The reputation of a company stems largely on the quality of customer service it provides. While amicable customer assistance increases customer base exponentially, a careless attitude holds high possibility of dragging your company to the worst of its plights. Hence, the ultimate solution to survive the cutthroat competition is to spruce up your customer service. Below are some vital tips in this context that could enable you withstanding the current and future market upheavals.

Tips to improve customer service

2014 Customer Service Report by Corsiva revealed that 60% of the 1,200 US consumers interviewed think that customer service across varied industries has improved as compared to the previous year. In addition, it also unleashed some important points for businesses to improve their customer services, which include as below:

1. Hire the best workforce

As per the infographic report, 49% of the respondents believed that companies could improve their services by hiring well-aware, smart, and communicative agents.

2. Train your agents

37% consumers favored the agents to be knowledgeable as they form an important link between the company and the customer. Hence, they need to be properly trained.

3. Interact in real

80% of the respondents complained that their phone interaction with the customer care team is more robotic or scripted than real. This ultimately creates a wide scope for genuine customer interaction.

4. Have multiple interaction points

55% believe that calling is the best way to assist clients. However, 34% still think that diversity in communication channels, such as the use of emails, chat, web forms, etc., should also be encouraged.

5. Do not keep customers on hold

32% participants accepted getting irritated for being kept on hold for more than 5 minutes. Consequently, a sizable 49% advocate that lowering down hold times may enhance customer service.

Moving over, Client Heart Beat seeks the assistance of a survey report comprising 200 senior marketing managers to indicate the importance of customer satisfaction and how could it be accentuated. The points are as follows:

6. Satisfaction rating

Ask consumers to rate your services as per the satisfaction level between 1-10. Customers giving 9-10 ratings are your potential buyers. Those giving 7 or above could be expected to come back. Ratings of 6 or below means that your customers are unhappy, and something is seriously wrong with your service that needs to corrected.

7. Improve quality

As per an Accenture global customer satisfaction report (2008), customer deviation results mainly due to poor quality or customer service, and not due to its cost. Hence, it is better to perk up your service standards.

8. Avoid falling prey to negative publicity

According to a McKinsey report, one unhappy customer could share his bad experience with 9-15 people. Overall, 13% dissatisfied customers spread the loopholes of the concerned product or service with 20 people. It is therefore better to avoid such negative word of mouth by enhancing your services.

9. Retain existing customers

It costs around 6-7 times more to make new customers than retaining the existing ones, it is hence good to invest in the latter option. Methods such as blog posts, emails, etc., to educate customers about the positive aspects of your business could be helpful in this regard.

10. Take care of every touch point

The point of customer contact, such as ads, reviews, ratings, websites, retail stores, and customer service form the touch points of your business. Make sure to keep a regular check on each of them for improvement.