Did you know that $1.6 trillion is lost annually by companies in the U.S. because of customers switching due to poor customer service?
The way you treat your customers is a reflection of your business. 70% of unhappy customers are willing to come back and shop at your store if their problem is resolved.
Customer service is a key investment for your business model. Keep reading and we will walk you through the difference of good customer service vs. bad customer service and its importance to a new eCommerce company building their brand.
What is Customer Service?
Customer service is the support you offer your customers.
Retailers have found it extremely important to maintain buyer satisfaction throughout their purchase so that they will come back.
Modern technology has allowed for chatbots and other forms of automated customer service, however, almost every business understands the value and importance of the option to speak to a human.
Putting time and money into training your customer service team will help build your brand and customer loyalty.
Splash Factory helps eCommerce companies build their brand and can help you build out the tools to present to your team on customer service. Check out their portfolio today.
Good Customer Service vs. Bad Customer Service
We are going to walk through good vs. bad customer service examples and tips. If you are a new business, it’s especially important that you are monitoring your reviews and customer service team.
Good Customer Service
If you start out badly, you can always go up and improve your customer service, but it won’t happen overnight. Start out strong and keep the momentum going.
Customer service starts by greeting at the door of the retail store or business. If you greet your customers with a “Hello” and a friendly smile, you are off to a great start.
Every company, especially one that’s just starting out, should develop a process for resolving issues. You should always anticipate that customer issues will arise and you should fully prepare your customer service team to be able to handle them.
Your process should be centered around the following values.
1. Personalized
Positive customer service starts with a human, personal touch. Personalized interactions let your customers know that you care about them and their issues. Instead of thinking about the budget of your customer service team, think about the opportunity cost of getting your customer’s business again.
2. Competency
Your customer service team should have strong knowledge of the company, your product or service, and how to fix the customer’s issue. The more knowledge they have, the more competent your customer will see them as and they will feel confident in your product and service as a result.
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3. Convenient
You want to make sure your customer service line is accessible and reachable. You also want to make them available on many channels, from phone to chat to text. This makes it easier for your customer to contact you in a way that works best for them and eliminates the frustration of trying to reach you and not succeeding.
4. Proactive
If you know a product is back-ordered or your service is temporarily down, reach out to your customers before they reach out to you. They may not be happy about the situation, but they will feel better if they’re kept in the loop.
Bad Customer Service
Bad customer service can happen for a variety of reasons. We will walk through a few examples.
Change in Company Policy
As companies grow, internal policies and structural changes occur to help manage the business. These corporate policies are put in place to keep customer service consistent, but at times can be roadblocks to good customer service.
For example, a consumer noticed at a well-known clothing store a product was listed at a more expensive price in the store than online. The employee wouldn’t match the lower price because of company policies. You want to make sure your company is flexible to bend the rules or make exceptions in cases like these.
Social Media
Companies are still navigating social media and how best to keep up with its evolving nature. Customers expect companies to keep up and use it as a way to reach out to them.
If you provide clear, helpful responses on social media it can be a benefit to use these channels, but it can also go in a bad direction if there isn’t proper training on how to respond. There was a case where a large phone company was asked on Twitter if customer service reps could see their passwords. The company replied with a detailed description of user password storage.
Though this was an attempt to be transparent, this was a huge privacy issue. You should have clear instructions in place with incidents like these used as examples to help fully prepare your team to answer on social media.
Feedback
Customers are offering their feedback now more than ever through many review sites and social media. Consumers know that companies can see their feedback. It’s always better to reply and face a situation head-on then ignoring them.
Internet service providers can be hard to reach and don’t always reply to their reviews or address issues right away. People get frustrated when their Internet goes out, especially when working from home, and want to get immediate help.
Hold Time
You want to make sure you don’t make your customers wait too long when they call in for help. After being on hold for 40 seconds, 15% of customers hang up.
You want to make sure you answer a customer in a timely manner. If the issue is complex, let them know you’ll reach out when it’s resolved or need some time to figure it out as opposed to making them wait.
One example is a customer who was on hold for 2 hours and waited it out until someone answered. They were on hold for 15 hours and then were told that their original request was denied. Even if this was a broken phone line, this shouldn’t be happening and needs to be corrected.
Custom Service Process
Now that we’ve gone through good customer service, reevaluate your processes and see how you can improve.
Use the bad examples as situations for your employees to be aware of and avoid.
Splash Factory is a full dev-ops marketing agency that helps eCommerce companies grow and scale their brand. See if you qualify today.
