If customers are the lifeblood of your business (which is the case in likely 99% of business models), then you need to make sure you’re prioritizing them every step of the way. Without a loyal customer base, you’re unlikely to be able to sustain your current performance or even scale up and grow your company. Having a group of customers who go out of their way to support your brand and your company’s products and services is critical to the success of any business, which is why so many businesses need to prioritize customer service in their day-to-day operations.
Especially with how social media and the internet are playing a more important role in every consumer’s lives, customer service is more important than ever. This sort of loyalty clearly has major dividends to pay in the world of business finances, too. For example, you may never reach your savings goals by cutting costs and using a savings goal calculator, even if you use best practices and track your savings as a business owner. This can seem a bit like a confusing statement; however, by retaining existing customers instead of attracting new ones, you can save a lot more money year-over-year. So, how do you create this sort of customer service atmosphere? Read on for some tips and tricks to become more customer-centric in 2021.
Invest in the right people who believe in your mission.
In his book Start With Why, Simon Sinek advises leaders and organizations to define their mission clearly (their “Why”) before focusing on the how or the what of it. This sort of approach to running a business has two major impacts on your overall company success. For starters, starting with why means that consumers who self-identify with your values are more likely to gravitate towards your products and services because of a clear value proposition.
Beyond that, you’ll be more likely to find employees who really identify with your company and want to work there because they believe in your company’s goals. As such, you’ll have a team of employees who are more likely to exceed expectations, will uphold your values day-in and day-out, and will stay at your business much longer rather than jumping ship. All of this helps create a much more consistent and impactful approach to customer service that’s values-driven.
Leverage the best call center technology to boost customer service support.
If you have the best team, but you don’t have the best tools, you’ll be hard-pressed to be as customer-centric as you’re hoping to be. As such, it’s crucial to do your research and find call center tools that help you better interface with customers. Especially with the rise of eCommerce, more and more consumers need to reach out to customer support agents to learn about when their shipping dates are or to make returns or ask questions about products that they can’t see in person. With the right call center solution, your live agents will be more effective at fielding these sorts of queries from customers.
Call center software goes well above and beyond the traditional image of someone sitting at a desk with a phone waiting for a call. Nowadays, omnichannel cloud-based call center software allows multiple communication channels to be fielded on any given day. Whether that’s interacting with a customer via SMS, live chat, telephone, video chat, or even social media, these sorts of tools are crucial to ensuring that customers get the right help the right way when they need it. You can even automatically route customers to the right agent using a menu of options to ensure that a customer’s needs are met in the shortest time possible.
