Understanding what a good customer service is – is not difficult. Its essence is still the same as it was years back. Let’s say when you grapple to understand your customers expectations, simply ask – what would I’ve expected from the company as a customer? And you’ll get the answer as to what your customers are expecting from you. However, in spite of things looking so easy on the surface, many organizations are struggling to meet customer expectations – let alone exceed them. Let’s read why –
No matter what industry a company belongs to – delivering to the expectations of the customers should always be the starting point. Quite a common rule that we all know right? But do we follow it – NO
Statistics suggest – 74% companies over promise and under deliver while the remaining ones do the vice versa (i.e. under promise and over deliver)
In both the cases – a company fails to win the hearts of the customers. Here is why –
Case ONE (when companies over promise and under deliver)
Customer Service Agents are deluged with complaints.
Case TWO (when companies under promise and over deliver)
Companies fail to attract customers in the first place.
What should be the ideal solution?
Do what you say – whether big or small
Tony Mascot (Customer opinion analyst) comments – ‘’Meeting the expectations of the customers is often a matter of common sense, but then it doesn’t comes naturally to all business owners. For some, in fact, it means over promising or under promising their clients.’’
Ideally companies first need to emphasize upon their strong points and make customer service commitments on those. Let’s say –
Once you are through with this phase – then think of going that extra mile.
Sales Rep: Hello Mr. A this call is in regards to our new product that has been launched yesterday. It’d be great if you could take a look at it. It’s about ….
Customer: Hello I would definitely take a look at your new product. But before doing that can you please provide some light on my support ticket that has been lying unresolved with your company since the last 10 days. I hope you’re aware of it. So what’s the status?
Company – (One minute pause) Sir, I’ll coordinate with the customer service department and get back to you within some time. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Result – No Cross Sell or Up-sell
Customer gets a negative impression of your company; becomes apprehensive of dealing with you again. Customer retention becomes – A BIG QUESTION
Dumbfounded? Well – that’s exactly what happens during the time of cross-selling and up selling calls if your customer service is not up to the mark.
What should be the ideal solution?
Comprehensive view of customer interactions across all touchpoints
Opt for customer management software like CRM. The New Age cloud CRM solutions act like integrated customer lifecycle management systems – streamlining and orchestrating all the customer interactions together. So right from marketing – to – sales – to – customer service; all customer interactions is captured consistently across the increasingly wide range of channels.
The benefit you’d get:
A holistic picture of the customers’ needs and wants, and their feedback!
Basically, you understand the voice of the customer that EMPOWERS you to serve them more proactively and more effectively. And it helps your sales team in making those cross-sell and up-sell calls. Next time the customer enquires about a registered customer service case – your sales agent (using the small business CRM) can tell the exact status of the ticket. Impressive isn’t it?
Statistics suggest – 66% CRM using organizations fail to make a mark through their customer service.
Yes we are the ones who just now asked you to invest in customer management software like Cloud CRM. But then simply implementing a small business CRM solution will not do anything for your business. You need to properly strategize on how to use it.
Read what Neil Davey has stated –
‘’For many organizations, the strategies to support their CRM initiatives are in short supply. So organizations lose out because their in-house staff does not develop comprehensive stratagems to use different cloud CRM functionalities. And this lack of expertise to support customer-focused initiatives – dooms the CRM implementation.’’
For example –
You implement a small business CRM solution to manage and monitor all your customer cases from a central database. You assign cases to customer support professionals across multiple communication channels Fur further assistance you attach files (from the computer or from the CRM Library) to the cases.
Result is: On-time customer service BUT No drop in Customer Complaints
Because while you are happy gauging the voice of the customers in the CRM – you’ve not really analyzed the complaints data.
What should be the ideal solution?
REMEMBER: It takes more than technology to deliver a good customer experience.
Develop business transformation strategies and understand how to use cloud CRM solutions in the best way possible. Closely examine the business processes, and then implement initiatives (via the CRM) that improve customer service.
In the above case – You need to mine the customer feedback data to see your business systems and processes from the customer’s point of view. Understand the key drivers of dissatisfaction and then fix them.
Bring changes to your customer service process by removing the customer-service bottlenecks and other inefficiencies. This will be the best way to improve customer satisfaction.
Note: If required, hire customer expert professionals with the right expertise and knowledge. They’ll assess your business and design and implement customer experience strategies through the cloud CRM solution.
