How your customers experience your brand will heavily influence whether they become advocates or detractors. Ensuring they are kept happy will help promote brand loyalty and build a good reputation in the long term. Building on your existing customer base will help reach more potential customers and continue business growth. If customer service is not central to this, even the biggest brands will struggle. Here are 5 reasons why customer service is important for any business.
1. Minimises Negative Feedback
All business will have their fair share of positive and negative feedback from customers over time, but minimising the negatives is key. Many customers will research brands before they decide to make a purchase or sign up for a service, especially with a brand they have not shopped with before. Reading reviews is a big part of this, so any negative feedback will be seen. The best way to minimise this is to listen to your customers and implement the necessary changes to avoid the same issues cropping up. Having excellent customer service allows negative feedback to be addressed quickly and help detractors become advocates again.
2. Ensures Customers Are Being Listened To
There is nothing worse for a customer to feel than not being listened to. This can be true when looking to make a purchase or when raising a complaint. If at any point they feel they have not been treated fairly and attentively, this can quickly escalate. Promoting active listening is a core part of customer service alongside being friendly. The two together are a powerful combination that will ensure the customer knows they are being heard and helps raise satisfaction levels. Whether it is in-person, via email, over the phone or through messaging, careful listening and understanding are vital.
3. Helps to Identify Pain Points
Discovering the main issues your customers have with your business is the quickest route to provide a seamless service. Many companies will consult with a customer experience specialist who can help identify pain points and partner with your brand on how to improve customer service. A key component of this is customer feedback, so collating this information if your brand is not already doing so is important. CX experts can ensure the main pain points are worked on and resolved, helping your brand implement the necessary changes and maintain excellent customer service.
4. Improves the Customer Journey
When a customer visits your website or interacts with a service, they will want to get from A to B as quickly and seamlessly as possible. Anything that hinders this may cause customers to shop elsewhere, so having a well-planned customer journey can avoid this. Many of these issues can be identified through feedback, but testing and auditing current processes should discover issues such as slow site speed, poor functionality, or broken links within your website. Customer service is vital for this as you may not discover issues until it’s too late without communication from your customers.
5. Helps to Stay Ahead of Competitors
Every brand has its competitors and staying ahead of the game can ensure long term success. Having excellent customer service protocols in place is something all brands strive for. Any companies that are falling behind can quickly find customer loyalty diminishing and new customers hard to come by. Keeping one step ahead involves a lot of work, but it is achievable and involves putting your customers first. The most customer-centric businesses tend to be the most fulfilled and have a great reputation with their customer base. Without care and attention to customer service, your competitors can quickly step in and provide the experience your customers are looking for instead.