You’ve been on the receiving end of customer service – both good and bad. You’ve probably noticed what distinguishes a positive experience from a negative one is feeling you are making a real human connection with the person on the other side of the interaction.
Apply this to your own firm’s customer service and turn your unhappiest customers into your biggest boosters. Here’s how:
Make customer retention a priority. It’s easier (and cheaper) to hang onto your current customers than it is to go out and win over new ones. Don’t allow service to be an afterthought. Your customers will feel they are not valued and go elsewhere.
Trust your team. Hire right and train well. Put time and effort into hiring service-focused people and training them to your standards. Give your people the freedom to act on the firm’s behalf. Constant “checking with supervisor” means they will never establish trust with the customer who will not feel cared for.
Establish an escalation path. While it’s important to give your customer service team a level of discretion, it’s equally important to define the parameters of their authority. Teach them to recognize when it’s time to get a manager involved with a customer issue. If handled correctly, this will further show the customer the firm is invested in making them happy.
Put the right people on the phone. Sometimes people have technical proficiency, but poor people skills. Have them work on back-end projects rather than in customer-facing roles. You can train employees on many different aspects of your firm, but people either enjoy working with customers or they don’t.
Establish procedures and metrics. You can’t meet standards if you don’t have any. Putting a formal system in place will ensure that you know what issues customers are bringing up and how well you are addressing them. Use email and a ticketing system to track responses and create a record you can refer to.
Request feedback. Throughout the process, ask what outcome the customer would like to see and whether their concerns are being addressed. Then follow up with a survey where they can rate their customer service experience. Use that input to further improve the process.
About Avionté:
At Avionté, we provide solutions for staffing firms that help you to operate more effectively and keep your operational costs down. Our comprehensive staffing software delivers integrated software systems that make it easier to drive growth, maximize profitability and streamline your administrative tasks, so you can focus on your serving your customers. To learn more about the many benefits of Avionté staffing software, contact us today.
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