After having interviewed a number of different businesses on how their customer support works, a few common traits stand out that keep repeating themselves across different companies, simply being described in different ways. We’ve picked out the most common tips on how to build a great base for outstanding customer support to help you streamline your efforts in making customers happy.
1. Fast response times
This one seems obvious. No one likes to wait for ages to have their problem solved. If you’ve contacted support it’s likely because you’ve run into an issue – right now. Depending on the problem you’re facing you’re probably hoping to get it solved as soon as possible. Remember the last time you were put on hold with your electricity or internet provider? It’s annoying having to wait around and not knowing what’s going on. So even if you need some time to solve the problem, get back to your customer anyway and let them know that you’re working on it. Keep them updated.
2. Solve the problem
This directly relates to the second point of actually solving the customer’s problem. While fast response times are valuable, you also want to make sure not to rush the process just for the sake of providing an answer. Make an effort to look into the problem the customer is having and provide a reasonable and helpful solution, even if the most useful answer takes a bit of time to find.
3. Be personal
While both of the above directly relate to the problem, this one’s more on the emotional side. People appreciate personal connections and an empathetic response. It makes us feel like we’re being understood and cared for, which in turn results in feeling looked after and putting us at ease, trusting that our problem will be dealt with appropriately.
Building great relationships with customers can help to get new clients as word of mouth spreads, as well as keep existing ones. Nothing really beats personal connections. Try to always find something that you can relate to when talking to a customer to show you actually care and are human. Hiring the right people can be helpful too, so you don’t need to train someone to naturally be personal.
All three points combined should make for an amazing and memorable customer experience, which will hopefully keep your customers around for a long time.
Are you implementing all three of those tips yet? Which one have you found to be the most valuable? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this in the comments below.