No matter the business, you are bound to make mistakes. However, some mistakes are more costly than others. If you want to build and sustain strong relationships with your customers, you need to make sure that your customer service is on point. Mistakes in customer service can turn your target consumers away from your company and significantly impact your bottom line.
Luckily, customer service mistakes are avoidable. And here are the top three that you should avoid at all costs.
1. Not Knowing Your Customers
Not knowing your customers is a surefire way to fail at customer service. If you don’t know your customers, then it automatically means that you don’t know what they want. Take the time to contact them to find out if they have any feedback you’d like to address.
Furthermore, provide them with a variety of communication channels they can use to contact you, such as phone, email and live chat. You also need to make any communication count, so be sure to listen. For this to work, make sure every one of your customer service reps is trained in the art of listening.
2. Only Interacting With Customers When there is a Problem
Customer service goes beyond just taking/making calls and resolving issues that customers raise. If you’re always reacting to customer complaints, then it may be a sign that your product or service is mediocre. Get ahead of the issues through methods like root cause analysis and continuous improvement to provide a product or service that not only meets but exceeds expectations.
3. Not Valuing Your Customer Service Agents
You can’t expect your customer service representatives to do their best job when they’re overworked and underpaid. These are people who directly interact with customers, and the last thing you’d want is for them to be unhappy. Make sure you have hired the best reps (if not, train them), bump up their pay and offer them performance-based incentives – show them that they’re valued.
