customer satisfaction is tremendous A business that is built around delivering unparalleled customer support will see an increased ROI and enhanced customer satisfaction. By developing close relationships with your customers, touchpoints and skills that your support team possesses will emerge. Also, your customers will see your dedication to providing high-quality, proactive customer service.
