In today’s digital age, your customers have more options than ever before. When your company disappoints, a rival is just a click away. If you want buyers to choose you over your competitors, you need to provide outstanding customer service.
However, even in companies with a customer-centric culture, there are likely improvements that can be made. Let’s dive into some of the most common customer service problems and their solutions.
Problem: Slow Customer Support
If your customers have a question, they want answers quickly. All too often, when people call a company, they’re greeted with long wait times. Waiting around for answers frustrates customers and creates a negative experience. This can scare them away from making any future purchases with your brand.
Solution: IVR for Self-Service
An interactive voice response system collects information from inbound callers by taking them through a call menu. Using this information, it routes calls to an appropriate agent in the correct department.
An IVR solves customers’ most common concerns like paying bills and checking the status of an order. If there’s a question it can’t answer, the customer can ask to speak with a representative directly. This ultimately reduces how many calls your representatives have to take, shortening wait times for customers who choose to talk to someone.
Problem: Generic Onboarding
Customer onboarding gives you the chance to educate customers about your product. This helps ensure the rest of their experience with your brand runs as smoothly as possible.
Although each customer has their own unique needs, most companies use the same generic onboarding template for everyone. Failing to personalize the onboarding experience ignores your customer’s individual goals and makes the relationship feel cold.
Solution: Personalization
It’s easier to create loyal buyers when you tailor your onboarding experience to each customer’s goals. You’re likely collecting data as customers move through the sales process. Use that data to segment them into groups and craft an onboarding experience that fits each group’s needs.
For example, let’s say you offer a recipe app that sends new customers a free meal plan. Instead of sending everyone the same recipes, customize meal plans to your customer’s dietary preferences. That way, your app will provide greater value, and your customer will be eager to come back for more.
Problem: Lack of Social Media Response
Simply maintaining social media pages isn’t enough. Brands need to interact with customers through these platforms as well.
In fact, 54% of people view brands more positively when they respond to customer complaints and questions on social media. By leaving questions unanswered in your DMs, you’re driving customers to competing brands.
Solution: Hire a Social Media Customer Service Representative
If you’re a smaller brand, you likely only get a few questions a day. These are questions your social media manager should be able to answer.
Larger companies with millions of followers, in contrast, are inundated with customers’ comments and questions daily. Hiring a team member (or members) dedicated to answering these questions ensures that your followers receive top-notch customer service.
Problem: Rude Customer Service Reps
When a customer has encountered a problem or has a question, they’re likely already frustrated. This frustration skyrockets when they have to deal with rude customer service reps. One poor interaction with your customer service team can drive both current and potential clients away.
Even worse, when people have a negative experience with your brand, they’ll share this information with their network. People who hear about this experience will typically avoid working with you and go to a competitor instead.
Solution: Empathy Training
Empathy has the power to transform your customer’s experience and build brand loyalty. Empathetic representatives can see challenges from your customer’s perspective, helping provide better support.
Offering empathy training teaches representatives to actively listen and respond with your customer’s perspective in mind. This can help transform vexing experiences into positive ones.
Problem: Customer Information Is Challenging to Find
When customers contact your company with questions about past orders or account balances, they expect answers now. But oftentimes, agents are left scrambling through documents trying to find customer information. This makes your team look unprepared, creating a strained experience for the customer.
Solution: Use CRM Software
Customer relationship management software centralizes all the data you collect on customers. This makes it easier for your customer support team to find answers quickly when people call. When customers get the answers they’re looking for fast, they have a more positive experience, increasing customer retention.
Problem: Not Asking Customers for Feedback
You can’t make improvements to your customer service if you don’t know which areas need it. To learn this valuable information, you must take the time to gather feedback from your customers. Without it, you have no idea if you’re actually providing the customer service your clients expect.
Solution: Feedback Surveys
Customer surveys are an excellent way to get honest feedback about your service. The information you glean will enable you to identify the areas that most need improving.
Send surveys to customers immediately after every interaction while their experience with your company is still fresh. Offer an incentive for filling them out, such as discounts or giveaways.
This will increase the number of surveys completed, providing you with more comprehensive data to act on.
Your customer support has the power to help you stand out from your competition. By taking the time to improve your customers’ experience, you’ll increase retention and gain more business.
