Many studies and diverse reports affirm that a number of users report feelings of dissatisfaction when dealing with service provision companies. They report feelings of being misunderstood, abandoned, even ignored. Not your clients, you say? Good for you! Good job, well done! You should know, though, that although your company’s customer service is good it could be even better. Today we present nine ways to make your customer attention worthy of the superlative “excellent”.
1. Only work with the best
When Vin Diesel is putting together a crack team of skateboarders to hijack a plane he doesn’t ask Donald Trump or me, because we can’t skateboard for shit. No, he asks Tony Hawk and Ludacris. Just like in your company if you hire the best IT technicians, why not also the best customer service technicians? There are people who have a gift for talking to others and they need to be the face of your business. Take care of them, but not “take care of them” if you see what I mean?
2. Keep smiling!
That doesn’t mean cracking jokes and wearying your interlocutor with unjustified cheeriness, just keep it light and remember that it’s nothing personal. The client has to feel that you are doing everything possible to solve the problem, and a positive attitude helps to transmit the message.
3. Pitch your language at the right level
If you find yourself speaking directly with a customer, face-to-face or by phone, remember that your interlocutor may have technical knowledge or not, modify your language. Your clients aren’t obligated to have the same vocabulary as you have. Using overly technical words can alienate your best friend – your customer! Moderate your utterances, pitching them at the right level for your client to understand. It’s difficult but you can do it!
4. Be friendly
A client with a complaint can seem like they are on the warpath, but a few well-chosen words and a conciliatory, calming tone can work wonders. Most of all, listen to your interlocutor, never raise your tone of voice or put yourself on the defensive. Finally, you’ll see that a calm approach can work wonders and your client will feel understood and well attended.
5. Be diligent
Remember that your client has not got in contact with you to make friends but to find a solution, so don’t delay. Explain to the client that their problem is being attended to and provide feedback on the status of their process. The sooner you can solve the incident, the more satisfied your client will be.
6. Get to know your customers
You don’t have to send them a fruit basket for their birthday, but establishing a personal relationship with your customers can smooth over many sticky situations. The better you know your client, on a professional level, the easier it will be to understand the problem and hopefully to find an answer. Of course, this is not always going to be possible but the human touch is an ally when dealing with customer complaints.
7. Train up your staff
Attitude is key but it is not the whole story; training also forms a major part of the equation, especially if you use a ticketing system to attend customer incidents. A simple statistic should suffice; according to business management guru Peter Senge, every hour spent on training an employee results in a saving of 100 man-hours a year, or $4000 saved from operational costs.
8. Listen to your collaborators and learn from them
The customer service area is a great way to interface with your customers and learn more about their wants and needs, all in the service of improving your offer. If you are using a customer service platform with ticketing it is easy to track previous complaints and keep a register of how they were solved, or introduce changes to your protocols automatically and massively
9. Implement protocols to streamline the customer attention process
You trained your staff, you know your client, but do you have an established protocol for dealing with queries and incidents as they come in? Do your people have the technological tools at their disposal to carry out their tasks? If you answered “no” to anything it’s time to overhaul your customer service.
These are some of the factors to keep in mind to make your client attention not only good but excellent! Do you have any recommendations? What successful customer service changes have you implemented in your company? Leave a comment below the line.
Pandora FMS’s editorial team is made up of a group of writers and IT professionals with one thing in common: their passion for computer system monitoring. Pandora FMS’s editorial team is made up of a group of writers and IT professionals with one thing in common: their passion for computer system monitoring.
