Excellent Customer Service or Nothing

Do you remember the last time you had an unpleasant experience with a service or product? Maybe the service or product failed to live up to the sales pitch; perhaps the company concerned failed to answer your emails or phone calls.

Maybe they failed to do what they said they would; or they gave you the good old ‘run-around’ when you called to ask a question or report a problem? Any or all of these issues revolve around one thing and one thing only – terrible customer service! And when there’s a lack of customer service it’s usually caused by a lack of customer focus.

According to eMarketer, customer service is one of the key aspects that will affect a sale,  and it’s especially true for smaller businesses. So why so many of these business have lost sight of who they’re in business to serve. Strangely, the old saying ‘The customer is always right’ has gone out the window and many businesses seem to be either bored or bothered by their customers.

It’s a difficult situation to come to grips with, because it just doesn’t make any sense. Why don’t they realize that without these customers they don’t have a business! They’ll eventually make no money, they’re doors will close, and they’ll be bankrupt. And it’s all so easy to prevent.

Perhaps it’s just arrogance; a feeling of superiority over the customer. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t work. Your customers are the reason you’re still in business, and your job is to serve your customers to the best of your ability.

If you have an unhappy or upset customer it’s your job to find out why they feel this way and use that information to improve on your service, or your product.

Yes, we all know there are difficult customers out there and sometimes there’s just no pleasing them, but the fact remains that without these customers you have no business. (if you need to learn how to deal with difficult customer, click here)

Many times client complaints uncover problems or issues that can be improved upon, so always be available to listen to your customers.

Make the decision today to treat all your customers well, because we know that great customer service is the cheapest and best marketing tool available. Of course really great customer service delivers over and above expectations, and that’s when your business will be rewarded.

Happy, satisfied clients are those people who will be happy to refer you; however the opposite is also true. Disappoint or let a customer down; fail to deliver on your promises; or ignore a customer or their complaint and you can be sure that they will be telling all their family and friends about you and your business.

It’s true that disgruntled customers are more likely to spread the word than happy customers are, so when you give bad customer service you do so at your own peril. Providing great customer service is so easy to do: just be aware, and make it your priority.

The 10 Pillars of Excellent Customer Service

Excellent customer service is the intangible that sets you and your company apart from others. It doesn’t matter how low your prices are; if your customer service is poor you’ll lose out on repeat customers.

The opposite is also true: when you have outstanding customer service you’ll be able to edge your prices a few points above your competition. It’s all about learning how to deliver exceptional customer service.

We trust that the following points on the best ways to deliver top-quality customer service will assist you in defining your own workable strategy for servicing your customers.

1. Be Accessible

Your customers must be able to contact you, or someone in your company who represents you, should they require service or have a question to ask. Offer many different ways for your customers to contact you: like phone, email, and social media. Make sure all these communication channels are easy to manage; otherwise your level of customer service could take a dive. If you provide many contact points, but you don’t increase your resources and staff, you’ll be spreading yourself too thin. The result will be a decline in your customer service.

2. Always Respond in a Timely Manner

Make it business policy that all emails and phone calls must be returned with 24-hours. If this is not something you can commit to, then you must determine what timeframe would be manageable and be very clear with your customers that this is the timeframe you work within. Customers are usually very accepting providing you’ve been clear with them from the onset, and you follow through.

3. Listen to What Your Customers Have To Say

Customers are just ordinary people, and they want to be heard: sometimes all that’s required is that you listen to what they have to say. Don’t jump in and start defending yourself, your company, or your product – just listen. Who knows, they could have a valid point!

4. Treat Your Customers With Respect

If you are trying to deal with an irate, rude, complaining or demanding customer, never lower yourself to their level of behaviour. Continue treating your customers with respect, and in turn they will respect you. They might just be having a bad day and could well regret their bad behaviour. Obviously it’s not ‘right’ that people disrespect you, but at the end of the day you’ll be pleased that you didn’t lower your standards and that you remained respectful.

5. Never Argue With Your Customers

You’ll never win an argument with a customer: what this means is that, if you do win, you will have alienated the customer and lost their business forever. We all understand only too well that a customer is often wrong, but it’s not a good idea to start defending yourself: focus on what’s occurred and see how you can best resolve the situation.

6. Honor Your Commitments

Do what you say you will do. If you offer a guarantee, then you must honor it: it you say you’ll respond to emails, respond to them. It’s irritating to anyone to be promised something and then not get it: it’s a surefire way to ruin a relationship.

7. Do What You Say

If you’ve promised to call a customer on Monday, call them on Monday. It’s really very simple. If you want to earn the trust and respect of your customers you must follow through and do what you said you would. From a customer’s point of view we all know how annoying and time-wasting it is to be waiting for a phone-call, email, or visit from someone who (turns out) had no intention of following through.

8. Focus on Customer Relationships 

For your business to enjoy long-term success you must cultivate long-term relationships. Sacrificing long-term relationships to make short-term sales dooms your business to failure.

9. Admit When You’ve Made a Mistake

We’re all human, and we all make mistakes. One very valuable lesson on customer service is, when you do make a mistake, don’t deny it or try to cover it up. Admit your mistake, apologize, and do whatever it takes to make the situation right. Your customers will appreciate it, and no-one loses customers this way.

10: Train Your Staff

When staff members are properly trained to provide excellent customer service, they feel empowered to make on-the-spot decisions when dealing with customers. Make it very clear what their authority levels are, and ensure they understand completely the customer service principles that apply to your business. If you’re not sure they’re capable of doing the right thing, then you’ve hired the wrong people.

So, reading the above ten steps, how do you rate your customer service? If you’re lacking in any of the above you need to ramp up your customer service.

Put these 10 steps into practice: actually get to know your customers, and make them the focus of your business. It doesn’t cost a lot, and it’s the main key to marketing success.

Tips for BPO Customer Service Job Interviews

The industry of call center customer service is a growing business. There are many positions for those people who are gifted in these areas. However, there are also quite a few applicants pursuing those positions.

To prepare for your interview, you might want to review these call center customer service representative interview answer tips because your interaction with the interviewer will most likely be the deciding factor on whether or not you get the job.

What Makes a Successful Customer Service Representative?

The job of a call center customer service representative is mostly about how you deal with people verbally. The largest portion of the interview will most likely revolve around how you have dealt with a past experience or how you would deal with a hypothetical situation.

The interviewer will also want to know about your computer skills, experience or knowledge of call center technology, and any foreign language fluency. Multilingual and bilingual call centers offer great job opportunities if you speak more than one language. There are five major call center customer service representative interview answer tips to keep in mind when you are in the interview process.

The Top 5 Call Center Customer Service Tips for Call Center Representatives

Tip #1: If you already have experience as a call center representative, think of several recent examples of how you dealt with angry or difficult callers. Choose examples that showcase your ability to resolve the problem. Also, prepare several examples of completely positive interactions with pleasant clients. You can use this opportunity to reveal your approach to customer service that helps ensure client satisfaction.

Tip #2: Research ahead of time what type of technology the company you are interviewing for uses. Familiarize yourself with the general format so that you can show your initiative if questioned about software expertise. Be sure to mention the types of industry software that you have been trained in and where you trained, as well as basic word processing and spreadsheet proficiency.

Tip #3: Think about the qualities a good call center customer service representative needs to have, such as attention to detail, active listening skills, and problem solving skills. Be able to articulate your ideas about these qualities. Use your experiences and answers to hypothetical situations to highlight your strengths in these areas.

Tip #4: Another of the best call center customer service representative interview answer tips is to prepare answers to questions about maintaining customer satisfaction and procedure with callers. Think about the steps you take to ensure that a customer’s issues are resolved satisfactorily. Do you repeat back to them what they have said in your own words to ascertain whether you understand properly? Do you affirm their feelings of dissatisfaction? How do you go about finding a solution?

Tip #5: Keep a well-modulated, calm, and pleasant speaking voice throughout the interview. Even when questions become difficult, call center customer service interview answer tips remind you to speak slowly and clearly, with a friendly and professional demeanor. This demonstrates your ability to do the same with a client on the phone.

Following these call center customer service tips will help you walk into your interview confident. You can outshine the competition and get the job you want with the proper preparation.

8 Transition to Sales Tips

Selling services over the phone is very easy, you just need to be knowledgeable and confident to answer the customer's questions, and that's it. The hard part is "What to do to before start selling with a huge possibility of closing it?" (and I'm sure, our Sales Manager, Sheila will agree to that statement hehehe!)

In this article, I'm not going to talk about selling, this time let's talk about the things you should do to perfectly transition the call to sales and successfully close it. JUST BE NICE!

Here are some of the best practices:

1. Build Human Connection 

Most people want to talk to a live person who can quickly answer their questions. Voicemail and IVR systems are impersonal and inflexible, and leave a poor first impression. Build rapport and personalize the conversation.                                                                     

Which part of the call should you you start building rapport?? All throughout the conversation. You can do that because you're not a robot... are you? hehehe

2. Greet callers properly: 

Ensure that you include each of these three basic elements when answering the phone. First, make a brief salutation mentioning the company’s name, such as “Thank you for calling [Company Name].” Second, tell callers your own name and third, include an offer of assistance in the form of an open-ended question, such as “How may I help you today?”

3. Don’t read from a script: 

This comes across as insincere and impersonal. It’s fine to use points to guide the conversation, but not to read them verbatim. If you can make a real connection with callers, that will increase the probability of a sale.

4. Use the caller’s name, but not too often: 

Try to ascertain the caller’s name and use it periodically when addressing him or her. There is no word in existence that people like hearing more than their own name, and using it intermittently in the conversation will help to establish a connection by letting them know you think they’re important enough to remember their name. But be careful not to seem manipulative by overdoing it.

5. Avoid closed-ended responses: 

Responses limited to “Yes,” “No” or “Sure” don’t fuel further conversation. Instead, follow up with further information or questions in order to sustain the conversation and boost the odds of establishing a connection. For instance, if the caller asks, “Is my modem online already?”, don’t just say, “Yes.” Instead, say, “Yes, and if you’re seeing the Online light lit solid and the WiFi light is blinking, you can connect and should be able to surf any website…” Of course, you must also balance off your desire to forge a connection with respect for the caller’s time.

 6. Be sure you understand the caller’s issue: 

If the caller has a complex problem or hasn’t been succinct in stating his question, paraphrase or restate your understanding of the issue back to him using his own words. Then ask him to confirm that you’ve understood correctly. This will help avoid embarrassment and wasted time and energy, as well as making the caller feel that he has been heard.

7. Don’t let them rot on hold: 

Another key to showing respect is not to leave callers on hold for longer than 30 seconds. If she demands to be placed on hold, interject every 60 seconds to tell the customer that you need a little more time, thereby letting her know that you haven’t forgotten about her. I know you've been put on hold before, so when I said 30 seconds, you know that it's like being on hold for almost an hour.

8. Confirm that you’ve addressed the caller’s issue: 

Verify by asking the caller if you’ve addressed the reason for calling satisfactorily, and thank the customer for any help done on their end. This will make them feel that they have accomplished their goal in calling you, that you’ve heard what they have to say and have resolved their issue—or, at least, have committed to doing so.

After doing the last tip, you can start transitioning to sales and the good foundation you just built with the customer for just a couple of minutes will be your asset to confidently convince them and take your offer. Unconsciously, adhering to these tips will build the customers' TRUST, and that's all you need to close a sale.