To help businesses understand the complex reality of customer service and demystify which aspects business owners should prioritise in such unprecedented times, CallCare has created their ‘Magical World of Customer Service’ featuring a series of AI-generated, fantasy-themed images each depicting a vital secret of effective customer service.
Over the last few years, small and large businesses have had to continually adapt to a ‘new normal’ as consumer habits and expectations have shifted, first in response to the global pandemic and then swiftly followed by the cost of living crisis and record-breaking inflation.
Over half (58%) of consumers say Covid has raised their expectations for service standards. Furthermore, according to research conducted by HubSpot, 93% of customers were likely to make repeat purchases at companies with excellent customer service.
Meaning the potential knock-on effect on your bottom line if you get your customer service strategy wrong can not be understated.
Instant Support
As technology has advanced, the ideal response time that customers prefer has shortened to a point where many now have the expectation of instant support during business hours; in fact, according to research nine in ten customers feel an ‘immediate’ response is important.
According to data from HubSpot, 60% of consumers contacting customer support define ‘immediate’ as within 10 minutes.
As CallCare point out, customers believe that one of the most important things a brand can do is understand that their time is valuable too.
Live chat is a great example of instant support because it gives customers the chance to speak to a service representative in real-time.
CallCare’s Top Tip?
Organise your instant messaging channels efficiently by time received so you can respond fairly to all queries.
Communication
Effective communication is essential to any interaction with your customers; it’s how you build trust in your brand and increases customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Of course, each customer will have their own interpretation of what constitutes as effective communication. According to a Zendesk report, 82% of respondents ranked the friendliness of the representative in the top three most important customer service qualities.
According to CallCare, experience is key overall when it comes to ensuring customers feel that communication is as effective as possible. One example they share of effective communication is to conclude every conversation with customers in a polite and helpful manner. This leaves a positive impression of the experience.
CallCare’s Top Tip?
Use appropriate language and a friendly tone when speaking with customers.
Responsiveness
According to CallCare, having a responsive customer service team means you can quickly and accurately address support requests, further demonstrating that your brand values the customers’ time as much as their own.
Supporting this, recent research shows that three out of every four of consumers rate a quick, helpful and personalised response as the most common quality of their favourite brands.
CallCare’s Top Tip?
Keep a record of commonly asked questions and answers to respond to routine queries quickly.
Problem-solving
Problem-solving is essential to ensuring a customer is satisfied as most customers will only contact a business because they have issues that need resolving.
CallCare points out this is why customer service representatives should be knowledgeable about their brand so that they can offer the best solutions to customers.
Interestingly research indicates that if customers can not get the answers they need from the brand itself, they are happy to look elesewhere. With 83% of customers say they would use an online community forum for self-service support if it was available, whilst 92% would use a knowledge base for the same purpose.
CallCare’s Top Tip?
Offer troubleshooting options for routine issues to allow customers to help themselves.
Empathy
Salesforce research into the ‘state of the connected customer’ found that 68% of customers expect their customer service agents to demonstrate empathy.
CallCare highlights empathy allows brands to connect with customers on a more personal level, allowing brands to adapt their approach and build stronger relationships.
This, in turn, affects the businesses’ bottom line, with research indicating that 71% of customers will purchase more from brands they trust or have a relationship with.
CallCare’s Top Tip?
Use positive language and active listening to understand where a customer is coming from.
For more information:
Damien Horwood
Senior Digital PR Executive, Click Consult
[email protected]
About CallCare:
A UK-based telephone answering service that works 24/7 to ensure business owners and companies are never without the phone support they need. They work daily handling millions of calls on behalf of both public and private sector businesses.
https://www.callcare247.com/
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