It seems as though in this day and age, we’re always plugged in, switched on, tethered to the online world. Now this isn’t to lessen the wonderful, momentous benefits that the internet has brought us; but it’s sometimes easy to forget how impersonal connections can grow to become. A message can be sent in an instant, we have the answers to any question we could ever think of at our fingertips on a daily basis; but sometimes that’s just not the same as having a proper conversation.
The same goes for your customers and your business, too.
Nowadays, lots of businesses are offering quicker, technologically advanced customer experiences. Whilst this can streamline some aspects of your customer service, the most important aspects of customer retention are the human touches.
Here are a few tips on how to implement more of a human touch to your customer service:
Don't rely heavily on automation:
As we mentioned above, whilst there are perks of features like chatbots and email automation, such as faster response times- relying on these too much can leave your customers feeling dissatisfied. Sometimes even the simplest of issues can escalate tenfold just because the online process was a little too convoluted for the customer.
Now more than ever, customers want to feel heard and understood about their queries. Making sure an actual person is there to answer the phone allows your customers to be dealt with immediately. This makes de-escalating tense situations far easier in the long-run and can prevent those same customers persisting and even taking their bad experience to online reviews.
Make sure you have personalised, human support on digital channels:
Of course, answering the phone isn’t the only way you can offer personal and human support to your customers, this can be translated to digital mediums, too.
Rather than firing off a pre-written response to a customer query, it's always good form to ensure you have appropriately read everything through first. Personalising your response to the customer is always going to go down well and is well worth that little bit of extra effort. You’ll find your customers will be left feeling far happier and you’ll probably be able to get the issue dealt with a lot quicker.
Empathy is key:
We can’t stress this enough: empathise with your customers. When your employees speak with your customers, they should do so in a discerning way. Match their tone and put yourself in their shoes, sympathise with why they may be frustrated, angry or upset about the issue at hand. This shows a willingness to help that your customers will remember.
An enthusiastic agent will lead to increased customer satisfaction. So do ensure your agents are always ready and willing to help your customers in any scenario.
Aftercare:
Aftercare can be the difference between a one-off customer and a repeat customer. Send a quick survey or call in to check if your customers are satisfied with their recent purchase or service, asking if anything could be done differently next time. Something as simple as this shows your customers that you care about their opinions and want to work towards making their experience better for them.
Not only is this rewarding for the customer, but it’s a useful technique in finding possible aspects of improvements within your services.
Conclusions:
Keeping all of these tips in mind, it’s really clear to see how easy it can be to overlook the importance of the ‘human touch’ in business. Customer support and good customer relations go hand in hand, and it’s all the more prevalent as customer expectations continue to grow. Ensuring a friendly, personable, human service is available at every touch-point of your customer service, alongside effective tech solutions will ensure your customer satisfaction remains high.
Get in touch:
Struggling to maintain a high level of customer satisfaction due to increasing demand? Consider outsourcing your customer service to a team that cares. Here at Mint Live, we’re able to integrate with your team seamlessly and focus on delighting your customers whilst you can place your attention elsewhere.
Get in touch here for a free consultation, or just a friendly chat about how we could help you and your business.