5 Tips to Improve Your Customer Service

If there’s one thing that all businesses have it common, it’s that they live and die with customers. They pay the bills and tell their networks about their experience with your company (which can be valuable marketing), so it’s safe to say that having dynamite customer service is, in a word, important.

That’s why not sharpening these skills isn’t an option in today’s market where customers have plenty of choices for almost every product or service. But you can up your chances of becoming the provider of choice with the tips below, which will help you create a customer service experience that’s sure to delight anyone that comes into contact with your company.

1. Listen

It’s no secret in society that many people simply wait for their turn to talk in every conversation instead of truly listening.

Actively paying attention to what a customer is saying will set you apart immediately and give you a clear understanding of not only what’s going on, but how they feel about it. Picking up on these emotional cues will help prepare you to deal with the whole situation, and not simply what their words tell you.

2. Be Patient

You (or your customer service team) will come into contact with customers expressing feelings that range all across the emotional spectrum: anger, delight, worry, and even curiosity. Patience is the answer for being able to handle people in whatever state they’re in so that you can get to the bottom of their problem and find the resolution they’re looking for.

Choosing patience also allows anyone working with customers to pursue the right solution over the fast solution and turn what possibly started out as a negative experience into a positive one.

3. Own Mistakes

Just as it is our personal lives, owning a mistake is the best thing you can do if you’ve messed up. It highlights honesty and integrity and makes the path to a resolution more efficient by cutting out blame and evasion.

Admitting when we mess up can also keep an emotional customer from getting anymore irate and diffuse the situation.

4. Be Available

This doesn’t mean that someone has to be by the phone all day, every day. But have a plan in place in case a customer has an emergency so that they can reach someone in a timely manner even if it’s at night, on a weekend, or during a holiday.

Another way to be available is to be open with customers about where you operate out of by providing a mailing address and communicating with your customers face-to-face on occasion. It reminds them that they’re working with a real person and boosts your professional image!

5. Stay Positive

Throughout your time working with customers, you will simply run into some who will be impatient, grumpy, or even downright rude no matter what you do to work with them.

The best thing you can do is to maintain a positive attitude because people like this exist and there’s nothing you can do about them. Keep providing your excellent customer service and move on.
Creating a positive, helpful, and efficient customer service experience doesn’t require extensive training or expense. As long as you and your customers service reps truly care about connecting with customers, solving their problems, and giving them the resolution that’s right for them, you’ll have plenty of repeat buyers and customers that will advocate for your company.