The level of competition with business today is stiffer than perhaps it’s ever been. Customer loyalty isn’t what it used to be – customers will actively look for better deals and switch allegiances to different brands without a second thought. That’s bad news for companies that rely on keeping their customers happy and wish to expand their market share in 2019.
Here are some good reasons why your business needs to prioritize customer service in the coming year.
Customers Are Vocal with their Dissatisfaction
Brands are having to deal with the reality that previously disgruntled customers could only complain to their friends and family about a bad experience but now they have other avenues.
While a customer ranting and raving in a retail store about their unhappy experience might make them look like a crazy person, online that’s not the case. They can take to social media to vent their displeasure and they’ll get an intense response from other people who feel the same way. They can call out the company using a tweet that publicly shames them for bad service. This usually has the desired effect of getting the company to act because they’ll look bad if they continue not to provide an acceptable response.
Avoiding the maelstrom of angry social media dissenters needs to be a priority for companies. Because once the complaints have gotten that far, it’s public and potentially damaging to the business reputation. If enough people get turned off by the company’s actions, it could become costly too.
Customers are Fickle
To make matters worse, customers tend to be fickle. This is because what humans say they want and what actually makes them happy are two very different things. Any study of human behavior will show that we’re more unpredictable by nature than we like to believe. We set goals but don’t necessarily follow through with the actions necessary to succeed in the goal even though it was important. Why is this? Because emotions get in the way of a logical thinking process causing confusion.
For companies, reaching an agreement on what will satisfy an upset customer to resolve an issue is often a delicate negotiation in itself. When a complaint isn’t handled fast enough, requests for compensation start to be heard too. Companies must walk a fine line to achieve a satisfactory outcome for everyone.
How to Manage Customer Interactions Better
Managing customer interactions while not dropping the ball when dealing with numerous customers requires help desk software.
SysAid provide help desk software to many businesses that value their customer relationships enough to invest in taking care of them. With this type of software, a company can see all the incoming contacts across email, instant message and other alert systems. They can monitor how long queries are taking to get resolved too. Managing the queries as they arrive is important in order to respond quickly and decisively to customer complaints, so all customers feel like they are being heard.
By taking customer service seriously, businesses handle the problem within the office before it reaches social media. This protects the brand from damage and allows it to potentially grow stronger in 2019.
