Investing In Customer Experience Is An All-Important Customer Service Trend

Published by Magellan Solutions at February 17, 2015

So what is the value of delivering great customer experiences?

People who experienced it remain loyal to the brand all because of a few minutes of interaction with one of your employees (or call center representatives) and more importantly, enjoy the quality of your product or service. According to a recent survey, 40% of customers started buying from another competitive brand because of its reputation for doing great customer service. On the other hand, Eighty-two percent of people have stopped patronizing the business because of bad service. Getting terrible customer service drives people away from your business. So improving this area is good. There are emerging customer service trends that have been predicted this year. These are trends that have been in years past in the customer service industry and they are seeing just what else could most likely happen for this year. Customer service does have its own and it is said that customer experience is one of the top things on the list.

Customer experience and what it is all about

As a customer, what are the things that you remember about any transaction you may have had with a certain company (for example, an airline or a financial institution)? What are the things that have particularly caught your attention (and probably even your loyalty)? Is it the product or the service itself? Is it the advertising that you saw on television? Is it how you were treated when you purchased the product? Is it the after-sales service that you got regarding it? These are usually the points of interaction that you have with a business. It may not seem much to you right now, but if you are going to take a better look at things, you would be able to discover that these things are very important when you think about it. See, all these things are very essential in keeping a good impression. As a customer, you would probably not remember where you learned about the product or the service but the way you were handled during the transaction or perhaps the kind of feedback you saw regarding the company has somewhat stuck to you. It may be small things, at times taken for granted, but these become really important details in the long run. These are the details that stick to customers and make them come back for repeat orders, new transaction,s or just be customers that jump ship. These, all of these, are part of the customer experience. It is just about the time that you take a look at it and see how it is going to help your business starting this year.

Customer experience though can be quite vague. For some companies, it is one experience that a customer has with a company. For some, it may be just about the product or just about the service or some other part of your business. For others, it can be the experience that a customer has with a company overall or through all the times that this customer has had a point of interaction with that business. It all would depend on the company and perhaps what they are trying to measure.

In the case of an inbound tech support center and all other companies in the contact center industry, it is all about the point of interaction in which people can directly interact with a call center representative. It is all about how agents can speak and communicate with the customer and also how they handle various kinds of calling in. See, most customers already know much about the product or the service that is being offered to them. They even choose the channel that they use to contact you especially if you make them available. Whether it is a chat or a call, customers always want to know how is the kind of treatment that they would get from the representatives of that product or service. This is what is important for them and this is something that you may want to take a look at.

With that, many companies have invested well in the right customer service call center provider and making sure that their call center agents who will represent them are the right people who will do the job of speaking and interacting with their customers. These people need to know how to handle different types of people and how to make these people feel important. Think of it, customers usually call customer service when they need help or have inquiries. These are usually negative calls and issues and so businesses need to invest in people who will make that part of customer experience quite remarkable. With the right people, that can be done. With the right people, customer experience for these customers will be a great one and they will most likely be converted into repeat and loyal customers.

How do you make sure you provide excellent customer experience?

Customer experience is shaped by specific touchpoints, especially if customers prefer going to a hotline center or sending an email. Customer experience is a very vital part of your whole business and you must understand how to properly do it. You may do your research and find out how to do it but, just like any other tips out there, it would all depend on you, your business, your core values, and the kind of image that you would want to portray in front of the whole world. You must know these to be able to see and create a good list of things to remember when creating that awesome customer experience you wish to send out to your customers.

There are plenty of tips out there and you may want to check them out yourself. However, you may need to find out which ones are good and which ones you may want to stay away from. As the owner of your business, you should be able to know which are going to work well for you and your business and which ones just may not do you any good at all. By doing so, you would be able to create a really good list of tips and tricks that you could pass on to all those call center agents you have outsourced the customer service task to. By doing so, you are helping them achieve the kind of service and experience that you would want to send out. See, in its way, customer service and customer experience is also a message that you would want to get across to all those who patronize you and your products (or services).

- What is your customer saying? You must try to see and understand what the customer is trying to say. Some just do not say it bluntly. You have to listen to how things are being said and read from there. Of course, some would just say things and not know how to put the whole situation in words. With that, do not be afraid to ask any questions. It will help you understand what the customer is trying to tell you. By doing so, you would be able to respond properly and be able to provide any kind of help that he (or she) may be looking for.
- It can be true that your product or your service may not differ much from all other products or services out there. However, you have to make sure that you know much about your product and see just what is that special something that your product or service has. What makes you different from the rest? This quality will make you shine above the rest. Let your agents believe in your product. Allow them to use it and experience it themselves. By doing so, you are helping them explain what you are offering a whole lot better. Other companies simply train their agents to say the things that they are supposed to say. By letting them experience the whole thing first hand, you can expect them to know how the whole thing works and what it can do.
- Build a connection with your customers. To be able to do that, you have to learn to listen to what they are saying. If you need to do small talk, go ahead and do such a thing and work from there. By doing so, you are learning more about your customer and you are allowing him (or her) to be at ease with you. You would then be able to tell them about what you are offering them. Plus, you should also be able to offer your product or service using specific characteristics or values that may just suit your customer based on his preferences or anything that he (or she) may have revealed to you.
- Allow your phone service agents to deviate from the spiels that you may have ready for them and learn to be spontaneous. Let them use their creativity and let them use their skills in creating good solutions to any issue that has been given their way. By allowing them to do so, you would be able to see just how better customers react to real conversations rather than those that have already been written.
- The very reason that customers go to you is that they need your service or your product – and you are good at offering it. Focus on that. Make sure that you can see just what they need and be able to provide that with excellence. Treat them as a friend and do not treat them as like any other customer. They are customers, yes, but speak to them as if they are someone that you already know. It will help you get your message across better and help them feel like they are wanted.
- Use emotions if you must. Remember all those ads that you have seen? Which ones struck you the most? For most customers, as soon as their emotions are triggered, they will be able to remember that idea, that service, or that advertisement. Emotions are quite strong so make sure that you use that to talk to your customers.

Customer-centric businesses can create predictable customer experiences, which result in creating customer loyalty, which in turn build business. It is because they tend to focus more on developing the right people who can best represent them. Customer experience is truly an investment that pays dividends.