Customer service is the interaction between business and paying customers – especially important when they have concerns. This contact or interaction is a key element in maintaining customer loyalty, sales, and brand promotion.
To provide good customer service support, you need to build stronger customer relationships. Trust us, a customer’s gratitude can provide a huge boost of word-of-mouth marketing, improved brand image, and social proof. What’s more, a content consumer will come back as a loyal customer and might pay the business more, whether it’s in the form of tips and etc.
After buying the product
Trust us; a sale may not be the last interaction you have with a customer. Customer service exists after sale in case the customer needs to:
- Exchange damaged goods
- Got the wrong items
- Upgrade the service
- Have queries regarding the product
- Payment or subscription concerns
A good customer service keeps your customers coming back to you. This will further drive them to continue doing business with you.
What other activities your business, marketing, or customer team can do? If you want to bring up a good customer service practice, you can do the following below.
- Updates on purchases like shipping and delivery
- Leaving a thank you email to your customers
- Ensuring that customers confirm receipt of item and it’s the right one
- Open channels and hotline for any concerns
- Suggesting any product or upgrades in the future
Your customer service should pour in some work to make your consumers happy. But it doesn’t start there. Good customer service starts way before the point of sale.
Customer service from the beginning
Has a customer come to you because they have inquiries regarding your product? You can clearly display good customer service by discussing your services to prospects.
- Greeting a customer
- Answering a consumer’s query whether online, in-person or AI chat
- Catering to initial questions regarding the product
- Helping customer to point of sale
- Thanking a customer whether he or she buys the product or not
Good customer service, in the beginning, can prompt a consumer to purchase the product. How you or your team present your brand and business make or break a potential sale.
If you see it our way, customer service is a selling strategy and marketing tactics to increase sales and improve brand image.
Point of sale service
To provide outstanding customer service on the point of purchase, you can start by thanking the customer for their purchases. This is the time when you want your customers to feel valued. Build relationships beneficial for your company and you’ll earn yourself a loyal customer.
- Always confirm your customers’ orders
- Discuss exchanges, refund policies, or warranties for defective items
- Offer them some product information, handy guide, or a manual about the service or product they bought
- Offer customers if they want to gift wrap the product
- Would they want help with carrying the load back to their car?
- Offer a loyalty card and provide freebies when they accomplish or buy another product in your store
These are techniques you can follow for a good customer service and encourage them to refer your business to others.
Those businesses that can handle complaints know they can turn the bad from the good. This experience can actually create good relationships with consumers if one knows how to do customer support. Treat complaints as though your business needs improvement.
While you can’t control how people will react to a product or service, you can control your own impacts or attitude. When grievances are not properly dealt with, consumers may withhold the company and urge others to do the same.
Customers who are well-treated may help you maintain good branding image and can result to a boost of business sales as well.
Customer service concern: What to do when someone is shouting at you
If a customer is shouting at you, it is important to find out why they are acting in such way. Instead of ignoring them, there are certain things you can do to allow you to better understand the situation. Sometimes, businesses are just oblivious to the world and might not see something that is right before their eyes. The following tips will help you react in the right way when a customer yells at you.
Empathize with them
There is always a reason why people act in a certain way. Is it a defective product? Is it the wrong item? No reasonable person would shout without a reason. Understand their point of view to determine why they are behaving like this. Remember; don’t blow up yourself over the situation.
Confirm
Whether you know the person or not, it does not give you a reason to ignore them. Instead, you should always be an active listener. Once you are empathetic, you need to confirm what you might have just heard them say. It shows that you have heard what has been said. Use neutral language and ask the person if you have correctly and so on.
Action plan
Create an action plan over the problem. You can have the item or product exchanged, improved, or examined. Try to communicate that you had no intention of disrespecting them. Let them know that you come to an agreement about the action and that it should never happen again.
Always take responsibility for your actions
If there is something that you have done that has caused harm to the other person, you should always take responsibility for your actions. If you were wrong, you should simply apologize. It is the easiest way to deal with the situation.
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