Think about this question—what is media relations? If you said, “Getting featured in the press,” you’ve only done half the job. Today, media relations isn’t just a one-time activity to attract investors, or get a customer’s attention. It ties in with your brand identity as much as marketing does. It matters where you are seen, when you are seen, how you are seen, and with whom you are seen.
Customer service is a key part of any business and the modern customer has higher expectations than ever before. Helping your customers extends far beyond just making a sale – customers expect businesses to be on hand to handle their queries and ensure they get the most out of their products and services. Delivering quality customer support isn’t easy, and that’s why you need to design your service strategy based on these key customer service principles to guide your team.
Asking your customers the right questions post-purchase helps you gather invaluable input and reveal opportunities your business didn’t know existed. Surveying your customers (and responding to their feedback) also reassures them about how important they are to you through the effort you take to maintain that relationship. Customers expect businesses to reach out to them and ask for feedback, but you need to make sure this feedback is meaningful and actionable.
Your customer service reps are on the front lines of your business. Every day, they’re interacting directly with customers, helping to keep them happy and even increase revenue. Unfortunately, their job is highly unpredictable. How frequently will customers reach out? How complex will their requests be? You need to make sure that your customer service agents have enough bandwidth to handle all of them in a timely manner.
The undeniable fact of the business world is that you cannot have a great product without an excellent customer support team. Yeah, you might have developed a top product, but you would need an efficient bunch of professionals to manage your customers’ queries. In these times when customers are known for switching brand loyalties often, your customer support team has to be on its toes to satisfy your esteemed clientele. Customers’ demands and expectations are changing rapidly.
As the customer service industry evolves, customers are increasingly expecting flawless customer service from companies. 56% of customers have stopped buying from a brand or switched to a competitor because of a single bad experience.1 For American consumers, that number jumps to a whopping 69%. If you want to meet this increasing demand for perfection, “hiring the right people” isn’t enough.
The recent global crisis has altered customer behavior, pushing them towards digital-first channels of engagement. This has redefined customer service expectations, and has caused customers to place greater importance on speed over other parameters. So what does this mean for you? We commissioned Forrester to survey over 200 IT leaders for their take.
Successful support, technical or otherwise, thrives on consistency. Businesses that consistently have fast, accurate, and friendly support resources available will have higher customer satisfaction rates than those who are continuously slow to respond, provide inaccurate information, or appear apathetic. But how do you provide fast, knowledgeable, and consistent support while keeping costs down?
We’ve now reached a pivotal point in customer service where it’s essential to take a proactive approach or get left behind, fast. In 2021, speedy customer service must be at the centre of your growth strategy. Knowing that speed is the most important factor contributing to higher CSAT scores, we created the “Cut the Wait” playbook. It’s a guide on how to improve customer satisfaction by cutting wait time.
As your business evolves and expands, so do your customer service needs. As your customer base grows, you may be required to support different languages or time zones. The prospect of doing this can be daunting. Moving to a new country requires understanding new labor laws, and establishing a new office presence takes time and is expensive. A common solution is to outsource customer service through a partner.
