Job of a customer support executive is quite challenging. From a peripheral level what you see is an agent, speaking over the phone in a professional tone. But he time to time encounters many tensed situations that can’t be avoided. However, if you succeed in responding to a dissatisfied or frustrated consumer with empathy, care and responsibility, you may be winning a long-lasting relationship. Let us see some of the important do not’s of customer service that you must be aware of.
6 Important dos of customer services
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Listen before you leap into the solution
Sometimes, you may be getting calls from an irritated or a confused buyer. He may be shouting initially and explaining a lot of things to you. The right thing to do as suggested by experts offering customer support services is to stay silent while hinting them through signs that you are listening. Once you grasp their actual issues, solve them in the most polite way possible.
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Take the responsibility individually
Most of the times, a typical agent puts forward some statement like – “We will help you.” Well! This may appear to be faultless for many experts in the call center outsourcing domain, but it is always better to use ‘I’ instead of ‘We’. Why? Because, they want personalized service and they are expecting to speak to a person not a company entity. It is always important to stay personal and establish human connection without sacrificing professionalism.
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Make customer feel valued and cared for
All personal and professional relationships are underpinned by sense of mutual respect. Experts are of the opinion that long lasting relation can only be built if the person interacted with feel that s/he is being respected by you in sincere manner. The more you would make your customer feel important and cared for, the better would be the quality of customer service offered. You have to be attentive to the needs of your customer. Friendliness of tone and politeness of attitude can work wonders for your business by retaining clients for the long term. The pleasant experience your customers would have by interacting with your service representative will motivate them to prolong their professional relationships with your organization.
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Honestly interact with customers
If you fail to keep promises made to customers, their trust on your company’s integrity would erode faster. Never go back on the commitments made to customers. Hide nothing from them when it comes to monetary transactions. There should not be anything which would give customers shock at a later date. All extra fees and charges over the quoted price should be disclosed. Policies regarding returning of defective products and refund of payment made should be clearly spelt out. Stick to the delivery schedules. If you have assured of following up with customer, do so. The entire array of services that you had guaranteed to provide during signing-up, promotion, or correspondence must be honestly provided by you. Honesty would earn you the complete loyalty of customers without having to apply complex customer retention principles.
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Think from the perspective of customer
Always try to empathize with the customer. This means you need to understand the emotions which the customer feels when placing a call with you. The more experience you would gain in serving customers, the more you would be able to appreciate their feelings. Dissatisfaction among customers arises when they approach you high hopes and trust but feel neglected due to improper or poor support. The frustration would distract them permanently away from your brand. If you had been through some bitter moments as a customer, you would never want the same happen to your customer. Always think from customers’ viewpoint.
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Be Thankful to Customers
A simple ‘Thank You’ would make your customers feel at the top of world. Such expressions of gratitude serve as motivations to strengthen their loyalties towards your organization. Words of appreciation for the patronage customers have shown towards products/ services marketed by you would take your business to newer heights of success. It would also make the customers realize that you want to be supportive to their needs and are willing to provide all possible help to make their lives easier.
7 Don’t of customer services
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Don’t tell consumers that what they are demanding is not part of your responsibility
Instead of detailing to buyers about the responsibilities assigned to you and explaining them who is the actual person accountable, try to solve their issue with peace and perfection. Looping in others unless it is inevitable is an unfair practice; it’s one of the most common call center mistakes.
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Don’t ask customers to seek refuge in self-help tools
Remember that they reach you for support because he trusts you. Consider this an opportunity to make your brand gain more favouritism. These days,consumers know that they can simply browse the web and get their issues solved most of the times. But still they have opted to contact you. So, it’s unwise to bluntly suggest them self-help tools.
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Don’t demand the customers to hold
“Can you hold?’ is those three words that frustrate them more than anything else. At the same time, there are situations where you have no other choice but to make the customer wait. The best way to deal with such a scenario is to let them know why they have to wait, how long will it take and what can be expected upon return. Make consumers feel that you value them and are stepping back to come up with the best solution for them.
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Don’t say ‘I can’t.”
If you want to lose a customer forever, the best way for the same is to tell him that you can’t do what he is demanding. But there are instances when you have to use the word ‘No’. Tell them that you are working on the issue internally and the option will soon be made available. This will send him signals that you actually care for your customers.
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Don’t treat team just as a transaction
It is not wise to view customers as gateway to monetary gains. Even if you know that the interaction with a customer would last for one deal only, treat him with utmost care. This would motivate the person to think about ways to build longer and stronger professional relationship with your brand. S/he may even spread the word about your business, thus bringing new prospects within your business’ fold. You may also follow-up with the customer on your own to strengthen the relationship.
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Don’t ignore customer feedback
Always give a patient ear to the views and feedbacks of the customers. The experiences customers have with your brand can prove valuable in making your services better, so count on their opinions. Never distract the customers from speaking their hearts out about how their engagement with your brand had turned out to be. For inspiring them to share frank and unreserved feedbacks about your services, you need to explicitly show your care about the thoughts and expectations of customers. Incorporating the ideas and feedbacks of customers in your business strategies would result in better and optimized returns.
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Don’t avoid customers to express their complaints
Despite employing your best efforts, you won’t be able to please customers always. There would be someone complaining about the quality of your deliverability. This is natural and hence allow the customers to express their reasons for dissatisfaction with your brand. You need to work constructively on the negative opinions expressed to find avenues for bettering your services and fixing issues. The higher is the number of complaints, the more is your scope to seek out and fix areas that require improvement. This is done effortlessly without your brand having to hire an external consultancy service to suggest ways to improve deliverability.
If the above points are kept in mind, you will definitely be providing a great level of customer assistance. There are a lot of customer support companies in India that can help you in managing your customer worries and queries. Do a critical market study carefully and entrust the task upon the best one.
