As your key brand ambassadors and your first line of defense, your customer service representatives are often the first and the only point of contact many of your customers have with your brand. They are the ones who make sure that all the effort you’ve invested in branding is reflected through their communication with the customer, and they are the ones warding off negative points every step of the way.
However, even the best of customer service teams need an occasional boost in morale, and this is where you step in to invest and give them the needed reinforcements. Let’s take a look at the five top ways to invest in your team in order to see a return and make your customers happy!
Survey and rely on feedback
What better way to let your customers know you really care than to ask them for their genuine opinions? After all, as users of your service or product, they are the best candidates to point out any areas for improvement for your brand. However, it’s not enough to just ask the questions and note down the responses – you also need to act on the given information and make it count.
As you wrap up your surveys or any other form of soliciting feedback, you need to put those suggestions into actionable steps. Take a look at your online reviews, emails you’ve exchanged, and website info (such as retention, click-through, and the like). That way, your customer service reps can use the data to approach each and every customer in a personalized way and make them feel appreciated and their voices heard.
Tech up your customer service
Even the most qualified staff members cannot fulfil their potential without the right support in the form of high-quality equipment. For starters, you need a strong Internet connection through a reliable provider such as Orange, one that will enable your customer service representatives to respond to queries quickly and efficiently. Without delays in communication, you can prevent many a disgruntled complaint from your busy customers.
Moreover, with the right, durable computers, headsets, and accompanying equipment at their disposal, they can meet your customers’ needs without feeling stressed and allowing any tech issues to affect their performance.
Training for your staff
No one is a born perfect customer service representative, and since every job comes with a learning curve, it’s best to provide guidance and knowledge for your staff. Encourage them to take seminars and conferences, but also take initiative in terms of setting up workshops in your own offices.
If you have remote staff in this department, you can have online workshops and seminars as well, to make sure that every member of your customer service team has access to the same opportunities and skill improvements. In-house mentorship is also another way to empower your teams to exchange knowledge and keep each other in the loop with company’s best practices in customer service.
Incentivize your efforts
Sometimes, a business needs to give in order to get, and this means you also need to be prepared to teach your customer service staff to use incentive in customer communication. Simply put, they will be the ones deciding when and to what extent an investment is needed on your end in order to retain a customer, make them happy, and turn them into a return buyer.
For example, your teams should have a designated budget when it comes to discounts and freebies in exchange for referrals. For every referral for your product or services, said customer can get a discount or a free item/service offer for a designated period of time. The bottom line is to teach your customer service teams to recognize these opportunities and invest wisely in order to actually see a return.
Branding through customer service
If your brand is all about being sassy, humorous, and casual, then your customer support teams should be able to reflect that through the language they use and the relationship they build with your users. On the other hand, formal, sophisticated, luxury brands will have an entirely different approach, which should be instantly apparent from the way they conduct when talking to their customers.
Educate your support agents on how to let their language and their approach emanate your brand values. No matter how many people you have on your team, they all need to be able to maintain brand consistency through their communication.
Customer support teams are often underestimated when it comes to business growth, and yet, they are one of its most vital factors. Make sure to invest and diversify these investments in your team, and you’ll allow your business to skyrocket to stardom!
