Consumers pay a lot of attention to customer service when deciding whether to do business with a company again in the future. If your customer service department isn’t performing well enough, you can lose out on a lot of repeat business. Plus, the word can spread, and new customers may also avoid you. Fortunately, there are actions that you can take to optimize your customer service department. Here are a few tips to keep in mind.
1. Practice Active Listening
Customers can quickly get frustrated if they feel that they aren’t being listened to. Be sure to teach your customer service department to practice active listening strategies. When your team places understanding customers first and foremost, those customers will feel more heard.
2. Empathize With Your Customers
Many customer service agents hear customer issues and complaints frequently. As such, they may start to become desensitized to them. Unfortunately, a customer can quickly become frustrated or angry if they feel their concerns aren’t being heard or empathized with. Trying to encourage your staff to be as empathetic as possible and make an active effort to see things from the customer’s perspective.
3. Upgrade Your Phone Systems
Customers don’t like to wait a long time to reach an agent, and they don’t like to jump through hoops to speak to someone who can help them. According to Sage Research, internet telephony can increase employee productivity by as much as 3.9 hours per employee per week. This adds up to more time that can be spent helping customers. It can also decrease wait times, which can increase customer satisfaction.
4. Ensure Staff Is Properly Trained on Your Products and Services
Our last tip to help you optimize your customer service department is to ensure your staff is fully trained on your products and services. Staff members who aren’t properly trained may tell customers or clients the wrong information or fail to answer their questions. This can be frustrating. Taking the time to thoroughly train your staff helps to avoid such problems.
Ensuring excellent customer service isn’t always easy, but with a little work, you can keep customers satisfied and eager to recommend your services to others. If you’re ready to take the first step toward optimizing your customer service department by upgrading your phone systems, contact ARG Communications today to learn more about how we can help!