What does good customer service mean to your customer target group?
The big mistake most companies make is investing all of their resources in customer acquisition, in other words, marketing and converting new customers. But companies too often neglect to invest in the customers they already have and fail to ensure that the new customers they bring in through a campaign become repeat customers over the longer term.
Of course, you should strive to provide better customer service than your competitors, but it should not be overly expensive. For this reason, it is important to evaluate the efficiency of your customer service and what exactly drives customer satisfaction for your target group. Perhaps it is extended hours of operation and new digital channels? What do the customers actually want and what is
lacking in your competitors’ offering? This is something you need to keep an eye on so you can adapt as needed.
Of course, it is great if your customer service team has extended hours of availability compared to your competitors, but it can’t come at the expense of your bottom line. In other words, it needs to generate as much as it costs. If extended hours are not particularly important to your customer group, there is no reason to make that investment just because it is something mot offered by your competitors.
It is important to think outside the box and not simply follow the straight and narrow path. Customer service needs to evolve in response to the outside world and your customers’ needs. Maybe your customers prefer to contact customer service over the phone, or maybe you have customers who are looking for new channels, such as an online chat service. Adapt your accessibility according to your customers’ specific needs – if your company sells hair products for example, maybe you won’t need the same hours of operation as the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, focus instead on having the right information on your website.
Poor service = fewer customers for you and more for your competitors
Everyone, at some time in their lives, has had a bad customer service experience – and it takes a lot for one to continue to be a customer of a company where they have been treated poorly. In fact, the reach of a bad customer service experience extends much further than that of a positive one. The loss of a customer can be equated to the loss of revenue, since you have invested a lot of resources in acquiring the customer. It is really only when customers make that second or third purchase that your relationships with them become profitable, and you indirectly provide your competitors with new business when you fail to take care of your existing customers.
You can reckon with an unhappy customer taking their business to one of your competitors. The customer is also likely to talk about their experience with friends and family members, thereby damaging your brand’s standing with a host of other potential customers. Most people ask friends and family for recommendations before making a purchase, which means that a bad customer experience can cost you more than just one customer. Trying to win a customer back will also cost you in terms of premiums or other incentives you might use, which also hurts your core business in the long run.
How do you win back a customer who is on the way out the door?
How do you prevent the loss of a customer due to a bad experience? It’s all about having the right staff in the right place, training them properly and creating engagement. By ensuring this, you minimize the risk that a customer will have a bad experience. It’s about finding the right tool for the individual customer and, at the same time, creating the right conditions for your staff to do their job
well. For example, if you have an unhappy customer on the other end of the line, maybe you can turn things around by offering a subscription extension at a reduced price or maybe shorten the commitment period?
Think about what is important to this individual customer and what you can do to turn a negative experience into a positive one. Maybe a dissatisfied customer who is calling in with a problem can be won back over with a complementary week?
One effective way to get a head start on the competition is to outsource your customer service to a partner with cutting-edge expertise in the field. At Transcom, we work tirelessly to optimize and develop the customer experience so that we achieve the highest possible level of customer satisfaction. By taking us on as a partner, you get help with process analysis, implementation of new technologies and employee competence development. All to create the best possible conditions for your individual company.