Many of my Digital Marketer friends feel as if all they have to do is provide the right information and the right SEO, right digital marketing and everything else will take care of itself. In fact, in my research, I found that consumers are looking for good customer service. Product experts who can help them in making their purchase decisions. They also need the help of customer service to help in resolution for the problems with the service or product.
In one of the organizations I worked with, we had a huge gap in leads and conversions. Social media and forums were getting flooded with negative complaints. The competition was taking over the market very quickly. I decided to fix the issue.
How Customer Service Helped Us?
I hired and trained a team of 12 people for customer service. Amazingly, it helped us acquire 339% more customers than the previous year.
Below are the few changes I made.
- Started a 24×7 toll-free number.
- Every lead captured on the website, events, referrals, or any other source was contacted within 5 minutes of their inquiry or first contact.
- Basic information was asked and the filled form details were reconfirmed. Especially, name, email, phone number, and their qualification was asked again to ensure there is no mistake in the date.
- Next, they were asked for their interest, their life goals, career choice, etc.
- They were asked to visit the nearest learning center with a pre-booked time slot for free counseling.
- A feedback call was done to ask them, how was their counseling session. And do they need further help?
- Every month every customer was called for feedback on their understanding and progress.
- The entire data was then compiled to make decisions for changes required to make the process better.
At the end of the year, we found that the customer satisfaction level was increased by over 72%. Thanks to this small change it turned the company’s sales and brand value like the J Curve.
How Customer Service Can Make the Difference?
By making sure that your website has the right amount of focus placed on customer service, it is possible for you to make sure that your website will be able to give your customers everything that they are looking for.
Customer service can work in a few different ways when dealing with websites.
First, you can offer those who are visiting your site the ability to interact directly with a customer service representative.
You can also allow your customers to ask questions through a phone number which goes to a live call center.
Another way that you can offer better customer service is to provide a forum on the website. This forum allows your customers to talk about things that are bothering them.
The more you provide opportunities to talk about you online to your customers, the more effective your customer service program will be.
What Should You Avoid?
Below are the few things you should avoid to make your customers go to your competition.
Missed Call Service
Missed call service is only good for surveys. Don’t use missed call service for customer service. People call customer service when they are in trouble, or when they want to ask something which is not there on your website. They want to talk to a real person in real-time. They don’t want to wait to get a callback.
Popup Lead forms on Home Page
Do not use pop up lead forms on the home page of your website. Visitors on your website want to read your content first, rather than giving their details to you before trusting you. Also, popup forms are irritating when visitors are visiting your website on a mobile device. Instead on mobile devices give them a Click to Call number so that they can directly call your customer service.
Don’t Ask them to Write You Email
People don’t want to write an email for their issues and then wait for days to get a response. Instead, they like to talk to your customer service team in real-time to resolve their issues.
Talking Directly with a Customer Service Representative
When customers land on your website, it is a good idea to make sure that they have the ability to talk with someone in customer service directly.
While there are programs available that can fake this kind of interaction (chatbots). However, it is a better idea to make sure that someone is live on the other end of the chat. Human loves to interact with a human, not with machines and robots.
Providing answers to questions about products, services or even navigation will help to improve the feeling that a client or potential client will feel towards your business and help to increase the chances that they will do shopping with you.
Call Customer Service
It is important to offer a phone number which your customers can call if they have problems.
You can employ the use of call center companies to make sure that the phone lines will always be open to those looking to contact your company.
A telephone answering service will make it possible for your clients to feel as if your company cares about the service that they receive.
By giving them the feeling that you care, you make it possible that they will do business with you again in the future.
Provide an Interactive Forum
Forums are becoming more popular because they allow the customers the chance to sound off about anything that they want to.
They can promote or denounce your company.
While it may be tempting to censor the content on the forum, it’s an opportunity for your company to come out ahead publicly on what would normally be a one-sided conversation.
You can provide solutions for suggestions which will help those having problems with a product of yours to not have the problem anymore.
In some cases, it will give you the opportunity to show your willingness to replace a bad product.
Summary
Customer service is the most important function for any company because customers want to directly talk to a real person in real-time. Give them a way to interact with your company in real-time. This would make your business grow and make your customers happy.
