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Delivering beyond expectations
Companies place huge emphasis these days on the importance of meeting customer expectations let alone delivering beyond such expectations. The word ‘expectations’ in itself also seems to carry the weight of huge responsibility – in this case – to the customer. Customer service is therefore a huge industry that employs an even greater number of people worldwide. Yet, customers shopping in a range of niches often feel ignored and that their experience with certain companies lacks human connection in a world driven by technology.
According to global market research company Forrester, almost 95% of leaders state that being able to deliver a good customer experience is a major strategic priority and 75% emphasise using the customer experience as a competitive advantage. Yet, we live in a world with a very crowded marketplace where consumers are looking for a whole host of diverse products and services, via different channels and at different times.
Even in this age of technology, it has been discovered that over 75% of customers would rather speak to a person one-on-one as opposed to relying solely on electronic communication when they are trying to resolve an issue. While digital communication can be fast and effective in certain ways, from the customer’s point of view, it does not meet most of their critical needs.
Yet, there is much to learn from others’ experiences and many pitfalls can be avoided. When looking at other companies as potential role models of customer service, look to those who have managed to combine digital as well as human customer service methodologies to provide consistent and effective customer service, regardless of the customer’s preferred mode of contact.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking it is all about technology
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that technology can replace human contact. Rather find ways for technology to augment human interaction as opposed to replacing it. Combined in the right proportions, both can work well together to offer the customer the best of both worlds. Nevertheless, technology versus human contact where the customer is concerned has taken the spotlight in so many ways that it is time for us to take stock of what these things really mean for the customer and how to create best-of-breed solutions. The customer is the root that will eventually see your business bear fruit. So, how can you consistently delight the customer and deliver beyond expectations in a world filled with chatbots? Here are 10 tips to help you to decide what best will work for your business.
1. Customers expect you to understand their needs
Frustrated customers are often the result of a disconnect between the customer’s expectations of their interaction with you and that which actually takes place. Numerous businesses have discovered that it is often preferable to under-promise and over-deliver in order to increase their prospects in terms of exceeding customer expectations. Others still have high expectations of themselves, confident that they can deliver. Regardless of how you come across, make sure that whatever expectations you set that you can ultimately deliver upon those expectations.
2. Customers yearn for a more personalised experience
Even though we seem to live in what appears as a global anonymous culture, where self-service rules the order of the day, customers are increasingly demanding a more personalised experience where it counts the most. According to enterprise cloud platform Salesforce, 50% of consumers tend to ignore those communications that are not specifically personalized. Further emphasis here finds 79% of consumers stating that personalised service is significantly more important to them than personalised marketing.
CRM technology enables businesses to build strong relationships with customers from the shop floor right through to the call centre and companies would be well placed to take advantage of this. Forging relationships with customers can dramatically increase the likelihood that you will exceed their expectations and turn them into brand ambassadors.
3. Customers prefer you to offer them different ways of getting in touch with you
Recent data confirms the importance of channel preferences and their impact on customer satisfaction. Customers expect companies to communicate with them via their preferred channel, whether it be over the phone, online or in person and depending on the nature of the inquiry. Over and above this, it has been found that at least 85% of customers expect their conversations with customer service agents or representatives to be handled in real-time and seamlessly between channels which means that they don’t want to have to keep repeating themselves time and again when they are referred to the next agent. Channel preference definitely depends upon the type of inquiry in question. For instance, for simple inquiries such as “what is my bank balance?” email, and online self-service options are the preferred channel. But, when the inquiry becomes more complex, talking to a live representative via live chat or talking to an agent over the phone become the preferred option.
4. Customers demand a fast response
Whether it be in a storefront, over the phone or an online interaction – no one wants to be kept waiting. As such, the response times over the channels that you use to communicate with your customers should not only be acceptable to the customer but also realistic. However, what is acceptable not only depends on your customers but also on the channel preference. For instance, one study reveals that on Twitter, 53% of customers expect companies to respond within an hour. However, that number immediately spikes to 72% when customer complaints are involved.
CRM technology enables businesses to build strong relationships with customers from the shop floor right through to the call centre and companies would be well placed to take advantage of this. Forging relationships with customers can dramatically increase the likelihood that you will exceed their expectations and turn them into brand ambassadors.
5. Customers expect you to solve their problems – there is no denying this
At the heart of every customer inquiry lies the need for a speedy resolution. Hence, empowering your frontline representatives and agents and giving them the tools they need to resolve customer queries is critical. For example, each time a customer is transferred from one call centre agent to the next, they quickly begin to lack faith and lose patience with your organisation to the point where this can result in a loss of goodwill towards your business and can detrimentally affect your ability to retain existing customers and gain new ones.
6. Customers need you to listen to them
As with any two-way communication – customers expect you to listen to them. This means that while you may incite customer opinion and gather feedback via surveys and the like, whether you act on this feedback is a different matter altogether. Since, around half of the companies surveyed on this point believe that companies fail to take action from customer feedback. As mentioned earlier, we live in a very crowded marketplace these days and consumers’ voices are louder than ever. So, if you are not actively listening to your customers, someone else will.
Those companies that take customer expectations and feedback into account dominate many industries these days. Take for example Amazon. By making it easier for their customers to obtain what they want, and creating products based directly on customer feedback, Amazon has wiped out large numbers of more traditional retailers operating in the same space.
7. Customers demand that you be more proactive
It does not take much to realise that people strongly prefer companies that are more proactive when it comes to customer service. This includes both personalised communications regarding service issues as well as public statements via social media and the like. Customer service has spent way too long on the back foot, being more reactive than proactive. So, don’t make the mistake of waiting for your customers to reach out to you with their issues, instead be proactive and deliver the essence of your brand in terms of going the extra mile for your customers.
8. It should come as no surprise that your customers love to be surprised!
Human beings are built to love surprises. Those areas of the brain that are stimulated by the element of surprise are those same areas that respond to drug stimulants which is a strong indication that humans do, in fact, yearn for the unexpected. Hence, surprise can be a powerful tool in moulding the customer experience. For example, a small discount on a customer’s birthday or a spot prize consisting of a free meal at a restaurant can work wonders in stimulating the customer’s appetite!
9. Contrary to popular belief, most customers prefer to save time as opposed to saving money
Time is indeed of the essence these days and it has become increasingly evident that most people value their time more than anything. Therefore, the best way to convince someone to buy something is to offer them timesaving opportunities or improve the quality of time that they have at their disposal. Many fast-food chains focus their marketing strategies on this principle.
10. Customers expect consistency when you respond to them
One can definitely say that apart from IVR (Interactive Voice Response) systems, the thing customers loathe the most is inconsistency. Over 75% of surveyed customers state that receiving inconsistent answers from support agents is a major frustration. Where companies use multiple channels to communicate with their customers, it is especially critical to ensure that consistency of messaging and response mechanism applies across all communication channels.
Reference sources: Signius.com | Fonolo.com