Four Steps to Fixing Customer Service Issues

Almost every day, your customers interact with your business. Your company’s success will be determined by how well you address customer service issues. 

Remember, if you can effectively handle these difficulties, you will win over a customer’s heart for life. They will keep coming back to you, increasing sales and earnings. On the contrary, anticipate your customers to flee to your nearest competition if the interaction with them is terrible. Eventually, your revenue will suffer as well. 

Now, put yourself in the customer’s shoes. Imagine you bought a brand-new treadmill from a well-known company. You burn several calories using it for a few days; however, after a week you realize that you do not understand how to adjust the speed of the treadmill. What would your first instinct be? 

Without any doubt, you will reach out to the company’s card lying in your bag. However, you will be highly disappointed when the customer service agent will put you on hold or does not very enthusiastically extend a hand out for help. This will leave you disheartened and you would never want to shop from them ever again. 

Hence, this shows how important it is to give customers a pleasant experience; otherwise, they will stop reaching out to you. They want customer service that is available for them day and night to resolve the issues that are making them anxious. This makes them feel at ease and assures them that their concerns are valid and will be addressed eventually. 

Keeping all of this in mind, various companies especially telecom companies like Xfinity have started going out of their way to resolve the issues of the customers. Xfinity’s customer support department is available around the clock to solve the issues of the customers. This means that even if you contact Xfinity en Español (for Spanish speakers only) at two in the morning, the provider’s representatives will be available to resolve your issues. 

The issue however remains that why is it so difficult to consistently create a pleasant customer service experience while understanding the benefits? The answer is not that complicated. We are all aware of the challenges that come with a customer service job. 

You never know when you will be bombarded with issues, questions, and criticism. On some days, you may be fixing customer problems for a single upset customer, while on other days you might be drowning in complaints. All you need to do is exhale, sip a hot cup of coffee, sit back, and turn your patience level on. Let us take a deeper look at the alternatives that can assist you in raising your customer service standards.

1. Create Guidelines

Setting company-wide standards is a great approach to getting the most out of whoever is currently answering the calls and responding to emails. Three instances are provided below:

• After no more than four rings, calls should be answered.
• A telephone greeting consists of a hello, your name, and a request for assistance. An example could be ‘Hello, welcome to Tourist Inn, this is Lisa, how can I help you?’
• Email messages should be responded to within an hour. Even if you are still looking into a particular matter, replies like ‘This is something I need to look into’ or ‘I will look further into this matter’ will give your customers the surety that their issues are being resolved. 

2. Adopt the Right Language

Imagine you have some very enthusiastic, highly competent employees but they are making the company suffer just because they are using negative language with the customers. You would not want that. 

Thus, teach such employees the art of ‘language engineering’. Practically show them how using the right language can make such a huge difference. Give them real-life examples, some of which are listed below:

• Instead of saying ‘You need to’, it is better that you say ‘We have discovered that it works best when…’ 
• ‘Please hold’ should be replaced with ‘Is it okay if I put you on hold for a few seconds?’

3. Pay Close Attention to Customer Issues

The first step is to simply listen to the customers since establishing an emotional link between the customer and the company is crucial. Patience is crucial in this regard, which entails acquiring the art of listening to customer problems while remaining cool. 

This should be followed by expressing genuine empathy and compassion for the customers’ displeasure. Following this procedure is very important because this way the customers get the feeling that, their concerns are significant and the company will try its best to resolve them. 

4. Look for Ways to Provide Coverage After Hours

One of the most aggravating types of customer service is when it is unavailable during the hours when your customers require it. Imagine that you bought an elegant powdery pink blouse on sale from an expensive brand. You come home and try it, but to your surprise, it is a size smaller than your original size. 

It is late at night and your mind is bombarded with various thoughts, ‘Will they return this sale item?’, and ‘Will they have this blouse in extra small?’ ‘Will they give me a refund?’

Panic-stricken, you call the customer support of that brand, but they do not pick up. This attitude will drive you nuts and you will make a promise to yourself to never visit this brand again. 

As a result, finding strategies to provide after-hours coverage is critical. For instance, if you cannot afford proficient 24/7 customer assistance right now, you might be able to manage an extremity on-call number and expand your self-service choices. 

Wrapping Up

Customer service concerns will persist and will continue to revolve. You cannot avoid them because customer expectations are rapidly changing. To properly tackle the issues, you will require a foolproof crisis control plan. In this article, we have listed four ways in which you can solve customer service problems. If you focus on these four points, you will be well on your way to delivering exceptional service consistently.