Five star customer service is difficult to achieve and even more difficult to maintain. It’s not impossible, but it definitely takes dedication, consistency and tact. Think about your last interaction with a customer service agent. How would you rate it? Was it four stars? Five stars? One star? None? What about that interaction could have made it better? This is a ‘learn from your own experience’ exercise. We are either the customer or the company at various points of the day, so there are several interactions in every single day that you can learn from, if you take time to evaluate the experience and extract the lessons.

Swift responses

Generally, people do not like waiting for a response for anything. We live in an instant world, which includes instant communication. The quicker the response, the more likely a customer will feel that you have made them a priority, you respect their time, and they are important to your business. This leaves a positive impression on the customer, who would be tempted to leave a lovely five star review regarding how quickly you got back to them and how incredibly fast your customer service is.

Go the extra mile

Customers, current or prospective, only contact you when they need something. It sounds like a one-sided relationship, but they don’t exactly ring your company just to ask your staff how their day has been and to wish them well. Could you imagine how strange, albeit nice, it would be if random people rang your company to spread some positivity?

Prospective customers contact you for more information before they make a purchase. They are normally fishing and judging your company by their experience with your customer service team. Since this is a make-or-break experience for your customer, speedy responses could put you in the make, not break, column. Being personable, friendly and helpful, along with being quick to reply, will leave a positive impression on your prospect.

Existing customers generally contact you when something isn’t quite right. Start off by asking what the issue is to get a good understanding of what’s happened, and then apologise before you start brainstorming a solution. Give the customer a few solutions, where possible, as this gives them the power of choice, rather than leave them feeling as though they have no alternative option. By responding quickly, apologising, offering a solution quickly and going the extra mile, you would have turned a negative into a positive and left the customer with a lasting impression.

Know your customers

Strengthening your customer service takes time and insight. Knowing your customers is the key to this part of the process. Click4Assistance’s seamless integration with most customer relationship managers, or CRMs, allows you to gather quick information on a customer’s history with you, allowing you to feel more familiar to them. If you’re aware that they had an issue recently and reached out to your team but had not found a resolution, you will be in a stronger position as you know the issue they are raising today, if it’s connected to the previous one, may be for an update. This instantly leads the customer to the belief that their issue is a current one, as you are aware of it, and helps them feel more favourable rather than hostile. Knowledge is power in customer service, and knowing your customers will help you to help them faster and better, giving your company that additional star review.

A customer is for life

A customer is not just for the holidays, they are for life. Their verbal testimonial of your company can put you on the map in their network, or remove you altogether. Word of mouth is still the most important and productive form of advertising, and it has expanded onto a global scale when social media is applied. This is why it is crucial for your customer service team to get it right the first time around. One negative experience could lead to an unfavourable social media review of your company, forever tarnishing your company’s brand. This pressure to deliver five-star customer service is high, and Click4Assistance understands this, and has developed software to help you get through it easily.

Technology will help you get there

Customer service can get overwhelming, but Click4Assistance has a solution to help your team maintain a high standard of productivity and efficiency. Our configurable desktop dashboard consolidates all of your messages from live chat, our smartContact enquiry forms, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp all in one place, so you never miss a message. Artificial intelligence like Click4Assistance’s AI chatbot, Artie, is there 24/7 to engage with your website visitors, answer basic questions, help with navigation and, in turn, increase your conversions. With our reports, you can see where your team is strong, and what areas need additional support and training.

Click4Assistance can make your customer service more productive, efficient and effective, while saving you time and money and switching your customer service to ‘always-on’. If you’re interested in deploying Click4Assistance, the UK’s premier GDPR compliant live chat software solution, to increase your business’ productivity for 2020, give us a call on 08451235871 or send an email theteam@click4assistance.co.uk and one of our team experts will be with you right away.