3 Vital Customer Service Mistakes You Should Avoid
Your customer service representatives are your direct link with the customers and can either strengthen or eliminate the relationship you should be aiming at. Having representatives with strong performance is primary if you are to create a productive and beneficial network of happy customers. Excellent customer service is the key to loyalty and therefore more profit. However, there are several mistakes some companies fail to address and thus repel their customers.
In Etiquette…
The primary is the bad behavior of the representative. Every company should make sure the employees with direct engagement with the customers are polite and follow the etiquette, never letting vexation or any other negative feeling show up in their voice, tone or face. Self-control and understanding when a customer has or thinks he/she has a problem are must-have skills for your company representatives, simply because if the employee’s irritation is sensible, it will inspire nothing good. Check here for the golden rules on customer service.
The fix to that issue is rather simple – training from a professional psychologist or a leader on the field of customer satisfaction, and making sure your employees understand the corporate values, goals, and achievements. In other words keeping a well engaged and educated personnel.
In Resources…
Lack of information or outdated systems is among the most common mistakes. When company neglects the need of the customer representative to have a system, tools, software, and information which can allow the faster processing of the complaints and issues, it has a negative impact on both the productivity and the customer satisfaction. Investing in everything that can help the employees process more work in less time, will obviously not only increase their performance but will positively affect the customer satisfaction levels every company should aim at.
The fix of these issues, although not easy to built overnight, is something you should invest in yesterday. Making a well organized MIS, clear communication lines, simplified protocols, and finding a program/software which will best suit the needs for processing the complaints. Without a well-developed system to support your staff, the company literally loses profit and chances for loyal customers.
In Organization…
No time management system and daily targets. Another such thing that always slows down your employees and their ability to faster solve customer complaints is the lack of an actual target, schedule, and plan of action. Organizing the processing of complaints, creating a time estimation system, making a daily target of solved issues and a plan to do that will greatly reduce time and expense losses, also be increasing the customer satisfaction. Both your front-line and back office employees should be able to work out the issues real-time and in collaboration.
Fixing the way complaints are processed is again rather easy to accomplish. For instance, if you use time tracking software to manage the time of your employees, but you will be able to distribute and follow up on the current actions of your team, which will allow you to change, improve and react to any complication that may interfere with reaching the goals and deadlines. The time tracking software can save you a lot of trouble, even with remote or outsourced offices. To know more of its benefits, check here. Fast reaction with a positive outcome is always appreciated by customers, and this is something you should always look for.
Customer service excellence does not lay only on the shoulders of the employees dealing with the issues. If they are not supported and given the freedom and information needed for them to do their job professionally, your customer support team will be with tied hands and unable to process and fix issues timely and successfully. Each company has everything to lose without a well organized and developed customer service team.