Great customer service is simple with the essential know how, therefore just 8 points help stand between happy repeat custom and a bombardment of angry abuse!
- First and foremost, create a well designed website. Often the first port of call for customers, ensure they don’t have to scour the net for delivery details, return information and more simply, how to contact you. A well informed and detailed site can save employees the hassle of answering routine questions.
- If customers can’t easily contact you, your customer service isn’t as good as it should be. Clearly visible contact information and operating hours are key, with customers easily too disgruntled when searching how to reach a business. With our ever increasingly busy lifestyle, people now demand constant reactions.
- Customers hate waiting. It’s a fact. In today’s instant-gratification-orientated society, if people are made to wait too long in any situation they become unhappy. Ensuring well staffed and informed teams gives quick response times to emails and calls help keep people satisfied.
- Your customer team should have the ability to solve any problem. Passing individuals around to different departments is a recipe for terrible customer service. Ensuring customers are able to deal with the same member of staff helps build a relationship and trust between the individual, after all, there’s nothing worse than explaining your issue for the umpteenth time.
- Training your staff to the best of their ability means they know the ins and outs of the business, its products and its services, therefore ensure your team have all the necessary information at hand when a customer contacts.
- Your team needs thick skin. Not all customers are happy customers, therefore taking criticism, looking at mistakes and evaluating issues help open up opportunities to fix something. Take advantage of your negatives, as they help your business evolve and progress.
- Ensure your customers are appreciated; after all they’ve the ones handing over the cold hard cash. This doesn’t mean sending everyone a hand written card, but ensure they remain informed and involved of their purchases. With ecommerce it’s essential that customers remain aware of their investment, with order tracking, picking and delivery updates just a few of the methods used to help keep customers in the loop.
- Realise that every battle can’t be won. Despite how hard you try some customers will moan, complain, leave terrible reviews, demand refunds or free services and basically turn your day into a nightmare!
Better Bathrooms has built a business on excellent customer service; listening to the good, bad and ugly has helped transform and improve weaker aspects of the business to overall deliver a greater buying experience for the consumer.
More importantly, remember that a happy team delivers great service therefore ensure you rewards staff regularly as morale can quickly drop in this high pressured environment.
For more information on Better Bathrooms and their MD Colin Stevens, shortlisted for Entrepreneur or the Year 2012 at the upcoming National Business Awards visit www.betterbathrooms.com
