Customer ratings and feedback have a great impact on the reputation of any business. One bad review alone can bring your whole business to the mud, and there is a very slim chance of recovery. An effective customer service strategy is one way to avoid this kind of situation. It provides the means to address the concerns of an unsatisfied customer and earns the customer’s loyalty by showing that your business cares about them.
A customer’s journey consists of curiosity about your products, questions about the same, actually buying the products, and their actual consumption. If there is anything wrong with your product, your customer may ask for an exchange or refund. The last part of their journey is their review or feedback. Throughout this journey, a customer will surely appreciate the presence of someone that can answer all their questions. Someone that will be able to guide them to the product that they are looking for.
What is a customer service strategy?
Customer service is centered on customer interaction. A customer service strategy is a series of actions that aims to give a customer the best experience possible throughout their journey as a customer. As a business, you have to make sure that your customers are satisfied every time they buy and consume any of your products. Should they encounter any problem or issue about your products, it would be best to address them immediately. A good customer service strategy should aim to establish good customer relations. Here are the steps you can follow to create a customer service strategy.
1. Make customer satisfaction the main goal of your customer service strategy
The success of a customer services strategy wholly depends on customer satisfaction. If your customers are satisfied, then it only means that your customer service strategy is successful. However, an effective customer service strategy does not only involve those employees who directly talk to customers. The strategy must involve everyone in your company. Your business as a whole must prioritize the satisfaction of your customers. A team that focuses its efforts on achieving a common goal is more productive and efficient. In short, when your whole business is geared towards customer satisfaction, the more likely it is that your customer service strategy will become successful.
2. Set the goal for your customer service strategy
Every successful strategy is formulated by having a goal that it aims to achieve. You may use the SMART Goal Framework to guide you in determining what your customer service strategy wants to achieve. This framework states that your goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
In setting your customer service strategy goals, you must set specific goals. Vague goals are a waste of your precious time because you will never come up with the means to achieve those goals. Specific goals give your customer service strategy a sense of direction. The next series of actions that you need to take shall be based on the goals that you have set. At the same time, your goals should also be achievable and measurable. You need to set realistic goals. Goals that you know you can achieve with the resources and skills you and your team currently have. When your goal is achievable, it means that it is also measurable. This will help you track your performance and keep track of where you are in achieving the goals that you’ve set. Look for the things that work and the things that do not. Retain the things that work and make the necessary adjustments with your current strategy to improve it further.
Your goals should be relevant to your business and what you really want to achieve for your business. One example is to improve the quality of your product. This would be one of the ways to achieve the main goal of your customer service strategy, which is customer satisfaction. When you have already set your goals, the next thing that you need to do is to set a deadline. Setting a deadline gives you and your team a sense of urgency. It also helps you know if your customer service strategy needs some adjustments.
3. Analyse your customer interactions
There are a lot of reasons why your customers would want to communicate with you. There may be an issue with your product or service. They may have encountered some problems when they were making their order or have questions about billing and the method of payment. With every customer interaction, you will see a pattern or similarities in their concerns. Keep track of how many customers encountered the same problem or how many customers asked the same question. This will help you understand your customers better. This will also help you know how to serve them better.
Once you’ve identified the most common problems that your customers encounter in their customer journey, you may now think of ways to prevent them from reoccurring. This is part of your strategy because eliminating recurring issues will help you achieve your customer service strategy’s end goal: customer satisfaction. You can also predict the issues that your customers might encounter in the future through the data that you’ve collected from your customer interactions. With this in mind, you can already create precautions or ways to prevent those issues you have projected.
4. Build a team that will work towards a common goal
As discussed, customer satisfaction is the end goal of every customer service strategy. Every action that you would take would be aimed towards having satisfied customers. What you need to do now is to create a team that has the same goal as you do, and that is to help customers. You have to look for members that are working not just because of money but because they are committed to providing quality customer service. Having members passionate about excellent customer service will give your customer service strategy a higher chance of success.
You need to consider several factors when creating a customer service strategy. However, your strategy should be aimed at customer satisfaction. Customer service representatives are not the only ones who should be involved in executing your strategy. Your whole business should work towards your goal. Knowing your customers would help greatly in creating a customer service strategy that will ensure that their needs are met and they are satisfied with the product they have bought. Lastly, your chances of having a successful customer service strategy would become much higher when you hire customer service representatives passionate about helping others.
