What, truly, is happiness? Is it the central purpose of human life? A mere byproduct of luck? Is it a psychological state, or a positive evaluation of being? For businesses, the answer to all of the above questions is, of course, who cares. The only definition of happiness that matters is the one that applies to customers, and a happy customer is one that’s loyal, that keeps coming back for repeat purchases, and one that recommends you to family, friends and social media followers. A happy customer is one that represents excellent customer lifetime value, and happy customers as a group represent a big impact on your bottom line. According to a Gartner Group study, 80% of a company’s future revenue comes from a mere 20% of existing customers. Furthermore, it reportedly costs six to seven times more to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one. The way to amass these all-important happy customers, then, is to focus on customer retention by improving your customer service. Here are few tips you might just want to consider:
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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.
Continue readingWhy Is It Important to Have Customer Service Knowledge Base Software?
Customer service is a defining quality of almost any business nowadays. Before, if you were the only local provider, your flaws in the support department were not so damaging, considering there was no competition. Today, people can acquire services and products online, and the market in general is more competitive, hence customer service started to play a more important role. Quality service, and a high number of satisfied customers can not only keep a business afloat, but also set the stage for future expansion, and for greater trust in your brand. On the other hand, a customer who is not satisfied or feels wronged can make an issue and make it harder for you to acquire new potential users, and considering just how many providers are out there, dissatisfied users are not a luxury you can afford. So, let’s see how you can make your customer service better by relying on customer service knowledge base software, and also why this is so important nowadays.
Continue reading10 Signs of a Company That Really Cares About Customers
Did you know that there’s such a thing as International Clients’ Day? Although I’ve been in customer service for more than a decade, I first learned of it last week through a special offer email that I got in my inbox. Did you happen to hear about it too? Whether or not, the fact is that this informal holiday has not been around for that long. Actually, it was proposed (and celebrated for the first time) by Lithuanian and Russian businessmen on March 19, 2010 as an opportunity to show gratitude to their customers. Since then, the occasion has been supported by many organizations and businesses in Western Europe, and it’s constantly expanding, with more companies joining the initiative year by year. Would you join the club too?
Continue readingTop 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.
Continue readingHow to Turn a Social Media Complaint into a Success Story (Infographic)
Customer service has shifted more and more online over the past couple of decades, and increasingly that means customers are reaching out via social media when they have an issue that they’d like you to resolve. It’s a great opportunity for businesses, as this kind of semi-formal interaction is likely to increase that customer’s spend by 20-40% when they are dealt with appropriately. Perhaps it’s something to do with the way we form our identities online, now: who we talk to, the platforms we use, and the things we buy, all form the way we see ourselves. Of course, it isn’t always good news when you notice a tweet or Facebook comment from a customer. Frequently, these platforms are used to make a public complaint – either because they can’t find another way to get through to you, or because they believe that dealing publicly with the issue makes you more likely to resolve it quickly. Hopefully, they’re right – and you will be keen to turn this potential upset into positive publicity. It just takes a bit of insight and a little social media flair – all skills you can pick up online.
Continue readingThe 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.
Continue readingWhat is the Cost of Poor Customer Service?
Dissatisfied customers are, unfortunately, an inevitable fact of business life. How you respond will determine whether the customer shares on social media how terrible your customer service is or will remain loyal to your company. Lots of brands have gone out of business because of poor customer service. More than ever, customers want to be treated with respect. According to the report Customers 2020 by Walker Information in collaboration with Customer Think and the Chief Customer Officer Council, by 2020 customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator. In this article I will highlight the main reasons why customers leave dissatisfied and will unfold unpleasant facts about the impact of poor customer service on the brand. On the below infographic you will see valuable statistics from NewVoiceMedia and ClickFox about poor customer service effect on the business:
Continue readingCustomer 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.
Continue readingHow to Become an Expert in Customer Service
As a customer service manager or representative, you know first hand just how important it is to provide quality, effective customer service – especially in today’s world where social media dominates. Though these media platforms have undoubtedly played a monumental role in the changing landscape of customer service communication, customer’s wants and needs remain relatively unchanged. They want to be heard, understood, and respected and they want it done on their own terms. Esteban Kolsky, founder of thinkJar, a Customer Strategy consulting and think tank, notes that it is the customers themselves who must choose and validate their customer experience.
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