Why Customer Service is Important to Your Business
Customers are essential to the health of your business. But our approach to customer service has changed as many businesses move to a more online model and physical stores gradually disappear. While some might have thought this would result in worse customer care, these statics prove customer service is more important than ever.
Let’s take a closer look at why customer service is more important than ever to your business. And what you can do to build a model of superior customer service for your clients.
What is a customer’s journey?
Customer service is all about how you approach your customer’s journey and experience with the company. From the moment they enquire about your product or service until the moment they no longer use the product or service they are on their customer journey. It doesn’t end once the sale has happened and ideally it shouldn’t end at all.
If you provide superior customer service, you can have customers who become brand enthusiasts turning to your brand every time they need something and purchasing over and over again.
Repeat customers spend more
While your acquisition of new customers is important to your overall strategy, repeat customers are higher value customers. They will spend on average 300% more than new customers. So, customer retention is very important to your business. And to achieve high customer retention you need excellent customer service.
Generates brand loyalty
Customers expect excellent customer service, and they reward brands with brand loyalty when they feel they have received superior customer service. 96% of customers say that customer service is important and affects their brand loyalty.
Brand loyalty is very important. It’s not just about going with that brand over other brands, when a customer is loyal to a particular brand, they won’t even entertain the notion of deviating from their preferred brand. They’re lifelong customers, they’ll only choose your brand, and they’ll sing your praises to anyone who will listen.
Customer-focused companies make more money
Concentrating on the customer experience will result in a better financial outcome for your business. Customer-centric companies on average are 60% more profitable than the companies who don’t focus on their customers.
It’s good for employee engagement
In the business world we know employee retention can be challenging. But it’s of the upmost importance, with the cost of rehiring for a role coming in at an estimated 33% of that employee’s salary.
But did you know that a good customer service experience can help you keep staff? One study found that companies that prioritise customer service with focused initiatives see a 20% increase in employee engagement.
How can we shape our customer’s journey to provide superior customer service?
We know customer service is important to a business. It generates brand loyalty, increases employee engagement and helps our bottom line but how can we provide superior customer service? Most businesses feel that they are, but the statistics tell another story. 49% of customers say they have left a business due to bad customer service.
In this saturated market customer service is more important than ever to differentiate your business, so let’s look at how you can provide superior customer service.
Know your customer’s expectations
Good customer service has many benefits for a business, but sometimes it can be difficult to work out the benchmark. What you might consider to be good customer service might not be the same as what your customers think.
That’s why it’s important to complete market research and gather ongoing and constant customer feedback to gauge where your company is falling short and what you are doing well.
Listen and respond to feedback
This continuous feedback process is great, but you also need to respond to and act on this feedback, it doesn’t help you if you don’t make amendments. Implement a process for feedback response and investigating suggestions for improvement and more serious feedback or complaints. Make sure your customers feel heard and validated when they provide feedback whether it’s good or bad. This generates trust and respect for the brand.
Seek to help not to sell
It can be easy to lose sight of the customer’s satisfaction. After all it is a numbers game and if a customer is not progressing towards a sale sometimes it can be difficult with strict KPIs to prioritise the customer’s needs.
But all staff should be looking to help not to sell when it comes to their dealings with customers. If a customer feels their experience with a business is only about making money off of them, they will be less likely to return. However, if the focus is placed on finding the best solution for their problem, even if it’s not the most expensive solution, a customer will feel more valued, and they will be more likely to return and more likely to spend more as they continue their journey with the business.
Continue your customer’s journey after purchase
A customer’s journey isn’t over after purchase. Opportunities for them to provide feedback, offers of ongoing support, and troubleshooting with the service or product fosters a stronger bond between the customer and the company. If you continue the customer’s journey after purchase and offer additional value by showing your investment in them, customers are more likely to return.
Invest in your customer service staff
Your customer service staff play a vital role in the business, and they can often times be overlooked. But investing in your customer service staff will result in better outcomes for the conversion rate, the customer satisfaction and employee engagement.
You can do this by offering professional development opportunities such as industry memberships, networking opportunities or courses that can help them perform better and progress in their careers.
We offer a customer-focused course that is designed for customer service staff in business. This course is the Certificate III in Business with a specialisation in Customer Engagement. It’s taught all online so they can fit it in around their work schedule and in the course, they’ll learn how to:
- Use digital technologies to communicate in a work environment
- Write simple documents
- Organise personal work priorities
- Deliver and monitor a service to customers
- Process customer complaints
- Assist with customer difficulties
- Advise on products and services
You can learn more about this course here.
Final Thoughts
Customer service is paramount to every business. It’s important for your sales, your staff and customer retention. Prioritising your customers’ journey will have positive impacts on every level of your business. If you want to know how you can support your staff to offer the best customer service possible you can check out our course here, or get in touch with us, we’d be happy to help you find the right training for your business.