Top 10 Customer Service Tips To Power Up Your Communication Game
By: Dhruv Mehta
Tags: Customer Support, Customer Engagement, Communication, Customer Service, Customer Success

1. Be Rapid in Response

Image Source

According to ICMI data, 71% of Millennials consider “time” the most important factor when receiving customer service. But it isn’t just millennials, everyone hates long waits for mail or getting stuck in a call queue.

Customer service agents need to be on their toes to quickly and accurately answer customers’ questions. There will also be instances when multiple queries arrive at the same time!

During these times, reps should try and focus on the query most relevant to them and pass other queries to the department concerned.

2. Provide Round-the-Clock Support

Companies tend to create rotating shifts for teams managing 24-hour support. Even within this framework, there’s still a chance of human error while providing end to end support to a number of different customers, delivering support across a range of channels, and so on.

You can’t use that as an excuse for your customers though.

The ultimate solution to this is an “AI-powered chatbot”. All simple and frequent queries will be handled by the chatbot, reducing the efforts required from the support team.

3. Start Listening To Your Customers

The most important skill for a support agent is listening. There’s an old adage since transformed into a meme:

Image Source

You need patience for listening to queries, product/service-related questions, and most importantly, accepting mistakes on behalf of the team. Truly listening fosters “empathy” while interacting with customers.

4. Leverage Live Chat for Real-Time Communication

If you want to get on board with instant responses through real-time communication, you need to start using modern-day chat support tools like live chat. This allows you to create pre-programmed responses (canned messages) for common queries, and to route queries to other departments with custom notes attached.

5. Invest in Cobrowsing for Query Resolution

Cobrowsing technology allows you to interact with customers in real-time through sharing your browser screen. It’s a very helpful interface in the banking, e-commerce and SaaS industries where users require continuous guidance.

For example, if users get stuck at the e-commerce “payment details” page and agents can see they are not going to be able to proceed, then the agent can initiate payment themself after approval from the user, guiding them through to checkout.

6. Start Using Helpdesk Tools

The helpdesk tool is a one-stop-shop solution for providing holistic customer support. Agents can track previous conversations, assign tickets to the right departments, prioritize according to importance, and all of this in a single interface!

You can check tutorials and guides for getting started with the helpdesk tool.

7. Ask for Feedback

After delivering service, the support agent can’t be sure how they performed during the interaction until they get feedback from the user. This is a critical component in delivering customer support, as “feedback” will close the loop.

Companies need to integrate feedback into the overall support plan and encourage users to provide it. But gathering feedback is only half the task. The support team needs to use this feedback to work on points for future improvements.

8. Try to Exceed Users’ Expectations

Imagine that a user has ordered a smartphone from Amazon and received a power bank along with the phone.

Wouldn’t they be thrilled?

Image Source

This is the kind of emotional response you have to trigger when offering customer service. In other words, you need to provide added value to users by exceeding their expectations. In marketing terminology, a “delighted customer” is when after communication, a customer crosses from satisfaction into happiness. That is where you should be aiming.

There are various ways to exceed expectations:

Offer a discount on the next purchase

Free product delivery

Send a complimentary product at no additional cost

9. End Conversations With “Thank You”

It is nice to end conversations on a happy note, even if users are not satisfied after your support. When you end things on a positive note, the chances of a return visit from the customer are increased.

Consider the below example of a “Thank You” note.

Image Source

10. Focus on Omnichannel Support

Companies that provide consistent support across all channels can retain 89% of existing customers in contrast to companies without an omnichannel offering that are only able to retain 33% of them. — Aberdeen group

Nowadays, when users spend most of their time on apps and social media platforms, providing omnichannel support is an absolute necessity.

For example, when users scroll through social media feeds and want to ask questions regarding a product, they can ask the social media interface, while agents on the other end get the same messages from the support dashboard.

Hope this helps. If you know any additional customer service tips, then do share your thoughts in the comment section.