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Nearly two thirds of customers have higher expectations for customer service compared to three to five years ago, according to AI company Netomi.
More than three quarters say good customer service is fundamental to earning loyalty.
With customers able to switch between companies with relative ease, dealing with increasing customer service expectations has become essential.
This article will teach you easy ways to meet today’s customer service expectations.
Don’t limit yourself to one customer service channel
How a customer can contact you is just as important as the service they get.
Some customers prefer digital communications, whether through email or using a live chat on a website.
Others prefer to use the phone, especially when trying to find information quickly or when they have a particularly sensitive enquiry.
One of the worst things you can do is limit how customers can get in touch, forcing them to use the channels you prefer.
Remember, customer service is about the customer, not you.
This means having a professional telephone answering service available for customers who want to call you, along with email, live chat and other digital communications.
Create personalised experiences
Nearly two thirds of customers say personalisation is critical to earning their loyalty in 2023.
Part of this personalisation is expected to come from the recommended products or services pushed in advertisements or emails.
Customers expect these ‘hyper-personalised’ offers to be standard rather than being sent generic offers or marketing emails that have no interest to them.
The other part of personalisation comes from customer service.
When customers call, they want to know they’re being dealt with as an individual and not a number on a ticket.
This means having customer service agents available to talk to customers when needed and not leaving customers to simply send an email and hope it gets seen.
Protect customer data
The vast majority of customers are nervous about giving away their personal information.
These fears are mostly born out of concern over what will happen to their data once they’ve handed it over.
Whether it’s concerns about being bombarded with sales and marketing messages or that their private data won’t be securely handled.
To meet customer expectations, you should have clear policies and procedures for collecting, using and protecting customer data.
This isn’t just part of meeting customer expectations.
It’s also essential to avoid costly fines through data protection legislation like GDPR.
Create streamlined processes
Customer service should be an effective process of getting customers from A to B.
Either getting them the product or service they want or resolving a problem.
This means having clear, defined processes that the customer will go through to ensure their issue is identified, they’re in touch with the right person, and their enquiry is handled quickly.
Friction at any point in the process risks losing customers or escalating complaints.
Doing this requires looking at customer service as a critical pillar of your business, putting it at the same importance level as your product and price.
Just as you’d put time and effort into building a product, you should create a comprehensive customer service framework and ensure everyone in the business who deals with customers follows and understands it.
Listen and understand what customers want
This is the simplest but most overlooked part of improving customer service.
If you want to know what customers expect or what they think of your current service, ask them.
The best businesses do this regularly.
Whether it’s simply speaking to customers and getting feedback or running surveys and generating Net Promotor Scores, communicating and getting honest opinions of how your customer service currently operates is the best way to improve it quickly.
Winning with customer service
Customer service is a key differentiator businesses can use to win or retain business.
Consumers today are more likely to spend and spend more on the same products with a business that offers them the most convenient service.
Customer expectations are always changing.
To compete long-term, it’s more important than ever that businesses work to meet expectations and exceed them.
This means being adaptable over allowing customers to contact you and having real people available to help when customers call.
Anything less, and you run a real risk of putting your future at risk.
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