Customer service has become a powerful weapon that organizations offering products or services have to strengthen their relationships with customers. Unfortunately, it is a powerful weapon that does not explode. They prefer to invest more in advertising for new clients than to deepen and retain those who have already decided to be and who will be more likely to bring in new clients. Customer service is for all small, medium, or large companies. Opening the service is very important for marketing. In this article, the simple guide for an efficient service must be to reach customers as their right.
By: Otto Gutierrez (4ottog@gmail.com)
Good customer service in your company could bring you the achievements you from other areas of your business have yet to achieve. A Bain & Company study shows companies can grow revenue 4-8% above their market by prioritizing better customer service experiences. According to HubSpot data, 93% of customers will likely make repeat purchases with excellent customer service companies. Microsoft, from Microsoft Dynamics 365, presented a report revealing data on the new consumption dynamics and the treatment customers expect from companies. For example, 58% of American consumers will change companies due to poor customer service. Loyalty and deepening customers, as well as exceeding their expectations, are goals that many companies need help to achieve or consolidate. Many want to achieve it without communication or interaction with customers or their prospects. There could be an error, and the solution is simple, although not easy. To open customer service and start the path of making them faithful and effective. Here is a valuable guide to begin or improve your organization’s customer service.
Always showing kindness to customers will be the gateway to a fluid and constructive relationship between the organization and customers. Also, friendly and respectful treatment leads to an efficient interaction that customers will continue to repeat whenever they need to or want to do so. This customer service guide provides the strategic, operational, and tactical elements for having a friendly and positive relationship.
OBJECTIVE
As the goal of all consumer interactions with the organization, the purpose of this instruction will be to help exceed or meet consumer expectations in the first place. We also have a tool that guarantees that the organization has the opportunity to build loyalty and deepen relationships with consumers.
STRATEGIC ACTIONS
Not only words communicate. Four strategic actions will be the criteria that generally prevail in relationships and customer service sessions regardless of the moment or situation that calls them. As strategic criteria, they should be shown at all times, either with verbal or non-verbal language.
1. Always treat the person (consumer) with respect. He is a human being to whom we speak.
2. Show the ability to solve or benefit the consumer or improve his situation, any requirement, question, or suggestion of the consumer.
3. Constructively sympathize with any horrible consumer experience.
4. Demonstrate the organization’s efficiency in the deal and action developed for the consumer.
OPERATIONAL GUIDES
To meet the objective, you must consider not only the strategic actions. Operationally you must give the treatment you would like to receive if you were consumers of the organization. But it would help if you allowed the interaction with the consumer to be done within a positive framework of eight operational guidelines that ensure that the attention is always holistic.
1. Always greet the consumer and make him feel valuable. Impossible and unforgivable to start a conversation without saying hello.
2. Always be clear about what the consumer wants and needs. There is a difference between those two expectations. Unknowing that they exist will complicate dealings with the consumer.
3. Always listen to the consumer and keep quiet to speak at the right time. Nothing is more powerful for a person to find someone willing to listen to him and then tell him something valuable to his expectation.
4. Always appeal to wants and not needs. Suppose you listen to what the consumer wants to tell you. In that case, you will have the best and most valuable information to tell him how the product, service, or organization can improve his expectations.
5. Always knows the organization’s product, service, and mission well. Ignoring any of these creates disbelief and breaks any communication with the consumer.
6. Honesty and transparency are always forceful. After respect, a consumer expects to trust and establish a sincere relationship to ensure he is treated with honesty and transparency.
7. Always make him feel that the consumer is right. Think that you are in front of the consumer because he has already bought a product or service, which makes it valuable. Also, customers can buy a product or service with which they will become a different person for the organization.
8. Always think that kindness and gratitude are the first things the consumer takes away and will remember when finishing a conversation with you. Nothing is more powerful than saying please, and thank you. I’m here to help you, don’t worry, I know how to help you; I’m sorry, have a nice day.
READ HERE: THE QUESTION, DO YOU NOT KNOW WHO I AM? MUST IMPOSE IN LATIN AMERICA. https://bit.ly/3JfGix7
TACTICAL PHASES IN DEALING WITH THE CONSUMER
At this point, you knew the whole concept of how you should treat your consumers in general terms without specifying moments, situations, or events. The strategic and the operational must always be when dealing with a consumer. They are the inevitable and immovable guides to exceed or satisfy the needs or expectations of consumers.
From this point, you will discuss the tactical actions you must develop in a five-phase scheme regulating an interaction or dealing with your consumers. It would be best to remember that all five phases will occur. One may be longer or more intense than the others. One can become especially critical in your relationship. They will all occur with greater or lesser deployment, but they are all vital. For this reason, it is crucial to understand them and prepare emotionally and intellectually to face them successfully.
PHASE 1, INTRODUCTION
Whether it’s a customer service call or a conversation with a salesperson doesn’t matter. You discuss when the consumer and the organization’s agent take their roles. They confirm their interaction. They are determined to be part and counterpart for the immediate benefit of the consumer and the organization’s long term.
The following actions are essential at this stage.
• Say hi
• Introduce yourself in the most precise and briefest way
• Declare the intention to help the consumer
• Give him time to introduce himself
• If he doesn’t, ask him to do it. Expressions like who will I have the pleasure of helping today? They are very well received.
• Promptly comply with the customer service verification protocols or, if it is personal, declare that they have the information or willingness to help you.
PHASE 2, KNOWLEDGE
Once consumers and representatives have established identities and purposes, the stage begins with the consumer being heard.
• Reiterate that you are here to help him and are attentive to listen to offer him the best service.
• Ask him to explain the purpose of the interaction.
• Ask questions only when you need to clarify something unclear to you.
• Let him explain his wishes and ask about them.
• Take him to tell you his needs
• Don’t interrupt when he talks to you
• Do not start a polemic or debate
• Do not underestimate what you hear
• Do not question, criticize or give opinions about what you hear.
• End this segment with a summary of what you have heard. It is essential to be on the same page and for the consumer to see that you have paid attention. Your attention will make the consumer feel very important and will be the beginning of the next phase.
PHASE 3, RESPONSE
The time for a consumer to express expectations has ended, and the time to achieve a good reputation for the organization has begun. Build positioning. Disseminate the mission of the organization. Show leadership. Win solidarity. These five values are only given to an organization by consumers and are obtained in an instance like this.
• Reiterate that you will certainly help him and will be able to meet his expectations.
• Be respectful and kind to the consumer’s time. If you must take time for something, ensure the consumer understands it and can wait the best way.
• Be clear on the steps to respond to the requirements.
• Constantly tell the customer you are working alone or with others towards a satisfactory solution. You already know what the customer wants and needs. Say it clearly.
• Verbalize the achievements that you are obtaining if the process requires time.
• If you accomplish something of several things, show it as part of a list you are already achieving.
• If you need time for something to happen, take the opportunity to find out if the consumer may need something from other topics. You can help him with other issues once you have identified the type of consumer, his desires, and his needs.
• If the solution process is finished, announce the result and say the consumer is the winner. Customer satisfaction prepares the step to the next phase.
PHASE 4, SOLUTION
It is the moment desired by the two parties that began phase one committed to a respectful, honest, and transparent dealing. The organization’s representative has been effective, and the client must understand it clearly.
• Start this segment with a summary of what you have accomplished. The consumer must see that you have fulfilled your commitment and the consumer’s requirement has been fully satisfied. It will make the consumer feel important and strengthen the organization’s image. Remember that this is built one by one with each consumer.
• Allow the consumer to express satisfaction with the treatment and results obtained. Ask for the degree of satisfaction.
• If it has taken a relatively long time, apologize but say it was necessary to achieve the best for the consumer and their satisfaction.
• End by stating that it has been very satisfying for the organization to have you as a satisfied consumer. That you can always count on a similar service in future requirements. Now you will make transit smoothly to the last phase.
PHASE 5, CLOSURE
In the same way that there was a beginning, there is an end to the interaction. Here what was obtained in the previous phase must be highlighted, and compliance with the protocols for measuring the care received.
• Remind the consumer who was the representative of the company that helped him
• Explain and clarify the measurement protocols of the service received (if they exist or apply)
• Ask if the consumer is satisfied
• Preach that it will always be nice to help the consumer to be satisfied
• Say goodbye and wish the person a good rest of the day.
The organization must measure the experience or customer service through the KPIs, defined as the metric used to measure the level of performance of a process, function, or service. The measure focuses on different variables related to a customer service team’s performance, which implies using different KPIs for each variable. Also, measure the performance of an entire customer service team and evaluate each agent’s performance separately.
Most models with minor differences propose the following KPIs within the service evaluation. Individual employee performance, Average waiting time (TME), Requests received indicator, Conversion rate, First contact resolution indicator, Average resolution time, Customer retention rate (TRC), Average abandonment rate, Rate customer satisfaction, and finally, Net Promoter Score (NPS) which is the probability that a customer recommends you to other people.
An XM Institute report published in August 2020 shows that almost 80% of consumers will forgive a bad experience with a product or service if they find the service team “very good.” This revelation warns that the importance of customer service goes beyond simple customer contact. It shows how customer service in a commercial society understands how many people with needs for well-being and satisfaction with products and services find customer service a great escape from their frustrations. Customer services are the first source of justice in a society where individuals want to be treated adequately by organizations, with which their days will be better, either because of the quality of the products or services they receive or because of quality fails. There will be someone to listen and help, and that amnesties everything. To learn more about communication or marketing issues in your organization, write to me at 4ottog@gmail.com and tell me about your project or need. Surely I can help you.
Otto Gutierrez 