Customer service is an important part of your business. Take a moment to think about the best customer service experience you ever had. What made it the best experience? Were you treated kindly? Were your concerns or needs taken seriously? Now, think about the worst customer service experience you’ve gone through. Did you have to wait? Were you told that there was nothing the rep could do to help you?
You know from experience what constitutes great customer service. Does your customer service policy (and team) reflect those values? If not, you can use the following five steps to improve your customer service.
Step 1 – Hire the Right People
The people who provide customer service on behalf of your business are some of the most important people you’ll ever hire. They interact with your clients and with potential clients. In short, they are a direct reflection of your business and its values. Your customer service reps should enjoy working with people. They should enjoy helping others and solving problems. Your customer service reps must be ready to go above and beyond to help your clients. Doing so helps inspire loyalty from your clients. Happy clients are more likely to tell their friends, family members, and colleagues.
Step 2 – Have the Right Customer Service Policies and Procedures in Place
The purpose of written policies and procedures that explain how your customer service department operates is important. It can be used to train staff. It can also help ensure that all of your clients are treated fairly. Customer service reps should understand how accounts are opened with your business, understand your billing process, and have answers to common questions such as what happens if a client misses their due date. To learn more about writing your own policies and procedures, check out this post.
Step 3 – Make Sure Your Reps Are Empowered to Help
Nothing is more frustrating for a client than to be told by a customer service rep that they can’t help them. Make sure that your customer service reps have the power to help solve problems. You can establish basic guidelines that reps can follow. If the client’s issue falls outside of what is listed in the guide, train your reps to say, “Let me see what I can do for you. I’ll research this and give you a call back,” instead of “Sorry – I can’t help you.” For those issues, reps should visit with you or their manager to come up with a solution. This helps clients feel reassured that your company is doing everything it can to earn and keep their business.
Step 4 – Be Receptive to Feedback
The feedback you receive about your customer service from clients and potential clients is valuable. It lets you determine if there are problems that should be resolved. You should also be open to feedback from your customer service reps. They are the ones who deal directly with clients and they can tell you what seems good in theory but doesn’t work well in practice.
Step 5 – Outsource to Professionals
Clients ARM provides outsourced customer service help for service-based businesses. We’re located in the United States. What makes our service standout is how we continue to rely on old fashioned customer service principles. We use technology to make the process easy for you and your clients. Your clients will still call your business. You assign a dedicated extension of your business to Clients ARM. When clients call it or when they are transferred to the assigned extension, they talk with one of our dedicated and experienced representatives. To learn more about our customer service or any of our other services, schedule your free consultation now!
