Never underestimate the importance of good or bad customer service. This is one of the primary ways in which your customers will experience one on one interaction from your company. If this is done in the wrong fashion, the consequences can be dire. On the other hand, great customer service can effectively boost your company’s image and customer database.
Bad Customer Service
If you’ve ever been the victim of bad customer service you know just how frustrating it can be. You want your problem solved or your question answered and no one seems willing to help you out. Try to remember those bad experiences when you are working on your own customer service program. Your customers don’t like those experiences anymore than you do.
Bad customer service is, unfortunately, more common than people might think. There are plenty of things which can cause consumers to label your customer service ‘bad.’Here are just a few of what those things might be:
- Rude representatives.
- Representatives inability to answer simple questions.
- A ridiculously long wait time.
- Easy tasks like returning or exchanging an item are so hard it frustrates the customer.
- Unhappy representatives. If they are grumpy, sad, or frustrated looking (or sounding) it can severely impact a customer’s experience.
There is no quicker way to lose customers than by having bad customer service. A single bad experience can make them leery about patronizing your store another time. A bad experience does not just cost you a single customer, however. Word of mouth from that customer can cost you dozens of customers. If they post a bad review on any relevant sites, it may cost you hundreds.
Good Customer Service
Think back to the last good experience you had with a company’s customer service. It had the exact opposite effect the last bad one did, right? It made you feel relieved, confident, and perhaps even cheerful. You were thankful that your problem was solved or your question was answered. You left with a good first and last impression of the company, which may have prompted you to return to patronize the store at a later point in time. This is the same way your customers will feel if your own store has great customer service.
There are numerous items which contribute to consumers labeling customer service as good or great. Here are just a few of those things:
- Friendly, helpful customer representatives.
- Representatives who are well trained to answer all questions a customer may have.
- A short wait period. (This can be effectively done by using more representatives. If you are getting backed up with one person on the phone and two people in store, simply try using two people on the phone and three in the store.)
- Representatives and policies which make simple tasks like returning or exchanging items easier.
There is no better way to boost your company’s image and grow your customer database than by having excellent customer service. When customers brag about your store store to their friends, families, and coworkers they will be prompted to visit your store. If these customers leave a raving review on relevant sites it could prompt hundreds of new visits to your store.
Conclusion
Never underestimate the power of your customer service center. A bad experience can not only lose you one customer, but hundreds. A single person having a good experience can gain you hundreds. If this is in terms of a single person’s experience, just imagine what having consistently great customer service can do for your company.
