Author: Mary Shulzhenko

12 Worst Things Never to Say to Angry Customers

12 Worst Things to Say to Angry Customers
12 Worst Things to Say to Angry Customers

It’s no secret that customer service employees have to deal with angry customers nearly about 80% of the time. In this digital age only a few people will call your support to inquire about a product or service when most of the answers can be easily found online.

While you obviously can’t control problems caused by malfunctioning products or service errors, you can control how you respond to complaining customers. The stats show why you should take them seriously:

  • Nearly 70% of customers quit doing business with an organization because they felt they were treated rudely or with indifference.
  • 95% of customers share bad experiences with others, 54% share bad experiences with 5+ people, 45% share negative reviews on social media.
  • 66% of customers are most frustrated from interacting with employees who are rude or unfriendly.

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10 Ways to Increase Customer Engagement in eCommerce (Infographic)

Customer engagement is the future of e-commerce. – Brennan Loh, head of business development of Shopify

Now that global consumers are able to purchase nearly anything they wish on whatever device they want and wherever they happen to be, the eCommerce customer experience has dramatically changed. And while competition has grown and will continue to grow (according to Big Commerce, eCommerce is growing 23% year-over-year), businesses of all sizes ultimately must learn to separate themselves from competitors. The best way to do that is through improving customer engagement.

Whether you have just set up an eCommerce business or have been running one for years, you might need to take a closer look at the quality of your customer engagement practices. The infographic below explains why eCommerce customer engagement is absolutely critical today and offers 10 effective ways to instantly improve it. The ideas could be successfully applied to both B2C and B2B sectors. >>>

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How to Get Your Customer Service Employees to Care About Customers (Infographic)

The way your employees feel is the way your customers will feel. And if your employees don’t feel valued, neither will your customers. – Sybil F. Stershic

Companies like Zappos, Southwest Airlines and Ritz-Carlton Hotels have one thing in common – they are worldwide famous for providing excellent customer service and having friendly employees. Their employees are obviously passionate about their work and are willing to go the extra mile to help customers.

“Employee engagement is the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals. This emotional commitment means engaged employees actually care about their work and their company. They don’t work just for a paycheck, or just for the next promotion, but work on behalf of the organization’s goals.” – Kevin Kruse – NY Times Bestselling Author, Keynote Speaker

When employees are engaged, they truly care about customers, deliver better service and brand advocacy, and they are less likely to leave their jobs. While organizations enjoy better employee productivity and increased revenue: >>>

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10 ‘Must-have’ Skills for Being Awesome at Customer Service

10 'Must-have' Customer Service Soft Skills
10 ‘Must-have’ Customer Service Soft Skills

When it comes to providing outstanding customer service, it’s the people who make all the difference. While it certainly takes time, training, practice and dedication to become a rockstar in customer service, it doesn’t have to be that hard when you know where exactly to focus your efforts on. Here’s the list of 10 must-have soft skills that matter most and that everyone involved in customer service should master and use in their daily interactions with customers.

# 1 Effective Listening

Listening is the key to effective communication. Without the ability to listen carefully to what a customer is saying, a message could be easily misunderstood and misinterpreted. As a result, communication breaks down leaving a customer frustrated. Listening isn’t just about hearing. A good listener will not only listen to what is being said, but also what is left unsaid or partially said. Luckily, if your listening skills are weak, there are certain techniques for improving them. >>>

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Best Practices for Live Chat Support (Infographic)

There’s no question that live chat is getting huge as more and more businesses are adopting the tool to stay competitive in the industry. In fact, according to Gartner, by 2018, over 80% of companies will offer some form of live chat on their website or on mobile devices to interact with their customers. Is your business still lagging behind the trend?

There are many reasons why offering chat support might be a valuable customer service strategy. One of the most compelling arguments is that customers have come to expect it and they absolutely love it. The SalesForce research found that 64% of consumers expect companies to respond and interact with them in real-time, while 80% of business buyers expect the same.

People aren’t just using live chat, they’re actually getting more satisfaction out of it than from any other support channel. As stated in the Zopim survey, 94% customers proactively invited to chat were somewhat or very satisfied with their live chat experience. >>>

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Top 15 Mistakes Made By Customer Service Professionals (Infographic)

Your customer service employees are your brand representatives, the human face and the voice of your company. Their competence, soft skills and communication habits count tremendously toward the quality of the service they provide to your customers and impact overall customer satisfaction.

So what are the most common mistakes made by customer service professionals? In this infographic we’ve collected 15 most dangerous mistakes that can have negative consequences in customer satisfaction and loyalty. Is your customer support team guilty of any of them?

In fact, all of the listed mistakes are easily preventable. Make sure your customer service employees are aware of what exactly they are doing wrong when interacting with customers and provide them with regular training and mentoring to help them grow their professionalism and improve their skills. >>>

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The History of Customer Service and Future Trends (Infographic)

We all know how frustrating it could be waiting hours for an email reply or being put on hold for over 30 minutes when all you want is to get answer to one simple question about a product or service you purchased. But can you imagine times when customer service meant having to travel long distances to the original store to get a repair? In fact, prior to the dawn of the 20th century, this is exactly how things used to work!

Customer service as we know it today and the technologies helping to improve it have come a long way. With the invention and the evolution of the telephone customer service has become much easier. Though it took almost 100 years for the phone to become one of the main customer service channels. Then came call centers, email, live chat, sophisticated CRM systems and social media. >>>

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20 Ways to Thank Your Loyal Customers (Infographic)

It’s probably needless to say that loyal customers are the biggest assets of any business. Studies show that only a 5% increase in your loyal customer base can result in increases of revenue and profits up to 85% or more. Take a look at some more customer loyalty stats that might surprise you:

  • The cost of bringing a new customer up to the same level of profitability as an old one is up to 16x more. (SocialAnnex)
  • Existing customers are 50% more likely to try new products, and spend 31% more than new customers. (The Nielsen Survey)
  • 68% of Millennials say they wouldn’t be loyal to a brand if it doesn’t have a good loyalty program. (The Bond Loyalty Report)
  • 62% of Millennials report that brand engagement is more likely to make them a loyal customer. (USC Dornsife)
  • 62% of consumers don’t believe that the brands they’re most loyal to are doing enough to reward them. (ClickFox)

So how much do you care about your loyal customers? And what’s even more important – do your customers really know how much you appreciate them? >>>

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Customer Service Etiquette Tips: How to Keep Your Customers Happy (Infographic)

“Politeness goes far, yet costs nothing.” – Samuel Smiles

There might be a huge number of companies offering the same products or services. The critical difference is ultimately how you make people feel when they do business with you and interact with your brand. No matter your business, excellence in customer service etiquette will always set you apart and give you the edge over your competition.

In fact, customer service agents can be the first and only contact point for customers and are therefore the face of a company. Yet many of them are very often blind to the fact that they are losing business every day by not knowing or simply ignoring the essential service etiquette. >>>

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12 Things Your Customers Really Wish You Knew About Them (Infographic)

Spend a lot of time talking to customers face to face. You’d be amazed how many companies don’t listen to their customers. ~ Ross Perot.

To build a successful business, whatever it is, you need to have a clear understanding of who your customers are. So how sure are you that you truly know your customers and what they really expect from your business and customer service? Do you know them at least as well as they know your brand?

Answering those questions might be challenging as today’s consumers are much more sophisticated, much more educated and more demanding as they used to be a while ago. In fact, 72% of them now expect a customer service agent to know their contact information, product information and service history as soon as they engage and without being asked. >>>

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