Be it small business owners or freelancers, having a good customer service experience for your clients is the key to retaining them and making them your loyal customer.
Forbes interviewed more than 1,000 consumers in their 2020 Achieving Customer Amazement Study and asked about their willingness to switch brands or companies for better customer service. The response was a resounding "yes" to switching. 96% of customers said that they will leave you for bad service.
So, what is the key to making sure your clients cling to you?
Provide them easy, efficient, and helpful customer service.
So here are some tips for you that will help you in providing excellent customer service.
1. Be a good speaker but a better listener
Communicating is one of the basic principles of good customer service. But communication does not mean speaking skills only. It also includes being a good listener.
You need to listen to your customers, queries, problems, and feedback so that you can serve them better.
If you keep interrupting them and cut them off while they are speaking they might get annoyed.
2. Talk politely and respectfully
Even if the customer is angry and talks rudely to you, you need to keep your calm and talk to them politely. Even if they are wrong you need to convey the correct information respectfully.
They shouldn't feel as if you are superior to them. They are your customers hence they should be treated with dignity.
In today's world businesses have changed from brand-oriented to customer-oriented. The brand is not the boss now.
As the saying goes 'customer is the king'. Hence customer service executives have to make the customers feel like one to increase their sales.
3. Treat every customer equally
As a freelancer, some clients might have given you a big billing while others have given you a smaller billing. This doesn't mean that you can treat them differently.
All clients should be treated equally and with respect. This builds a healthy customer relationship.
4. Try and immediately solve their problem
As a customer service executive, your topmost priority should be to solve your customer's problems. Every second counts while you are trying to solve issues for your clients. If it takes too much time it leads to a bad customer service experience.
Certain things might not be in your hands and may require the permission of your superiors.
In that case, you need to reassure the client that you will get back to them shortly and will not leave them out to dry.
5. Go the extra mile
Clients love it when the customer service executive go an extra mile for them to solve their problems or help them find the perfect product.
6. Be honest
A key principle of customer service is, to be honest with the customers. Misguiding them just to get your sales up will create a bad reputation, losses, and shift of customers to other brands in the long run.
Acknowledge your mistake and provide with ways the customers can be redressed. This will make the customer happy as well as improve your brand's reputation.
7. Know your products
Unless you do not know the products well you cannot help your customers. You have to know your product in and out so that you can explain to your customers and answer their questions. This will show your sincerity towards your company and brand.
8. Adapt according to the mode of customer service
Customer service may be provided via telephonic calls, emails, or face to face.
According to the mode one needs to adapt and serve the customers.
If it is via call you need to talk in a clear, confident yet respectful manner. You need to build a good rapport.
If it is via emails you need to reply to the emails within 1 or 2 days. If you do not reply in the stipulated time the customers might feel disheartened and assume that no one is there on the other end to solve their problems.
In emails the customer cannot get immediate reassurance hence you need to reply to them ASAP!
Face-to-face customer serviceFace-to-face customer service involves a lot of other aspects for example- body language, tone, clarity, and expressions. You need to be warm and comforting to the customers. As the customers are in front of you they can notice the changes in your body language and tone and can understand if you are genuinely interested in serving them or not.
These are some of the golden rules to abide by while serving your customers. If you are a small business owner or a freelancer and want to set up your online customer service platform you should create a website/online store for yourself.
On a website, you can create a webpage dedicated to customer service. Customers can send their queries via text or you can provide them with your emails and contact information so that they can reach you.
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