Innovation is at the heart of a successful customer service strategy. It’s through innovation that one of the world’s largest online retailers has become successful in building a customer-centric business. From building a corporate culture that knows how to listen to customers, to making it easy to talk to a real customer service representative, the strategies that this online retailer uses are ones that all companies can adopt for themselves. No matter what industry or business, discover the five customer service strategies that you should be doing and get ready to elevate your customer experience.
Focus on the Customer
What is the most important aspect of a business? Happy customers. That’s why “to be earth’s most customer-centric company” appears as part of the mission statement of one of the world’s biggest e-commerce portals. There are so many other aspects of running a company that sometimes leaders forget that the customer needs to be their focus.
How could focusing on the customer help your business improve the customer experience? For one vast Internet-based enterprise, that focus led to faster delivery, helping customers get the best deal, and using data to personalize the shopping experience. Depending on the products or services your business offers, there may be other ways you can improve your own customer experience. Maybe your customers would benefit from better packaging or a well-designed online presence? Just remember to keep your customer as your focus.
Listen to Your Customers
Listening isn’t just about being silent while a customer expresses a problem or concern. Listening is really about connecting and understanding. One far-reaching online business puts employees at almost every level through two days of call-center training, with the goal of teaching them to listen to customers. They know that by paying close attention to customer needs, customer service reps should be able to recall relevant details and tune-in to a customer’s emotions. Through connecting and understanding, a business will know how they can help customers achieve their goals.
Make listening part of the company culture. You may not have a 24 hour a day call center, but you likely do have a customer service team that answers calls from customers. Consider having all your employees attend training focused on improving customer listening skills. Not only will customer service improve but communication within your business is likely to improve as well.
Make Customer Interactions Simpler
While many customers prefer to use an FAQ or help center, others need to talk to a real person. Make sure both paths are easy for customers to navigate. One of the world’s largest online retailers has thousands of detailed articles in its help center while still making the user experience streamlined and easy to navigate. However, if even those articles aren’t able to solve the problem, customers can quickly and easily reach out to a live customer service representative. While not every company can offer round-the-clock, live customer service support, businesses can do a better job of being accessible to their customers. Make contact information like phone numbers and email addresses easy to find on your website, business cards, or even receipts. Post customer service hours so customers know when they might reach a live person or how quickly they might receive a reply to their email. Human interaction is still an important aspect of quality customer service.
Personalize the Customer Experience
You’re probably familiar with marketing personalization, things like emails that greet you by your first name. When it comes to customer experience, personalization means creating services or products to meet a customer’s individual requirements. One of the world’s biggest e-commerce portals uses its wealth of customer data to personalize a customer’s search results, highlighting special offers based on the customer’s interests. Not only does customer personalization increase customer satisfaction, but it also drives loyalty and repeat purchases. How could your business personalize the customer experience? You might consider storing information for faster checkouts, recommending relevant products, or creating a loyalty program. Remember that the purpose of a personalized experience is to deliver superior customer experiences.
Help Customers Feel Empowered
While customers are now used to seeing user reviews everywhere, from restaurants to ride-sharing companies, a prominent technology company was the first to display these kinds of reviews, creating an e-commerce experience that was more transparent to customers. That’s just the start of how this e-commerce business worked to make customers feel empowered. For this company, empowering the customer also means advocating for the customer when there is a problem with a product or delivery and helping buyers stay connected, letting them make purchases wherever it’s convenient for them.
How can you help your customers feel empowered? Make interactions meaningful, help customers save time, and focus on what your customer wants to achieve by using your product or service. Customer needs and preferences are always changing and evolving, and that means your business needs to be changing and evolving with them. Never get comfortable with your success. one of the world’s most extensive e-commerce portals may have started by selling books online, but since then, it has continued to grow and expand into other products and services, always focusing on meeting shoppers’ needs.
Safeguard is here with knowledge, expertise, and tailored solutions to help you build a path to success. Contact us today to get started with your personal Safeguard advisor.
Key Takeaways
- The customer service strategies that one of the world’s largest online retailers uses are ones that all companies can adopt for themselves.
- Help your customers feel empowered by focusing on what your customers want to achieve by using your product or service.
- The most important aspect of a business is happy customers.
- Safeguard is here with knowledge, expertise, and tailored solutions to help you build a path to success.