Catering and hospitality

 CUSTOMER SERVICE
Farooq A Rahim
Farooq A Rahim, Founder & Software Architect at HeapX (2017-present)

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning” – Bill Gates

A couple of days back I ordered a web cam for my television (since the idiot box has become smart) from an e-commerce website. It turned out that the webcam was not compatible with the T.V. I scheduled a return, however, due to some unfortunate series of events, I wasn’t available when the return was scheduled. This led to a series of calls to the customer service, most of which went unanswered (from their end).

Frustrated with the turn of events, I decided to leave a mail.

And then.

I am still waiting for a reply, and they lost a customer (well many since I advised my friends against the brand).

So what could we do to avoid these minor lapses which could lead to major disasters?

What is it that we can do to provide customer service with a difference?

Let’s talk about some ideas which go beyond the typical customer service with a smile.

Time = Money

Potential clients tend to reach out to us via email or phone, and if they don’t hear back in a timely manner they are likely to look for business elsewhere. Let your customers know that you are serious about their time. Have a time frame where all customer queries are responded within 24 hours. Never rush them into a deal.

Be True, Not Correct

While dealing with a prospective client, a half-hearted show of interest often slips under the radar. However, once a sales person slowly forms a business relationship with the customer, it’s very important that he doesn’t make fake promises. Once you lose credibility or trust in the market it is very difficult to catch up on lost ground.

Know Your Customers

Know your client as a person, this can help you serve their business needs more efficiently and with much larger revenues.

Reward Loyalty

There is nothing like a returning customer, so when a customer who consistently visits your store consider gifting him a discount coupon.

Feedback Is a Gift

Acknowledge customers who leave you a feedback. A feedback is your chance or opportunity to make an unhappy customer happy and content.

Focus The Spotlight On Them

Valuable customers are people who spend a lot of time and money on your brand. Consider giving them free Elite membership. Publish their names on your website or social media. This helps you retain them for a long time and also help you market your product.

Personalize Customer Service

A customer is never out of options. There are enough businesses around to provide them with what they want. As a company in the market, you can set aside any competition which provides services at better prices and quite possibly better quality than you. Just by adding just that little human touch in the customer service you provide.

Researchers say 55% customers pay more for a product if they are assured of a good customer service.

Know Your Customer

Knowing and calling your customers by their name goes a long way in building a very personal business relationship. Try to use customer by their name, this helps in building trust with your brand.

There is a reason why brands like Starbucks put so much emphasis into calling their customers by name.

Customer service is when the focus is only on the customer

For more insights you can visit: Customer Service, What Makes The Difference?

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 Aleksandra Drzymulska

 

Aleksandra Drzymulska, Global Community Manager&Social Media Enthusiast at SentiOne
 Why good customer service is important? Because more and more often it does amazing things for companies in terms of marketing.

If forty is the new thirty, Orange is the new Black, and Instagram replaced regular photo albums… then client service definitely deserves to be called new marketing.

Basically, one may say that marketing and client service are totally different things. First one is basically focused on gaining and using customer’s attention, while the other one aims for minimising their struggle. There’s one certain thing about it – client is the core word for both of them!

You can’t find a detailed definition of customer service, as the concept evolves pretty significantly. Shop counters, letters, telephones, emails… It wasn’t so long ago when customer service was all about sending messages, both via regular post and emails. Complaints were delivered by postmen, and with time companies incorporated more technically advanced options, such as helplines. At the beginning of XXI century, communication underwent considerable change and shifted towards online solutions, such as emails. Customer service departments (still often considered by some companies as an excess) had between 7 and 14 days to take a stance and reply to clients’ complaints.
What links all the forms of customer service engagement from a few years back? One to one communication, a private message addressed to one person directly.

Since social media came into our lives, there has been a crucial change in the way that brands talk and cooperate with their clients. It happened on both, services and marketing sides. It’s strongly connected with the fact that online communication gets as easy as it can be and the way the clients talk about their brand-related experiences online, using social media channels. Social media platforms have their own laws, and sometimes it means that solving issues in a less formal way is a right thing to do. What is more, the internet made the amount of discussions raise with the speed of light. It causes many new issues and puts challenges ahead of customer service teams.

Business pages on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram – which were considered a cheap form of promotion – should above all fulfill social role, that is being engaging. Times of mere sharing pictures of cats, gathering uncommitted fans and worthless likes are way behind us. What is more, nowadays directing irritated clients from social media to email or contact helpline is unacceptable! Downplaying a customer who is inquiring about company’s services or reporting problem is treated as a lack of engagement from brand’s side. Unfortunately, we can still witness situations when people responsible for communication rather than seeing the big picture and focus on the most basic function of their work (that is replying to questions), give responses such as “I’m only in charge of this profile… I’m from the agency… I can’t really help you…”. This is not what the internauts expect when reaching out to a brand.

If you’re looking for more reasons to take care of your customer service department and you’re willing to know how SentiOne can help you in your daily work, come and check our Customer is the new marketing article!