The modern business of today is constantly juggling a string of priorities. From optimising marketing for keywords and search engines, to scheduling automated social media posts for the foreseeable future, and leaving callers to deal with a robotic machine as employees are simply too busy to return calls.
In the 21st century, where it seems everything you desire is just a search term away, brands are risking becoming faceless as technology has made business procedures seemingly easier. These businesses no longer have to impress their neighbours as the World Wide Web has made reaching a wider audience much easier and more cost-effective. As a result, these organisations have lost their human touch.
However, a customer never forgets bad service, and an angry customer is an influential one. An angry customer is likely to badmouth your business to their friends and social following, which in turn could damage your business. Therefore, customer service should ALWAYS span through ALL aspects of your business, from your telephone calls to your one-to-one interactions.
The human element is the difference between a mediocre and an excellent customer service experience. Here are five ways you can incorporate a human touch throughout your business:
1 – To have a winning business, is to have a champion team. It’s essential that your workforce offers the best level of customer support possible. When recruiting, you should concentrate on team members who love to help customers and strive to provide a difference. Every employee should have excellent customer skills and want to do all in their power to help customers.
2 – Trust your customer service team and allow them to be flexible when offering customised solutions when things go wrong. Each customer has different needs and one service doesn’t fit all, so it’s often useful to have money-back and refund regulations in place. In addition, if a customer is having problems contacting you through email or telephone, never disregard their problem as a one-off. Instead, take time to investigate or have a backup solution in place – such as alldayPA telephone disaster recovery.
3 – When it comes to communication, the possibilities are endless. Every platform is different and requires a different approach to customer interaction. An email, for example, is much longer than a tweet, just as a phone call is much more personal than an email. You must be your brand by aligning each platform to match the tone of your brand. When successfully accomplished, each customer will experience the same positive impact no matter where they found your brand.
4 – Customers will want to contact you at a time suited to them and not your business. Nobody likes being ignored, ushered away or to find themselves in a position in which they cannot get hold of somebody. Your business must be available around the clock to answer these customer queries. FAQs on the website and contact through email isn’t always enough to resolve customer issues and, more often than not, customers want to deal with a human and not an automated service. Try outsourcing your phone calls to a telephone answering service such as alldayPA, who can be there 24 hours a day and 365 days a year, to answer the queries you cannot.
5 – Each employee should actively look at building relationships with customers by understanding the customer likes, dislikes and work to improve their lives. A customer in a relationship with a brand is highly likely to come back. Always remember that technology is here to serve us, but you will be surprised how a personal gesture (such as a hand-written Christmas card sent to loyal customers) can impact a relationship.
