Poor or Excellent Customer Service?

Your customers are NOT getting the most effective Customer Service they so much deserve, this is WHY:

1. They seek and lack real-time customer support: Customers expect real-time responses. HubSpot research says, “90% of shoppers rate “immediate response” as important after they have queries”. It means the latency of the channels you provide should be reasonable.
2. Unnecessary multiple touchpoints needed to resolve your customers’ issues: one among the principles of customer service may be a faster solution at the primary contact point. When the customer issue is identified within the first contact, not only is the resolution faster but the quantity of touchpoints is reduced.
3. Basically, you have got an inefficient customer support team: a fervent support team may be a great source of pride for any business. Not having a competent team can create the worst customer service experiences, therefore, losing loyal customers and deflecting brand reputation and more customer complaints.
4. Your support team lacks customer service etiquette: it’s crucial for the support team to possess the proper skills and etiquette to use powerful phrases for effective customer service. It reduces the negative impact of customer support and helps build great success stories.
5. Your contact center isn’t taking customer feedback regularly: have you ever been bothered to understand whether your customers are proud of your service quality, products, or overall brand? If not, you’re missing out on a key element of exceptional customer service – i.e. Customer Feedback.
6. Your agents don’t seem to be using the correct tools: one in every of the most important aspects of fine customer service is using the proper tools. The tools help in reducing the negative impact of support.

Have you ever wondered why customer-centric businesses with poor customer service lose loyal customers, and revenue, and a few eventually run out of business? But who wants that?

Poor customer service will be defined as when a business fails to fulfil its customers’ expectations in terms of the standards of service, the response time, and also the overall customer experience. But someone could also ask, what really is exceptional customer service? Well, we’ll get to that.

In this article, we’ll paint a clear-cut picture of both worlds: good and poor customer service, and the way to rework your contact center from poor to five-star quality. I will be able to also offer you a bit deeper insight on the categories of contact centers and which might be the most effective for your business and customers.

To begin with, allow us to first understand the impact poor customer experiences would have on any enterprise; large, medium, or small.

Effects of Bad Customer Service

Research done by HubSpot on customer service shows that after a poor customer experience,

1. 56% of your customers will never use the company again.
2. 52% will tell their family and friends about the experience.
3. 54% will escalate their experience to a supervisor or manager.

I know, I also wouldn’t want to put my customers in this position. So, to set the ground, bad customer experiences have adverse effects on any business.

Let’s dig a little deeper and look at the impact of poor customer service on your brand and business.

Increases customer desertion rates – once you deliver great customer experiences, customers will always return to your doorstep and on the contrary, poor, substandard services will motivate them to run. One instance of bad customer service is enough for your customer to change to a different company.

Affects brand loyalty – Customer loyalty could be a key determining factor of a business’ longevity; loyal customers are reliable and sturdy. It’s important to grasp that poor customer service significantly reduces customer lifetime value (CLTV). Losing a loyal customer affects the general brand of your company in the long run.

Increases customer service costs – As a manager, you recognize the very fact that acquiring a new customer costs significantly much more than retaining an existing one. This is often purely because when customer service standards fall, the number of touchpoints needed to deal with your customers’ issues increases. The revenue that these touchpoints demand would have a drastic impact on customer service costs.

In the world of modern business, small and medium enterprises that believe it’s important to keep their customers happy have also experienced growing revenue. Hence, good customer service and business success go hand in hand.

An example of the impact of poor customer service on a business.

To contextualize the impact poor customer service can have on your enterprise, let’s take the instance of an enormously successful airline that suffered a great loss of revenue and further the reputation of its brand was damaged because of poor customer experiences.

Due to bad weather, the famous Frontier Airlines had to cancel and delay all its flights from and to Denver International Airport. On top of this, passengers had to put up with long lines and misdirected baggage.

Now, we expect this to happen at any airport. So, what makes this a novel case? Frontier did not uphold the two core aspects of customer service: Compassion and proper communication. The Airline portrays its lack of compassion for its customers and poor communication by leaving passengers and even their own cockpit and cabin crews stranded for hours without wind of any information.

From a safety point of view, Frontier did okay. From a customer service perspective, however, they failed terribly.

Research by Microsoft states, “58% of consumers would switch companies after a poor customer service experience.”

Good Customer Service:

Having gotten enough grounding of poor customer service and its impact on your business, let’s take a look at the opposite side of the coin as well, good customer service.

Good customer service is basically the sort of service you’d want to receive if you were in the shoes of any customer seeking support. To paint a clearer picture, try recalling your worst customer experience. While at it, what do you feel made your experience a foul one? What could have been done to serve you better?

Key Attributes of Exceptional Customer Service:

Simply put, good customer service is all about creating a relationship with customers and providing them with a friendly and helpful atmosphere. You could be wondering what entails a friendly and helpful atmosphere.

This kind of friendly space or atmosphere is formed by providing timely, attentive, upbeat service to a customer, and ensuring their needs are met in an exceedingly manner that reflects positively on your company or business.

A customer-friendly atmosphere may be a result of these key aspects of excellent customer service,

1. Timely resolution of the customer’s problem.
2. The effective solution is offered on the primary or initial contact.
3. Valuing customers’ time and feedback.
4. Good customer service etiquette.

Impacts of excellent Customer Service

Promotes Customer Loyalty

A large percentage of customers say a positive customer service experience makes them more likely to make another purchase. It’s also important to recall that investing in a new customer is way costlier than retaining an existing one.

Creating loyal customers through good customer service can therefore provide your business with lucrative long-term relationships.

Increases profits

These long-term customer relationships established through good customer service ensure your business becomes more profitable. Your business can grow revenues above your market once you prioritize better customer service experiences.

Creating better customer experiences than those offered by your competitors can help your businesses to stand out within the marketplace, and successively lead to more sales.

Positive Customer Reviews and Recommendations

Providing good customer service can create satisfied customers, who are then more likely to recommend your business to others. During this era of ever-evolving technology and also the internet, customers are largely influenced by positive reviews when buying a product. Customers recommending your company through word of mouth or online reviews can improve the credibility of your business.

Increases conversion of prospects

Good customer service can help businesses turn leads into sales. Most customers may back out of a purchase thanks to poor customer experience. It’s, therefore, safe to assume that providing good customer service will help to extend customer confidence and successively increase conversion rates.

Improves your company’s brand and public image

Customer service can help your business improve the general public perception of your brand.  Most customers may forgive an organization for a slip-up after receiving excellent customer service. Creating positive customer experiences is therefore vital in gaining customer trust and keeping a robust public image.

Customer Service KPIs

For exceptional customer service, contact centers have key performance indicators that help measure performance, and ensure high standards of customer service. Some KPIs to get your contact center on the right track could include:

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): The CSAT score tells you how satisfied your customers are with your business. Ask your customers to rate their satisfaction with your products and services.

Average Response Time (ART): It measures the time between the customer initiates the chat and the time the agent takes to respond thereto. It’s an important KPI for customer service to think about for performance evaluation because it is amongst the issues most customers complain about.

First Contact Resolution (FCR): FCR measures the efficiency of your customer support team to resolve a user issue during the primary encounter. It indicates how capable your agents are of understanding and resolving the issue at the primary touchpoint.

Number of touchpoints: It measures the overall number of returning interactions on all channels made by the customer to seek the correct solution for the same issue.

Adept Technologies is renowned for top-notch customer-centric services that inspire customer loyalty, drive your revenue up, and ensure only the best customer experiences for your customers. Try our customer services and have a feel of what exceptional customer experiences could do for your business. If it’s a Win for you, Why Not?