Customer Experience – The Make or Break of Your Business.
Customer experience can make or break your business. Do you know that customers are willing to pay more for a better experience?
As a result, business owners or entrepreneurs who understand the crucial role of customer service and customer experience invest in it. They make sure they have the right team to offer the best experience for their customers.
Customers come back to your shop or office for several reasons, your products and how you offer your services. But, how you offer your services is the most important of all.
Most of the times, as an entrepreneur, you might not be at the front line of your business offering the services or selling your products by yourself. You definitely have a team that does that for you.
The team at the front line of your business, that is , the people who interact directly with your customers, online or physically are very crucial. They can make customers come back to you or to not come back again. In short, your customer service team can push customers into the hands of your competitors draining your business.
As an entrepreneur, you have to make sure you have the right team to interact with your customers. This is because, selling products that meet the need of your target customers is not enough.
Most entrepreneurs and employees think that customer service or customer care work is for the front desk or receptionist. And, that is why some businesses fail. Customer experience is everyone’s role in the company. From the C.E.O to the employees.
Why Customer Experience is important?
With the change is business trends, goods and services are no longer the most competitive point of businesses, customer experience is. Therefore, if your customer experience is a flop, then your business is a flop.
If you want to increase your revenue and your profits, work on your customer’s experience. A good or excellent customer experience will make a customer come back again and again. Eventually, that means more for your revenue and profits.
Customer service is all about your customers. Therefore, this involves, meeting your customers’ expectations, creating a relationship with them and leaving an impression.
How to create the right customer Service Team?
Your customer care team plays a very vital role in customer experience, positively or negatively. With that being said, make sure you have an excellent customer care team.
When creating a customer service team, the best individuals would be individuals with experience in customer care, people skills or a people’s person. Importantly, who understand your product or service, individuals with good communication skills and persuasion skills
- Work Experience.
Get individuals who have worked in customer care before. At least they know what they are doing. They already understand the importance of customer experience.
With experience, these individual has acquired several necessary skills in Customer service and this is an added advantage for your company.
2. With people skills.
People skills are very important in any business as they affect your team’s interactions with your customers.
If you are starting your business and are looking for individuals to join your team then look for individuals who possess people skills.
Look for individuals who are warm and welcoming individuals. Individuals who can easily create relationships with your customers.
3. Ability to communicate clearly with customers.
Verbal and non-verbal communication is what drives customer service/care and customer experience.
You need a team or an individual who has the ability to communicate with your customers clearly and courteously.
For instance, you cannot afford to have a customer care individual who speaks rudely to your customers. As a result, he/she will drive away potential customers.
4. Persuasion skills.
The power of persuasion is one key in business. You have to persuade an individual to buy your product or use your services and to becoming a customer.
Your team should be able to persuade customers. That is the only way to sell and get revenue. They have to get the customer’s attention and maintain it until they sell the product. And, that is why you need a team that understands your product or services.
5. A team that understands your products, services, mission and vision.
A team that understands the products they are selling or the services they are providing to your customers will definitely make your customer’s experience good. They will be able to answer your customers’ questions and concerns.
Importantly, your team needs to understand your mission and vision. With this they will understand why the business is important to you. Once they understand, they will handle your business activities with importance. The importance will definitely show in their interactions with your customers.
5. Great work ethics.
Make sure your team has a great work ethics.
Your team should put the customer’s needs first. They should be able to understand that they have to put in the extra effort to give your customers the best experience.
They should be able to do what needs be done by all means without taking shortcuts.
The above 6 are the key to a good customer service team for an excellent customer experience. However, there are other skills your team should have. Consider patience as some customers can be hard to please. Additionally, attentiveness, the ability to use positive language, time management skills, goal oriented, empathy and flexibility.
Already have a team? How do you improve your customer experience?
If you already have a team, this is for you. You can improve your customer’s experience by boosting your customer service. However, this will not happen overnight because you have to continuously put in the work to change your customer’s experience.
- Strengthen your team’s customer service skills.
Above all, your team’s customer care skills need strengthening and improvement.
You can strengthen and improve your team’s customer care skills by offering training and seminars. Have experts in Customer Relations train your team on the importance of customer service. They can be trained on how to effectively relate with your customers. Eventually improve their customer care skills.
With the training and seminars, individuals without customer service skills can learn how to develop them.
2. Be on the look-out at every touch point.
Secondly, every point of a customer’s journey is very crucial. Therefore, any bad customer service before, during and after a purchase can make the customer turn away.
This means that your team should be consistent with their skills and approach when interacting with customers at any touch-point.
As an entrepreneur, have a team that will make sure your customers are satisfied – before, during and after purchase.
3. Improve your customer service strategy.
Thirdly, the strategy used by your team to satisfy your customers is important.
Your team having the skills to interact with your customers is not enough. But having a team that has a practical customer service approach is a win.
Make sure your team is available and customers can reach you when they need you. It can be through a phone call or a face to face meet.
Make sure that your customers experience a personal touch with your real team not just having chat bots do the work for you all the time.
Another proactive strategy is making sure that your customers’ needs are met fully. You can have reps for different customers that touch base and are in contact with specific customers. This will even boost your customer relationships.
4. Improve employee engagement.
Lastly, remember your customers’ satisfaction comes first no matter what. A dissatisfied customer is a sign of a dissatisfied employee.
A satisfied customer service team will make sure a customer is satisfied. Make sure you engage your team in issues that affect them.
Be a good, involved and concerned employer for your employees. Give them opportunities to advance in the company, train them and make their working conditions good and not toxic.
Conclusion.
To sum it up, customers are the key to any successful business or company. And the common saying is that the customer is always right and the king. They contribute to the success or the failure of your business by either choosing you or not choosing you.
The way they are received into your company, how they receive the services or how the goods are sold to them. How their questions are answered and how they feel interacting with your team will eventually make them want to come back or to go away.
As an entrepreneur, you have to keep in mind that customer experience is what marks the difference between brands. The experience customers get in your business or company is what differentiates you from your competitors.
In short, make the customer experience excellent and you will see your business revenue and profits grow. Ignore it and your customers will comfortably walk into the arms of your competitors without looking back.
