Tips for customer service
In 2023, customer service will become more important than ever for a company’s growth. According to a study, 96% of customers feel excellent customer service builds trust. Clearly, this number shows their sentiment with respect to customer service.
Understandably, the job of a customer service manager requires expertise and the ability to remain flexible in the face of change. As the customer journey is now increasingly becoming omnichannel, mobile-friendly, and in-store for a more dynamic experience, the bar is clearly set high for customer service managers in the coming year.
In addition to ensuring that customers’ needs are met, customer service managers must also manage their internal team of customer service representatives, from providing them mentoring and training to ensure that they stay on top of all the latest customer service trends and technology, it’s clearly not a job for those lacking ambition.
Here are top tips for customer service managers to step up their game in 2023:
Now that we have discussed how vital customer service is for a company’s success and how big of a role customer service managers play in leveling up the customer service offering, let us now go through some of the best practices that customer service managers need to adopt to make it happen.
1. Adopt a proactive approach
Proactivity plays an essential role in a person’s job who is managing a whole team. Similarly, it’s crucial for a customer service manager to analyze current customer service programs and look for ways they can be future-proofed and improved. Customer service managers can begin by auditing the existing processes and identifying the scope of improvements where a different approach can be utilized. In addition, the customer service managers should also review the current KPIs and determine whether they are achievable or if there’s any need to set new goals.
This helps customer service managers to understand the weak points of their current customer service strategy and act on the areas that require improvement.
2.Master product knowledge
Know the product as you own it.
It is an often-overlooked component of delivering excellent customer service. Foundational knowledge of the product and its ins and outs will enable you to solve your customer’s problems effectively. Or else, it can poorly reflect on a company if its representatives are not confident enough to explain the product’s basic details. Customers will automatically respond positively to the representatives who fully understand the product and provide valuable information and insights into solving problems.
3. Become a social media geek
Social media is one of the most important assets for companies out there. Research shows that 45% of the world’s population uses social media and 54% of customers prefer social media for customer service over the phone and email. Most businesses today have already incorporated social media into their customer support options as social media channels are 12 times cheaper than handling the exact requests by phone.
In addition, businesses should also have access to the right social media customer service software and helpdesk tools that create a more streamlined approach to assisting customers. When customer service managers have access to the right toolkit, they can revamp the current approach to social media service by leveraging sentiment trackers, scheduling options, sentiment analysis, and helpdesk ticketing automation. All these tools will help managers to save time and ensure excellent service.
4. Incentivize team members
Winning at the workplace first is the key to winning in the marketplace.
Employees become more willing to go the extra mile to delight their customers when they are happy, motivated, and empowered. They not only perform well but also speak positively about your brand to friends and family.
In addition to providing competitive salaries and benefits to customer support representatives, managers can also incentivize them with gift cards or cash bonuses for exceptional performance. Managers can also offer other, less-obvious incentives such as additional holidays based on performance. Performance-based incentives can be very motivating and give employees something positive to work towards.
5. Gather customer feedback with surveys
Customer feedback is valuable information for a business to improve customers’ experience with the product. It is a powerful way of ensuring that the customer’s needs are met to a high standard by customer service or to identify if there is any room for improvement. According to the research, 52% of people consider taking action on customer feedback can help the company improve its services. So, as a customer service manager, you must give great importance to collecting customer feedback.
Implementing surveys to gather the public’s opinion of your brand is highly effective as it allows customers’ voices to be heard. Automated feedback help gather a large pool of data through which managers can make more informed decision about how to improve or reward their teams.
Final Thoughts
The world’s dynamic shifts and rapid changes have added an extra layer of unpredictability, which now demands customer service managers to be better than before. With 2023 drawing closer in its final stages, customer service managers must step up to the place to achieve bigger milestones in the year ahead. With these helpful guidelines in place, we hope managers are able to take control and revamp their customer service strategy.