Entry Software Corporation

Entry

Customer Service

Improving Customer Service

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How to keep customers coming back
Improve customer service because customers are everything for growing your business.

Consistently improving customer service skills is important for the whole team to succeed and ensure customers keep coming back. Customers are the core of every business and should always be the number one priority. If your company is selling a product or service this is the reason your business is growing. A single poor experience with a customer service representative can result in a lost customer forever. This is why keeping customers satisfied is so important for bringing in more business. Here are five strategies that will help you improve your customer service!

1. Know your Products and Services

To help the customer, your team members must have a deep knowledge of how your products and services work. Customers may come to you with all types of questions so it’s important your team members can answer these questions effectively. Ultimately your customers rely on you for your knowledge of your product and how quickly you can resolve their issues. 

2. Be Goal Oriented 

Setting a goal to improve customer satisfaction puts your team’s focus on providing consistent customer service experience. To be goal oriented focuses attention on desired outcomes and provides team members with motivation to accomplish tasks. In order to meet goals, employees must demonstrate certain skills such as effective time management, planning, and organization. 

3. Efficient Response Time

When customers have to wait lengthy periods for a response from the support team they can get agitated very quickly and left unsatisfied with your company. In turn they might seek out your competition. By providing customers with prompt responses they are much more likely to continue using your products and recommend your company to their peers.

4. Be Personable

Personalized interactions greatly improve customer service and let customers know that your company cares about them and their problems. When interacting with customers it’s important to have more meaningful conversations rather than your typical automated responses. This will help make their overall experience with your company more enjoyable. 

5. Be Engaging 

The simplest way to improve your customer service is to ask your customer for their feedback. Encourage your customers to share their experiences and pain points. This ensures that your customers feel valued and that their opinions are acknowledged.

Online Help Desk Support

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When customers need answers the online help desk is where they turn for support

Managing your business can be overwhelming at times. Especially when multiple customers are requiring attention simultaneously. You can organize messages, answer customer questions, and provide assistance in a timely manner using the help desk. This provides great customer support and keeps everyone happy!

Advantages of online help desk

Online help desk  software support customers that are expressing the need of technical assistance related to computer systems, hardware, and software. This online support is responsible for assistance in troubleshooting, answering questions and solving any problem users might be experiencing. The software works towards organizing questions and issues that may come up, in a nice organized list; making it much easier to manage and assess problems or questions. This allows the help desk operators to find quick solutions for problems that may be occurring and provide answers to the high frequency of questions directed towards them. Help desk operators can also assess these frequently asked questions and assign them to the correct department for answers. This can help distribute work amongst employees to ensure no individual is overwhelmed with questions or concerns. It is important to assign the right employee who can answer the customers questions effectively, to provide satisfaction.

Oftentimes customers have similar questions or concerns when browsing. Instead of answering each individual, help desk provides an option for immediate response to these users. This helps reduce the demand for answers to frequently asked questions while providing support in a quick and easy way. Customers that have unique questions require more than a quick and easy response. With help desk support these questions are organized and directed to an employee in the specific field the question falls under. This allows for proper analysis with the right person, giving the customer the best answer.

Assigning these tasks and problems to certain employees can help generate an effective workplace. The help desk provides a list of assigned problems that need to be completed. Using the list, managers are able to distribute tasks evenly to enhance efficiency. Employees have access to this organized list where they can browse commonly asked questions and unique questions that need answers. This creates a positive relationship between employees and customers. Help desk support is an important tool for businesses to keep your customers satisfied.

 

What Customers Expect from Customer Service

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Your customers are the reason your business is still standing. They are generating your company revenue by purchasing your products and services. The difference between a satisfied customer and dissatisfied customer are often determined by the type and quality of customer services you offer. When it comes to customer service, customers have high expectations. They want to feel valued and appreciated while having great service from you and your company. Here are five things customers expect from customer service.

1. Multiple Contact Methods

Customers love to feel connected to you and your business. When it comes to customer satisfaction, they love to have options for maintaining contact with your company. Stay connected with your customer base via email, live chat, telephone, or social media. For example, when a customer is doing a simple interaction such as changing a password, they would rather have a simple method of communication such as email or customer self-serve when verifying ownership. However, when a customer is doing a more complex task, they prefer to have a more personalized method of communication such as talking on the phone or in person. In the end, customers want the freedom of choice regarding contact methods.

2. Shorter Wait Times

Nowadays, everyone is busy and we no longer have time to wait around. When a customer has a question, they want it to be answered within minutes, not business days. The waiting time should be based on what communication method a customer is using. For example, if a customer has a question and they call the company, an immediate response is expected. However, if a customer is emailing the company about a question or concern, a reply within 20 minutes to an hour is reasonable. All customers are looking for a reasonable response time for their questions!

3. Personal Interactions

Almost three-quarters of customers prefer a personalized customer service experience; not only does a personal experience allow the customer to feel valued, it also allows customers’ needs to be met more efficiently. An example of a positive personal experience with a customer service agent would be a conversation where the customer is not having to repeat themselves in order to get their concern addressed. The opposite of a personal experience would be when the service agent is answering questions in an unfriendly and uninterested voice.

4. Customers Want Their Voices to be Heard

In the customer service industry, customers want to feel as if their voices are being heard. This means that their feedback is being considered and used in the company. Many customers feel as if their feedback is not being heard. From a company standpoint, make sure you act on customer feedback. When you do, ensure you give credit to the customers for having the idea. For example, you could say “We listened to what you had to say and we came up with ‘x’ to fix your problems” This makes customers understand that you’re listening to them and value their input.

5. Customers Want Their Expectations to be Met

This may sound like a no-brainer, however many companies fail to do so when is comes to customer service. Customers get frustrated easily when their expectations are not met. When a customer has a question about a product, they expect the conversation with the service agent to run smoothly. If these expectations are not met, the customer becomes frustrated. In order to keep customers satisfied, the business first needs to know the expectations of the customer and understand how to meet them. In order to find out what a customer’s expectations are, they can either have customers file a survey or a follow-up questionnaire at the end of their experience.

Your customers are the backbone of your company. Keeping them happy means they’re more likely to come back and use your services or products again. By considering the customers’ expectations and ensuring they are met, you are improving their lives as well as the health of your company.

Which Help Desk Suits Your Business Best?

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With the technological direction, modern business have been moving towards, a push for organization and customer service solutions through software has been made. The most common form of connecting the business to customers and business to itself is through help desk software. The main goal of a help desk is to connect everyone to one central point for various purposes: customer communication, voicing questions comments or concerns etc. Depending on the business, a certain type of help desk is required. Not all software offer the display of information suited for the business such as banks wanting to keep their online access safe for each individual and merchandisers will have forums for frequently asked questions to be answered.

Web Helpdesk Software

Web helpdesk software is the most commonly viewed form of helpdesk. It allows customers to connect with the business or the business to connect with the customer to be able to contact them for inquiry. Customers can discuss their questions or concerns through the designated “customer feedback” section. The business receives and categorizes the question from the customer and is sent to the business’ customer service team to be addressed. Businesses can contact the customer to inquire feedback about their experience with their product or service. An interaction between the two entities can come through email, text message, social media etc.

On-Premises Helpdesk Software

On-premises help desk software is an enclosed system for connecting the business to the customers. By having an enclosed system, the customer and the business have web pages that can only be seen by the parties involved. This is done by having business host internally so the information remains safely within the business. This system is safe but expensive as a computerized system needs to be installed within the business to function. This can be seen in financial-management businesses such as PayPal or various online banking applications. When viewing your account with pin numbers, balances and other account information, you and the business are the only ones with access to this information, thanks to on-premises help desk software!

Enterprise Helpdesk Software

Enterprise help desk software is programs instated to connect all aspects of the business to an easily traversable map. Each employee is also a user of the software; the data they generate or collect is automatically categorized and displayed to other users. This way, the business is able to see the progress of projects, workloads of users and generation analytics and reports, among much more. A software of this type is essential for a large business that needs to smooth communications between their numerous employees. Finally, enterprise help desk software allows the business to scale to any size!

Open-Source Helpdesk Software

These have been around since the beginning of the online connection. Often referenced as “forums”, open-source helpdesk software is an avenue of answering customer questions or concerns through community channel. This means anyone, whether they are connected to the company or a regular Joe, can offer assistance to the customer about their comment. This is an easy and financially efficient way of offering customer support, the tradeoff being suggestions by other customers may be false. However, with the implementation of a rating system, reoccurring concerns will be addressed correctly.

Cloud-Based Helpdesk Software

Cloud-based help desk software allows any user connect anywhere in the world. Whereas in an on-premises help desk software is in-house and is maintained by the business, cloud-based help desks software allow the business to build and run their help desk without maintaining the servers. It is also open for anyone from anywhere to connect and use the help desk as the servers are international.

With all of these different types of help desks, it is important to understand the market your business is in and understand which type will best suit your business best.

Inexpensive Acts Your Customers Will Appreciate

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Customers come in all shapes and sizes, and that includes different personalities. Despite some of the hassles they may cause, they are a reason your business has become what it is. Many companies show appreciation to their customers, by offering free gifts on their next purchase. From a customer perspective, this is amazing! However, there are also inexpensive acts that make your customer feel special, without draining your budget.

Solid, Consistent, Customer Service

Customers want to feel appreciated and valued while doing business with you, and this can start with just having great customer service. Simple things like having the right people answering the phone, positively acting as the face of your company can boost your customer service dramatically. Training your employees to comprise the needed customer service skills will show a huge difference in your customer relationships. Positive and attentive attitudes are very important and will show that your employees care about your customers. Perfecting this area of service can quickly show positive relationships with customers, costing you little to nothing extra.

Start a VIP or Affiliate Club

VIP or affiliate clubs can not only give the customer exclusive deals or discounts, but it also motivates them to continue to purchase or direct new business to your company. They can be designed however you see fit; although they usually include a points system, depending on how much customers have purchased, or how long they have been a customer. Customers can gain points they can redeem on items such as purchase discounts. This way the customer has to be invested in your company before they begin to get discounts.

Personal Emails

The little things people do sometimes have the biggest impact on someone’s perception. Sending emails designed uniquely to customers let them know how much their service means to the company. Other email subjects such as wishing them a happy holiday can add a personal relationship with your customer. Allowing this, makes the customer feel special because it’s not just a spam email that’s sent to everyone. It shows that the company took time to that specific customer and show you care.

Social Media Callouts or “Shoutouts”

Social media has grown over the past decade and is now the main way the world communicates to one another. Some including Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, or Instagram. Companies take to these social media to advertise their product or service and connect with their customers. Another inexpensive way to appreciate a customer is to directly communicate with them on a social media page. This can be done by writing a sincere tweet, Instagram or Facebook post including a little about them, a picture and why they are valued.

The little things that are done can sometimes be the most impactful. Customers are very important to your company and should be shown appreciation for their time invested. Beginning with overall customer service, having the trained employees deal with customers with the correct skills such as respect, listening, and patience can display extreme value towards the customer. Once the company has customer service down, they can start reaching out to new ways to appreciate their customers. Maintaining good relationships with customers, by making them feel valued, will get your company name noticed in a positive way, benefiting the company dramatically.

Tone of Voice Matters in Customer Service

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Communication has always played an important role in our lives. Whether it’s through technology or actual words; our tone of voice when we speak, the facial expressions or hand gestures used to express ourselves are very important. For example, when you call a customer service line, sometimes you’re greeted with an unpleasant tone of voice, it makes you feel as if the employee doesn’t want to speak to you. Which can leave you questioning if you’re a valued customer. On the other hand, if the employee answers the phone with an enthusiastic tone of voice, it’ll make you feel more welcome and valued. When dealing with customers, tone of voice is crucial because it can either make or break a deal. Here are a few common problems related to an employees tone of voice and customer dissatisfaction.

1. Bad Attitude

An employee having a bad attitude can be one of the main reasons customers don’t feel appreciated. Imagine calling a customer service hotline and the employee sounds extremely rude and disinterested in what you have to say. It can be disheartening and even offensive towards the customer. As the owner of a company, it can be frustrating to know that your employees are the ones breaking sales instead of making them. A way to fix this problem is finding employees who are passionate about their work. Choose employees who have a positive attitude towards their work and who can always make an effort to care about the satisfaction of customers by talking to them in a delighted, happy tone. Remember, your tone of voice matters immensly.

2. Boredom

If your employees are taking calls day in and day out, repeating the same tasks over and over again, their job is bound to get boring. Once an employee gets bored, they start to lose interest in the task at hand. This can be a major problem when it comes to calling customers. The employee’s tone of voice can start to sound monotone, making the customers dissatisfied because the employee should value them more. A way to fix this is allowing employees to mix things up in their work environment. As an employer, you should keep things exciting for your employees, such as rewarding whoever works the best with a free coffee. This will keep things interesting and add a little variety and competition into their day, which will hopefully lead them to take calls with a positive attitude.

3. Inadequate Training

An employee may have a less than satisfactory tone of voice on the phone because they haven’t been trained properly to have a professional conversation. The employee may be nervous or unsure of what to do, what to say or how to adjust their tone of voice to accommodate the customer. Employees shouldn’t be blindly put up with such a big task without sufficient training because learning how to communicate properly with others requires constant training. In order to train your employees to use the proper tone of voice when communicating with others, you could invest in a sales communications trainer in order to ensure a proper tone of voice and customer satisfaction.

4. Scripts

Many customer service hotlines use guidelines for the employee to understand how to communicate with customers. However, these are just guidelines. When guidelines turn into scripts and the employee is following a word for word format, their tone of voice and choice of words will sound robotic. Customers love to feel valued and having a personal connection with them is key, when scripts are involved, an employee will sound like a recording and disinterested from the conversation, instead of being personalized. A way to fix this is to strictly use guidelines as guidelines, instead of a script, so the conversation can sound much more personal.

Conclusion

An employees tone of voice can influence how valued the customer feels and whether they will be purchasing your product or service in the future. Hopefully, these flaws and errors regarding the customer service industry can help you fix or enhance your customer service in the future!