Customer service is one of those fields that mandate constant attention for the simple reason of rapid evolution due to intensified demands fueled by a heightened exposure to international quality of support that realizes and places a customer before everything else.
Here are five highly effective, almost no-cost ways to upgrade the quality of your customer service experience and make your customers’ lives a little bit better.
1. Handle unhappy customers carefully. You don’t want to lose a customer for a mistake- yours or theirs. Things do become awkward for both, the customer support executive and the customer when something goes wrong. Hence my first & foremost advice is to train your executives until they are fluent in using it every time such a scenario happens. Commonly known as Customer Service Recovery, this process makes use of the widely popular AWARE approach – Acknowledge, Widen, Agree, Resolve, & Evaluate. Ask us and we will be glad to help.
2. Keep a Language Phrasebook handy. When tempers are on a high, even the most well-meaning and passionate executives can sometimes use a word or phrase that further adds fuel to customer’s disappointment. Make sure your customer support executives commit to memory a few phrases for such situations. A better idea that we successfully implement is keeping a phrasebook handy with all our executives. We have made hard and soft copies that our executives carry at all times they interact with a customer- on their desk, in their computer, and in their phones. Here are a few examples from our phrasebook:
NEVER SAY: Our records say you owe us…
YES! SAY THIS: Our record shows a balance of…
NEVER SAY: You must…
YES! SAY THIS: From our experience, we find it works the best when…
NEVER SAY: Please hold the line…
YES! SAY THIS: May I place your call on hold for a few moments… Always apologize and thank them after reconnecting the call.
3. Begin and end with elegance. Numerous psychological studies have shown that our brain tends to remember the beginning and the end of a conversation more than every other word. Make sure your customer support department receives every single call as it was their first one, and ends each call as you would give farewell to a fond friend who might not return for a few years.
This is how it works. There is no magic in keeping customers happy, only flawless execution, especially when a customer arrives with a complaint. A disappointed person is eager to share his experience with others. Make sure you give him a good story. That is the most economical way of creating brand advocates.
The only cost?
Either training your executives or choosing an outsourced help desk provider like Open Mind Services Limited
Open Mind Services Limited, a specialized Inbound Communications company continues to assist its clients in providing impressive customer service and delivering vital competitive advantage for more than 15 years now.
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