5 Excellent Customer Service Practices

Have you ever dealt with a difficult customer who has too many unnecessary demands?

In the world of customer service, dealing with difficult clients can be a challenging task. It not only takes up a lot of your customer service representative's (CSR) time, but it may also have an impact on your prospective sales if the matter is handled poorly.

For any successful company, creating and selling a good product or service is just half the fight. It is equally crucial to provide your consumers with excellent customer service. After all, shopping is both a transaction and an experience.

So, how does one go about creating a pleasant customer service experience?

In this post, our Florida SEO marketing professionals will discuss five fantastic customer service strategies that you can use to improve your CS game.

So, without further ado, let's begin!

5 Best Customer Service Practices

1. Get to Know Your Customers

When a customer reaches out to your business, the very first thing that your CSR does is initiate interaction. Creating meaningful interactions is an essential part of the CSR’s role.

This is due to the fact that excellent customer service requires listening to your customers' needs and then informing them of how you intend to satisfy those needs. In other words, ‘customer service’ is just a way of saying ‘communicating with customers.’

This is part of why we here at Digital Resource regularly encourage our users to ask questions and give us comments.

We constantly want to improve our products and services by learning about the people who avail themselves of our digital marketing services.

Our interactions with our clients are not limited to business discussions. We always try to build a relationship with them that goes beyond commercial transactions. This allows us to add personal touches to them.

A great way to start is to make sure that when your customers or clients follow you on social media, you follow them back. Make a point to take note of their interesting posts and tag them in your CS interactions.

Starting a personal connection with your customers is one thing, sustaining it is another. One of the most critical aspects of developing long-term client connections is to keep the conversation going.

To do this, make sure to regularly check on your customers by sending them texts or emails. Periodic check-ins go a long way. This shows that you’re interested in their success.

If your clients haven't been active in a while, send them a brief email to see if everything is well. You can ask them if they have any comments, concerns, or suggestions. What matters most is that they feel that you're always there.

2. Stop Apologizing and Start Thanking

When responding to negative customer feedback, the most common thing a CSR does is apologize. Customers, however, don't usually care about apologies, no matter how serious or genuine they are.

In customer service, avoiding apologies can be a powerful strategy. This is because customers are more concerned with how their problems are resolved.

So, instead of apathetically apologizing over and over, our Florida SEO marketing experts recommend that you start thanking your customers for their patience.

Consider this: When you apologize to a customer, you’re asking them to respond to the issue that they’re unhappy with. Even if it is a minor mistake or error, you are encouraging the customer to be upset with you because you acknowledge the flaw in your customer service.

When you thank a customer, on the other hand, you’re encouraging them to focus on the positive: you appreciate the time they’re taking to help resolve the problem.

Even if your customer is still upset about the issue, your response can appear more confident, making it easier to de-escalate the interaction.

Remember, it's much easier to persuade customers that you're in control of the situation if you're not apologizing every few moments.

3. Use an Optimistic Tone and Vocabulary

When dealing with a customer, the tone and vocabulary that your CSRs use can influence the outcome of the interaction. As a result, it's critical to emphasize the importance of using positive language because it promotes a better client experience.

By demonstrating confidence in resolving the customer's issue, positive language can help your team avoid escalation.

Suppose your representative is on the phone with a customer and can't seem to figure out what's wrong. The client expresses dissatisfaction with the length of the conversation after 10 minutes of back-and-forth questioning.

If your representative responds, "I know you're getting frustrated...," they are escalating the problem from the customer's point of view. Instead, have your representative respond in the customer's own language.

Tell your employees to use the same positive language as the customer and say something like, "I know this can be a little frustrating." In this case, the term "little" simplifies the problem while reminding the customer that they are still the best option for help.

Customers will rally behind your reps' confidence and be more willing to participate if they believe the issue is minor or quickly resolved.

4. Respect Your Customer's Time

Another great way to provide excellent customer service is by offering alternatives tailored to your customers' specific needs while still being mindful of their valuable time.

Waiting on hold, waiting for an email response, or not having help available when it is convenient for them are all surefire ways to have a bad customer service experience.

If you don't want this to happen to your business, you must train your CS reps to effectively interact with customers and remind them that the customer's time is important.

Allow your customers to go about their business by servicing them as quickly and competently as possible. Consider the following alternatives:

• Create a schedule for your employees so that you get to have more staff to deal with customers during peak hours.
• Inform customers of wait times and delays.
• Provide customers with options that will result in faster service.
• Make appointments with customers to ensure personalized service.

Respect your customers' time by giving them your undivided attention. This will prove to your customers that you genuinely care about them, resulting in repeat business.

5. Fix the Problem ASAP

When you make a customer service mistake, it's all too easy to let irate customers walk out the door. And when a customer walks out, it's over.

The solution? Quick customer service recovery.

Customer service recovery is essentially a business's response to a service failure. It is a well-planned process for regaining dissatisfied customers' satisfaction with a company/service.

To quickly convert an irate customer into a satisfied one, our Florida SEO marketing experts recommend using Disney Institute's HEARD method:

• Hear: Allow the customer to complete their story without interruption. Sometimes all we need is someone to listen to.
• Empathize: Show that you completely understand how the customer feels. Use phrases such as "I'd be frustrated as well..." Even if you did not cause their dissatisfaction, you can still sincerely apologize for how they feel. ‍
• Apologize: We know that this part of the HEARD method can be contradictory to our second tip. However, there are instances where you really have to apologize to a customer even if you did not cause their dissatisfaction. Remember that an apology still goes a long way as long as it’s sincere. ‍
• Resolve: Resolve the problem as soon as possible, or make sure your employees have the authority to do so. Don't be afraid to ask the customer, "What can I do to fix this?" ‍
• Diagnose: Without blaming anyone, figure out why the error happened and focus on fixing the process, so it doesn't happen again.

It can be tempting to walk away from a seemingly intractable problem. Don't. Not every client transaction begins well, but you can turn it around.

Need Help with Customer Service Management?

Excellent customer service is about following the best practices such as respecting customers' time, maintaining a positive behavior, providing solutions to issues quickly, and going above and beyond to exceed — rather than simply meeting — expectations.

Along with having the best Florida SEO marketing team, Digital Resource offers customer engagement services which include social media marketing, email marketing, Live Chat management, lead management, and more.

Contact us today for a free consultation.