The Customer report states that by 2022, the customer experience will take its rightful place as an essential differentiator for the brand. This is not surprising, especially when we consider the emergence of today’s customer-centric culture.
Customer experience is a critical factor in building a bridge between a company and its customers, making it one of the key pillars for building a successful brand. However, doing it wrong can be very expensive. It can ruin your company’s reputation, mitigate customer loss, affect your sales in the long run and ultimately ruin your business.
To prevent this, avoid the following customer errors:
1. Poor customer service
Customer service seems to have gone from a cute buzzword to the most critical business mantra.
First impressions are everything in today’s fast-paced world, not just personal relationships. Keep in mind that customer service representatives are the people who want the most interaction with your customers. If a customer has a question about your offer, has a problem, or is dissatisfied with a product or service, frontline employees are the first point of contact.
Imagine how damaging it would be if a customer called or showed an uneducated, untrained, disinterested, or frustrated employee who cannot solve the current problem or does not have enough human skills to solve it, appropriate to the customer’s request. Due to budget constraints, understaffing, or lack of time, companies often fail to train and empower their employees because they think it doesn’t matter. Keep in mind that the attitude of your employees reflects the perspective of your company. A bad customer experience will affect customers’ attitudes towards your brand, so if your employees are dissatisfied, so will your customers.
Make sure their needs are met to have highly motivated employees and be happy with their jobs. This includes offering a competitive salary, organizing practical customer service training, and creating a positive work environment. A good, excellent, charismatic, high-performing, well-trained, helpful, and knowledgeable staff team in the customer service department is critical to providing a great customer experience. Because an outsourced customer support service is mandatory for every great business.
2. Depriving your customers of human contact
As mentioned above, unqualified customer service staff can be detrimental to your business. However, having any team can be worse. Many companies use automated email, chatbots, and voice recognition customer service phone lines. They are valuable in a business environment because they are very efficient and save company personnel, time, and money. The only thing they do not cover is actual human contact.
When your customer decides to buy your product or has questions about the product, they expect to communicate with an actual human representative – not a machine. Not only do they want their questions answered, but they also want to talk to someone who can understand their situation emotionally by showing empathy and calmness.
A recent survey showed that 83% of American consumers prefer a human representative to handle their application rather than an automated service. While digital channels make a significant contribution to efficient customer service, the numbers speak for themselves – if you want a flawless customer experience that can cost you dearly, be sure to include genuine customer service as well.
3. Neglecting customer feedback
We live in a time of customer-centric culture. This means that if companies want to stand out and build stronger customer relationships, they need to focus on how to think like the customer. And what better way to do that is to collect and implement customer feedback related to the products.
To maximize the customer experience, it is crucial to use your satisfied customers’ inputs to create a loyal following. It is not enough to collect information from your customers – make sure to set aside time to read, analyze and apply it.
4. Abandoning “the customer is always right” policy
While a clear customer service policy should be in the best interests of your company, being strict in dealing with complaints can have an impact on customer satisfaction and damage your company’s reputation. Suppose your customer service representatives are not trained to deal with complaints on a case-by-case basis.
In that case, they usually point out that the customer is to blame if they do not know the terms and conditions or do not want to do so if there is a defective product, your customers will be dissatisfied. Avoid making this mistake by ensuring your employees know your company’s policies and are flexible in dealing with individual cases. Give them clear instructions and state that they should never blame the customer or say it is their fault (even if they do).
Instead, their job is to reassure the caller that their complaint is heard, understood, and handled appropriately. Of course, there are times when a customer is wrong, but your employees should be willing to develop a valuable and practical solution.
5. “It’s not personal; it’s strictly business”
While this saying may seem logical at first glance, successful companies have never overlooked the opportunity to maximize the customer experience by creating emotional connections. The customer experience depends on building strong relationships with your customers, and personal feelings and interactions play an essential role in achieving this.
Many companies invest their time, money, and resources in the wrong places, hurting the customer experience and causing their business to fail. Invest in your clients and make sure your investment pays off.
Also read: A Purchase to Remember: 5 Reasons Why Product Experiences Matter
