You’ve worked hard to earn the customers who come knocking at your door (real or virtual), but sometimes you get the idea that those same people really want a little more than what you’re delivering.
Pretty much every business owner has room for improvement when it comes to customer service, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s time to figure out what’s wrong and fix it so your next interactions are better than ever.
Customer Service is an Exercise in Improvement
The truth is that your customers’ wants and needs are constantly evolving, which means that no matter how good your customer service was yesterday, you’re going to need to touch it up today to get between those ever-moving goal posts.
These are some of the most common customer experience problem areas for business owners:
You’re not really sure where your customers are in their buying journey. This is a tricky one if your background isn’t in marketing.
The idea of audience segmentation is pretty well played out all over the Internet. That is, the idea of grouping your customers by traits that make them have similar wants, like for example, grandmothers over the age of 65 who vote straight Democrat. There’s your segment.
The journey is a little different, though, and sometimes not as cut and dry.. In short, it’s about how aware your customers are about what they want or need and where the best place is to get that thing. In general, customers have a kind of evolving awareness of specific products as they come to understand how something will make their lives easier.
Your understanding of who the customer is (segmentation) and where they are on their journey can make it easier to create both highly targeted marketing and customer care routines for an ever-changing consumer population.
It’s too hard for customers to get what they want. This isn’t to say that you should roll over when a customer has a complaint, instead it’s about streamlining your processes.
When a customer calls to set up an appointment, why not direct them straight to a dedicated appointment scheduling tool through your answering service rather than redirect them to the person who would be taking the appointment as the first stop on their pass around adventure?
The same goes for your digital presence. Why is it so hard to find contact information, returns policies or products to purchase? In your rush to sort things well and properly, you’ve over complicated things for every visitor. Look for ways you can cut steps out of any processes related to customer experience so they don’t have to work so hard to spend their money with you.
Apply new tech, but do it gently. Depending on who your audience really is, using tech to help automate processes may be a hard sell.
However, things like chatbots and customer service chat windows can greatly improve the customer experience without increasing labor dramatically. Social media interaction with brands is still a big thing, give your customers a little something there and they’ll pay you back generously.
No matter what it is that you sell or do for your customers, you can make the experience better. It’s up to you to figure out who your audience really is so you can choose a direction and head in it. Your customers will appreciate the effort.
