Customer Service Excellence

1. Introduction: Excellence in customer service. In any business to consumer or business to business company. Customer service will play a pivotal role to being successful and yet, delivering excellence in customer service is so commonly overlooked. It can make or break a sale. It can tarnish company reputations and even damage your own well-being. It's easy to discover the benefits in delivering excellent customer service when you take the time to think about the risks when falling short. Providing a good service isn't about the customer always being right though. It's about making your customers feel valued, building mutual respect in that B2B or B2C model, and rewarding customer loyalty. In developing these skills, you'll not only be able to keep your customers satisfied, but become well-respected as a leader, advisor, or manager and your company. In this course, we'll uncover the fundamentals to providing great customer service. Adopt qualities that will leave your customers feeling heard, and have the confidence to turn a challenging situation into a happy customer. Let's start by taking a look at the many roles across various industries who play a part in customer service. 2. Customer Service Roles: Customer service roles. Business models have diversified quite a lot in recent years, with new job roles being adopted to manage the constantly evolving world of communication. The vast majority of these new roles each require varying degrees of customer service delivery. And I often find some of us are working in a customer service role without even knowing it. Let's explore some of these roles. Customer support. It's commonplace for most businesses to offer a customer support channel. This is usually made up of a dedicated support team who are there to manage issues with the product or service being delivered and being the go-to resource for help and advice and the business. Customer support agents play a crucial role to maintaining customer happiness. Training and implementation specialists. Similarly to customer support, it can sometimes be necessary to have specialists who manage the delivery of training and the initial implementation of the service or product being sold. More often, these types of roles are common within a business to business environment. For example, offering training on software packages or new equipment. But whatever the need, training can have a paramount effect in building the customer relationship from the very beginning of their journey with a company. Typically, specialists in these roles are one of the first representatives of the company to engage with customers. And first impressions really do count in building customer relationships. Account managers. Account managers, or possibly one of, if not the most important roles when delivering excellent customer service. They are there to guide the customer throughout their entire journey with the company. A good account manager should always have their customers backs. And they're very often the middlemen helping to find the balance between the customer's needs and those of the company. The aim of an account manager is to build customer loyalty, making sure their needs are met to allow that successful relationship to be maintained for as long as possible. It's fairly common for account management roles to be viewed as purely sales. Whilst yes, up-selling products and services is important in this role, it takes someone skilled in customer service excellence to understand when best to make these recommendations as a contribution to customer happiness, not merely a means of gaining more sales. Product management. Working closely alongside account managers, are product managers. Their role is never usually customer-facing at all. They still contribute a huge amount to delivering excellent customer service. The role of a product manager is to identify customer needs and larger business objectives that a product or feature should fulfill. And to deliver those concepts internally to help turn those visions into a reality. Wells not customer-facing. Being responsible for implementing the needs of the customer has an onward effect on the success of other roles we're discussing here. Teams thrive when all the players work together to contribute to the needs of the customer. Marketing. Marketing is a broad role which can encompass several tasks. They monitor market trends, create advertising campaigns, and help develop pricing strategies. Marketers have a keen eye for data. Having an insight into the demographics of their customers is the core necessity to developing successful campaigns. The way in which marketers communicate their message is of fundamental importance to providing good customer service. If the messages aren't right, if there is difficulty getting it across to customers, it can cause confusion and a lack of understanding on the customer's behalf. Marketing focuses on bringing customers into the company. If they are attracting the wrong customer or providing the wrong information. This will easily result in customers feeling untrustworthy of the brand. And you will have a hard time rebuilding that trust in the company image. Sales. Sales departments are of course there to sell to customers. They are again at the forefront of the customer's journey with your company. And unlike account managers or support agents, they are often less focused on the longevity of the customer or ensuring customer loyalty. Over promising and under delivering our easily. One of the biggest reasons why customer service can fall apart. In contrast, when a sales team works alongside other departments such as product management and account management, it can really improve the customer journey and ensure the product or service they choose is the right one for them. The skills are different and the personalities are different too. But together, the salesperson can sell the right solution. And the account manager can ensure the customer knows how to get the most out of the solution that they've purchased. 3. What are the key skills that can help us provide good customer service?: What are the key skills that can help us provide good customer service? Whilst we've discussed the wide variety of roles which can contribute to providing excellent customer service. The skills needed to achieve that don't really differ between these roles. Of course, this list of skills we're about to explore may differ in priority depending on how much of a customer facing role we might work in. But each is still of great importance. Being able to recognize patterns among customers. This is perhaps a skill that comes naturally for those working in marketing. Yet it's a valuable tool to harness and any role. Being able to recognize patterns means that you can see what might be important to your customers or where you might be falling short in providing a good service. For example, if you are asked about the same feature regularly in product demonstrations, it's a good opportunity to raise with the product manager who may be able to raise the priority. Or conversely, if you're noticing a bigger influx and support tickets from customers surrounding the same issue, it might be a worthwhile opportunity to improve the training delivery at the point of implementation. Patterns allow us to shift our focus onto the needs of our customers. Knowing how to build a rapport and deepen relationships for anyone working in a customer-facing role. Being confident in building a good rapport with your customers is a great skill to have. It helps the customer to feel valued, instills their confidence in you, and it stops their journey feeling more like a transaction. There's nothing worse than feeling like just a number as a customer. And I'm sure each of us has had that experience before. Whilst it's often tricky in some circumstances to maintain the relationship with a customer. For example, in larger companies where it's irregular to speak to the same customer twice, it's still so important to build that rapport in the beginning. It leaves a lasting impression on the customer. Try to adapt your conversations and your communication with the client to how they want to be treated. If a customer wants to discuss something at length, allow them the opportunity to do so, ask questions to find out more about them. It may help towards upselling, finding a solution which will work better for them. Or if nothing else really makes the customer feel like they were listened to reactive and proactive skills. A good example of being reactive and proactive is being able to notice patterns amongst customers like we discussed earlier. It means you have the skills to both respond to issues as they arise, whilst also anticipating needs and challenges so that you are better prepared to overcome them. Being proactive enables you to help customers drive when they aren't already complaining. Account managers have an excellent IFR foresight by working closely with the customer, building a good rapport and regularly evaluating their needs. It can be much easier to identify problems before they arise. It might be that you notice a customer having difficulty implementing a service. In which case you can put plans in place to address this before they even asked for it. Offering your help before it's even asked for, goes a long way in customer service. It leaves a customer feeling respected and well looked after. Empathetic. Being empathetic makes you personable by taking the time to listen to customers and oftentimes allowing them to vent their frustrations. You can really contribute to building that rapport. It says your company brand well, you may find you'll receive many positive reviews and recommendations from existing customers since they felt you aligned with their own values. Empathy is especially important if the customer has recently had a negative experience with your company. By acknowledging their concerns and understanding their distrusted a service, you will encourage the rebuilding of their loyalty and their respect. Has a propensity for problem-solving. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could each have the ability to solve every customer's problems unless it's never going to happen. However, having a natural tendency to look for ways in which to resolve issues and do some real bonus points in customer service. Being empathetic towards issues for a customer is a great skill to have. But being able to take that one step further and actively attempt to problem-solve will leave them feeling truly valued. It need not matter if you sometimes there were unable to find a solution. What matters is that you took the time to consider other options. As an individual. Having a propensity for problem-solving can also single you out to customers. They will always remember you as the person who went above and beyond to provide assistance. Communicating well, as with every area in business, communication is the vital ingredient to being successful. If you can't communicate clearly, whether that be to customers or colleagues, it can risk significant delays on getting the desired result. Risk having disagreements with customers who feel they're not being heard. And ultimately, risk putting you in a much more stressful situation than need be. Taking the time to understand how to communicate assertively and with confidence, encourages the same communication back. By communicating well, you have the skills to listen effectively, not listening, to merely wait for your chance to talk and lessen the chances of any conflicts that might arise when a customer doesn't feel you understand them. Being able to diffuse anger and difficult situations. Being confident in diffusing anger in difficult situations is somewhat a sub skill of being a clear communicator. In my experience, when customers are angry, the vast majority simply don't feel listened to. Whether it be a service isn't working, a price increase, or even that the solution isn't the right fit for them. You can avoid the conversation spiraling into difficulty by keeping yourself calm, knowing when it's best, simply just to listen and knowing when Beth to take some time for reviewing situations rather than delivering knee-jerk responses. What's more, having good problem-solving skills will directly help you in defusing a difficult situation. Exceeding customer expectations. As we've discussed earlier, having good problem-solving skills is a very good way to exceed customer expectations. However, there are many other methods to build on this skill too. For example, it could be that a customer wants to buy a product that you know will be on sale next week. Being open and honest about that will take you a long way in the respective customer has for you as an individual and in your brand. Think about the experiences you have had in customer service. When did you feel someone exceeded your expectations? What did they do? Try to encourage the same behavior in yourself or your team. Creating a memorable customer service experience. By utilizing the rest of this skill set, you will be able to create a memorable experience for your customer, which is an excellent asset to maintaining customer loyalty. So whatever the role or involvement you have in customer service, it's always worth keeping these qualities in mind. You never quite know when you may need to utilize them. If you feel you're lacking in some of these skills, perhaps don't feel quite so confident that you have the know-how to utilize them. Then try to take the time to practice applying them when the pressure is off. Write a list of some of the recent interactions you've had with your customers and where you felt the service fell short of excellence. Using the skills we've just discussed, workout how you could apply them in order to improve that experience. 4. Serving customers using social media platforms: Serving customers using social media platforms. Part of communicating successfully in customer service is being able to adapt the way we communicate, depending on the method of communication. Communicating with customers over the phone, or perhaps face-to-face, differs quite vastly to how we communicate using the written word. I'm sure we have all been caught out before or where something set in a message has been misconstrued by the receiver. Tone plays a very big part in communication. Yet conversing with customers over social media or live chat removes the opportunity for us to use this. This makes it quite difficult for us to convey things such as sarcasm or humour, since there's no implied tone of voice. Some of the popular methods of communicating in written form now consists of various social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and also through the use of live chat, as we've mentioned earlier, if your role is to respond to customers using these methods, It's very important that you are aware of how your message could potentially be received and risk being harmful. I routinely find in business that these sources of communication as slightly overlooked. Or it's assumed that anyone can communicate easily through these channels. In reality, it's a role which requires excellent writing skills, which not everyone automatically possesses merely because they're great at speaking directly to customers. Not only that, but when you reply to customers on social media, thousands of people can read your response and share with their own following. Meaning. Now your audience doesn't just consistent with one customer. Another vital ingredient to what makes social media interactions so popular is that it often constitutes a quicker response time. When we email a company, it's not often that we expect to same-day response get with live chat or social media engagement. Quicker response times are expected from customers. It's worthwhile doing some research on what constitutes a quick response time across each platform you wish to engage with your customers on. Can you will your team afford the resources to be available in that time-frame? If being available to respond instantly to inquiries is unattainable for you or your team. Then consider implementing some of these strategies to help mitigate that demand. Hiring dedicated support agents. This is of course not always that easy. However, if you're finding your existing team is having regular difficulty in managing the volume of inquiries you receive. It's important that you consider adding further resources to manage that. Being under pressure to respond quickly to several inquiries at once will most certainly have an impact on the level of customer service being delivered. Responses may feel short, less insightful, or be a little more robotic. As a result. Make use of templates and canned responses. Being able to reuse regularly sent messages to customers. We'll add speed TO response time for sure. Especially where the message involves a large amount of information and points to other resources too. However, try not to make the mistake of having everything as a canned response as it can make your engagement feel less than authentic. Try to ensure you still add a little personality to your response. Continuously analyse the peak engagement times for your social media and live chat offerings. There are many analytics tools which will help with this, so that you can better understand whether customers are more likely to engage with you during a particular time of the day or particular day of the week. This will help in giving you clarity when seeking to employ more team members to help out with responding to these inquiries. And finally, set auto responders for out of hours contact. If you're receiving a high volume of messages out of the normal working hours, setting an auto responder will help customers understand that their message has at least been received. It stops them feeling ignored or barraging multiple messages over different channels in order to get a quicker response. 5. Building a rapport in social media: Building a rapport in social media. As we've mentioned, it's often easy to misconstrue conversations when you don't have the benefit of body language or tone of voice to help guide how it is perceived. However, that doesn't mean there are no tools you can use to help build a good rapport. Try to use personal pronouns such as I, we, you, or me, rather than third-person contexts. This is an easy way to see more personable. For example, which of these options feels friendlier? Thank you for dropping off your return number 1234. We will shortly be sending a refund to your original payment source. If you experience any problems, please feel free to drop us a line on return number 1234 has been received. A refund will be processed to the original payment account within three working days. Contact Company, ABC, should any issues arise. Being personable doesn't mean you're being unprofessional. Rather, you're making your customers feel welcomed. Try to keep conversation short when using social media or live chat. Long explanations put a natural pauses in conversations where we would normally use our nonverbal cues to show where agreeing or not quite understanding what is being said. It's difficult to pick that up in a live chat scenario and can leave a customer feeling a little overwhelmed. Consider using emojis. Emojis are given on social media and live chat. So of course, you're permitted to use them when engaging with customers. They should never be used as a substitute for real words or phrases. For example, using waving emoji to say hello. But you can use them in combination to support your response. Using emojis helps you to draw engagement with customers. And there's sometimes a very helpful replacement for our lack of body language and facial expressions. And finally, try to keep the tone casual. If you remain too formal, this can sometimes make the customer feel a little put off, especially on social media. It's important that you understand your audience. What works for some businesses doesn't always work for others. But the tone in general on social media and live chat applications is much less formal. Later in this course, we'll discover some appropriate language to use when adopting a more informal tone. 6. Put policies in place: Put policies in place. It's important that your customers feel respected, but it's also just as important that you and your team feel respected by the customers you communicate with two. If you have ever been on the receiving end of an angry customer, you'll know just how demoralizing it can feel. That's why it's crucial to have a communications policy in place which outlines exactly what behaviors are acceptable and which are unacceptable for your team. Communications policy should include the channels that are used within the business, both internally between colleagues and externally with customers. Restrictions on any classified information which should not be shared with customers or unacceptable topics. What constitutes an acceptable communication violation? For example, swearing, shouting, or abusive behavior. And finally, the process for dealing with extreme behavior from customers. They should include details on where you and your team can go for support and how they are expected to end the discussion with the customer. Having this sort of policy in place means you're protecting both your customers and you from unacceptable behavior and mistakes which have the potential to damage the company's reputation. 7. Building customer relationships: Building customer relationships. We've spoken a little so far and the benefits of building a rapport with customers. But we've not covered exactly why that rapport is so important. So what's so important in spending the time to get to know your customers? Let's start by thinking about the people we are close to. Our friends, family, maybe even colleagues. Do we trust them? Of course we do. Because we feel that bond. There is a mutual understanding between us and them and we respect one another. And that is exactly the type of relationship we should strive to develop with our customers. One that creates a bond and understanding and one built on mutual respect of one another. Albeit a strong customer relationship is certainly different to that of the relationship we have with our family and friends. It's certainly more formal for a start. However, by striving to build a good rapport with our customers, we can build a trusting relationship, develop customer loyalty, and even improve the organic reach to new customers through referrals and recommendations. It's just as beneficial to us as it is to the customer. Let's take a look at some of the methods we can adopt for building a successful customer relationship. Listening to customers. One of, if not the most fundamental aspects in delivering excellent customer service is being able to listen to your customers. A customer who feels listened to will feel at ease conversing with you. It harmonizes your relationship and keeps any conflict at bay. Simply by offering the time to listen to your customers needs and concerns. You will help customers feel valued. Offering their voices the chance to be heard. Use their names. Using customers names when communicating with them is a commonly taught method and successful selling. It's a good quality to transfer into general customer service skills too. Using names is a great way to convey that feeling of being known and making the conversation feel more personal. It will help you to create a strong bond and be seen as more empathetic towards the customer. Check-in often. How often do you communicate with the people you trust? Daily, weekly? I would assume regularly. Regular communication keeps the tourists there in customer relationships to try to maintain a good level of contact with them. That certainly doesn't mean hounding your customers continuously to make sure they know you're there. Be sure to consider your customers preferred method of communication to if you regularly phone when they prefer email contact, it's likely not going to build much trust. How can they trust that you will get the bigger things correct, when you can't even communicate with them correctly. A good way to maintain customer contact is to schedule reminders for yourself. Be that through your CRM system, a standard calendar, whatever the method. Just having a small reminder to check in with your customers will keep the contact regular without being too invasive. Personally, I try not to schedule automated check-in templates, such as via e-mail. They can often feel impersonal and more like a marketing ploy by personalizing your communication and better still, arranging visits or phone calls, your customers will certainly feel more appreciated. Another excellent strategy to employ here is to keep note of the customers needs. For example, if a customer had expressed an interest in a feature that was unavailable at the time, you can potentially drop them a line when the feature is available, rather than relying on a standard marketing e-mail to advise them of its release. It goes a long way in developing a strong, trustworthy relationship. Use nonverbal cues. Nonverbal cues are excellent methods to share your engagement in a conversation. They can help to show a customer you're listening and have an interest in them. They consist of eye contact, body language, facial expressions, and vocal cues. Paying close attention to the way you are physically communicating with the customer rather than just verbally, is really important. For example, offering a smile, nodding along in a conversation, and using words such as body language should be open, mirroring your kidneys for conversing with the customer. Closed body language such as cross knees, folded arms are not looking in the right direction, has a bigger impact than you might think. Reflect a customer's energy. Acknowledging the emotions and behavior of our customers is a great way to build a rapport with them. It's a telling sign that you are on their side. Or at the very least, you understand them. We can easily reflect the energy of our customers and meet them where they are at an emotionally. By using phrases such as, I realized this is frustrating for you. I understand your concerns there. I appreciate this as a big matter for you. I acknowledged the problems you're having. Notice how these phrases all use the words I and you, talking to customers in the first-person rather than at a company level, I, using wheel hour can really help reinforce the level of understanding and interest you have in the conversation. You are reinforcing that you are personally trying to assist. Avoid interrupting or interjecting. It probably goes without saying. But interrupting someone mid flow is not only annoying, it can also mean you might miss out on something important. As we discussed in an earlier point, being a good listener makes all the difference in customer service. So try to avoid interruptions or interjections where you can. If you do find yourself accidentally interrupting a customer mid conversation, consider using these phrases to steer the conversation back to them. I'm so sorry I interrupted you there. Please continue. I didn't mean to be rude there and interrupt you. Apologies. In customer service, it can sometimes be difficult to avoid interrupting when customers may be going into great detail about their situation, or perhaps taking the opportunity to let off steam. There's often never a natural pause in the conversation for you to take over. In these circumstances. I recommend using phrases such as these to try and steer the conversation in the right direction. I hate to interrupt, but I just wanted to let you know. I don't mean to be rude, but may I interrupt quickly? I'm so sorry for interrupting, but I'd like to make sure I understood you correctly just now. May I just jump in here? It's worth pointing out though, that interrupting a customer when they already frustrated or showing aggression will most likely make the conversation worth allowing customers the time to explain things, albeit perhaps in a frustrated manner, which might result in them going off tangent, will help rebuild a tarnished customer relationship. Understand your customers are humans too. When we deal with multiple customers every day, It's easy to fall into a routine. It's worth stopping to remind yourself occasionally that no matter the business or the customers you have, they are all humans. Every one of us can have a bad day. We might be stressed out at work or have personal dilemmas going on. Whatever the reason. It can be easy for these to trigger our frustrations on others. The reactions we receive from customers can sometimes feel unjustified. But keep in mind that other things might be at play. Whilst I don't condone permitting aggressive behavior from customers, allowing them to rant or become a little short fused at times is sometimes a valuable tool when developing your customer relations. 8. Adopting language techniques: Adopting language techniques when working in customer service. The language we use plays a key role towards building trust in our customers. The way we communicate with customers is an art which requires great skill. We must be able to adapt our conversation to the audience in order to build a positive experience. Try to avoid using negative phrases. We're all guilty of using some of these phrases in our everyday conversation. It can be a difficult habit to break. Yet they can do much more damage to customer relations than you might realize. Try to avoid using some of these words and phrases. Unfortunately not. Shoot. And might, as in, it might be ready for you, then I should be able to do that for you. I don't know. I doubt it will be possible. Instead, consider using some of these more positive methods. I'm sorry, that's not possible. It will be ready by then. I will be able to do that for you. I shall take a look at that. Let me find out for you. Be positive. Positivity is contagious and it goes a long way towards great customer service. Being positive doesn't necessarily mean you must always be happy. Rather, being positive means you are happy to meet the needs of the customer. For example, using phrases such as, I can do that for you. That's not a problem. Happy to help. Please feel free to drop me a line if you need any assistance. You're welcome. There are some brilliantly positive words worth adopting and customer service to. Definitely I will definitely send that over for you. Absolutely. I absolutely agree with you. Certainly. I can certainly help you. Exactly. That is exactly right. Completely. I completely agree with you. Fantastic. That's fantastic. I'm pleased to hear it. Excellent. That's an excellent suggestion. Brilliant. That is a brilliant alternative. Exciting. We're very excited to have you on board. Ideal. That's an ideal solution. Positivity is about using words such as these to infer a guarantee. Avoiding using words such as short or might, which can convey an air of uncertainty. Avoid using company jargon. Using technical phrases and terms you use in-house can not only confuse customers, it can also leave them feeling frustrated and uncomfortable. Of course, terminology is sometimes unavoidable. But try to consider how well the customer will understand the language you're using. And think of other ways which may be less confusing for them. This would happen quite a lot when I worked as a support agent for a software company. I'd regularly be met with silence after asking customers to open a web browser. Until I noticed that our audience generally consisted of an older demographic. Asking customers to open Google or their Internet, really improved things and stopped people feeling confused. Consider when to use an informal tone. There are times when a more informal tone is implied. Usually when using channels such as social media or live chat. In these scenarios, were less likely to see formal inquiries. And as we've discussed, it's important to try and match the energy of the customer by matching the tone that they are using. Being informal, however, doesn't imply a lack of professionalism. And it's still vital that your communication reflects that of your company's image. By that, I mean, this is certainly no place for using abbreviations or slang. Let's explore some options that you can consider adopting. Try to use words and phrases such as, hey, hi, good morning. How can I help? Happy to help. Thanks for reaching out. Show thing. Not a problem. You're most welcome. If he could just drop us a line on. I'll take a look for you. Just bear with me one moment. Thanks for your time. That's great. Fab. Try to avoid using phrases such as, what's wrong? How's it going? Oh my God, wow. They can often feel a little unprofessional. But this is still very much dependent on your audience, demographic, and the product or service that you're offering. 9. Improving your customer engagement: Improving your customer engagement. Are you doing everything you can to engage with your customers? The channels in which we communicate with our customers have evolved quite dramatically in the last decade. And it has transformed customer engagement from what it once was. Customer engagement is the pinnacle of customer success. And a well-functioning engagement strategy should aim to permit interactions across multiple channels, something we call an omni-channel. We must strive to be where our customers are. Be that through social media channels on your website and emails. All three face-to-face meetings, ensuring we are engaging with our customers through a channel they are comfortable with is so important. It makes the interactions easier. And it means it's less of a burden for a customer to be able to contact you. I recently experienced a rather poor example of a customer engagement strategy when I utilized a legal company for a property purchase, the company advised me to download their app and suggested all communication will go through the application rather than over phone or email. The concept, of course is helpful. It means all information in dealings or in one place. However, it also meant I irregularly forgot to check the app and I missed correspondence which are needed to reply to. Having a lack of choice in other channels to communicate through also resulted in delays for having matters resolved. Certain queries I had would have been far easier to resolve over a quick phone call rather than having to send endless messages. In contrast, some excellent methods worth employing and an engagement strategy could be embedding a live chat box into your service offering. For example, if you offer online software, having an easy area for customers to quickly open a live chat box, we'll make the experience in seeking assistance and much simpler one over having to find your website or product knowledge base for answers. Running pulls on social media. Find out your customer's preferences and interests through regular polls on Twitter or Facebook. Or use the tools on Instagram to allow your audience to ask questions about your service or product. Have a presence at conferences and events. Having a physical presence at an event where your customers will be gives them a great opportunity to engage in a quick chat. Invite customers to webinars and question-and-answer sessions online. Webinars are an excellent way of opening up the engagement with your customers as a whole. It means other customers can listen to the discussions you have to, which can also be an invaluable asset, building a network between your customers. It gives other customers the chance to offer answers and insights into their experiences with certain products or services. Utilize an online booking solution. Offering the opportunity for customers to schedule a specific appointment date in order to chat with agents will certainly help if you offer things such as product demonstrations or training sessions. It allows a customer to book a time which suits them best. And in doing so, it guarantees that you will be readily available rather than having customers waiting on hold or having to queue to discuss something. It's an excellent method to use if you offer in-store advice and assistance, think about the way Apple offer an opportunity to book an appointment online to visit a product genius in store. It reassures a customer that their visit isn't going to be pointless. That they will definitely be able to speak to you and you will have a dedicated time for them. My point is, it's always worth having regular reviews of the means in which you are engaging with your customers. What works for some businesses might not work for others. But it's important to consider every opportunity to improve your engagement. By lacking a presence in certain channels, you could well be damaging the customer service without realizing. 10. Evaluating your customer experience: Evaluating your customer experience. How do you know you are delivering excellent customer service? Applying all of the methods and skills we've discussed in this course isn't a guaranteed success. They help by all means. The only way you will ever understand that your meeting and hopefully exceeding your customer's expectations is to ask them. It sounds straightforward. And it's not uncommon for us to be asked to review our experiences with a service or a recent conversation we've had. Yet. Collecting endless data serves no true purpose if it isn't being evaluated and responded to correctly. There are several ways to collect information on customer satisfaction. We can email surveys after recent interactions, send SMS for rating, or ask the customer to take part in a phone survey after the call is completed. Each method has its own benefits and floors. For instance, a telephone survey with a live agent could have the potential to get less honest answers. Since the customer doesn't want to offend. Or an email survey might get lost in the deluge of other emails asking the exact same thing to our customers. Whatever the method we use though, we need to ensure the questions that are being asked are relevant and will help us to perform effective evaluation on service delivery. Remember, your questionnaire should serve two functions. It should help you discover how your customers think and feel about your service. And it should allow you to measure your progress over time by quantifying your performance in measurable units. With that in mind, it's important that you consider using closed questions in surveys. Offering open questions which give opportunities for customers to explain in their own words, leaves you with a lack of data that you can easily analyze. Put simply, you're unable to ascertain a percentage of customers who feel a certain way about your service. That's why rating scales are so beneficial in surveys, we can gauge customer experience on a scale of say, one to five or poor to excellent. It gives us some powerful data to analyze. Let's take a look at some example questions. Overall. How satisfied were you with the service you receive today? Extremely satisfied, somewhat satisfied. Neither satisfied or dissatisfied? Somewhat dissatisfied. Extremely dissatisfied. Based on your most recent interaction with our company, would you recommend our products or services to a friend? Definitely would. Probably would. Not sure. Probably would not. Definitely would not. How would you rate the response time you receive today? Extremely poor, poor, average, good, Excellent. Before today's interaction, what other attempts have you taken to resolve your query? This is the first interaction I've had regarding this query. Email, phone call, live chat, social media. What's your query resolved? Yes. Completely? Yes, partially. Know. And finally, how knowledgeable would you say are service team member was today? Extremely knowledgeable, moderately knowledgeable, slightly knowledgeable, extremely knowledgeable. These questions are good examples of closed questions, meaning you can calculate the data effectively. However, oftentimes, having a personal account can be quite useful to find out what went wrong or right in certain scenarios. The easiest way to accommodate this is to offer free text boxes in your surveys. Give customers the opportunity to put things in their own words while still attracting the results of closed questions. Whatever the questions you ask, be sure that your survey is easy to answer. It bodes well, having a quick, easy survey for customers to complete, it means you're likely attract more results. If a customer finds it difficult to provide feedback, they simply won't do it. So keep in mind the amount of questions you're asking and the tool you're using to attract that feedback. It might even be worthwhile asking a question such as, how easy did you find it to provide feedback today? If you're unsure how well your survey is performing. The most important aspect of all. Once you have the results, make sure you are actively improving the areas you fall short in. And commending the areas you do. In short, if you don't do anything with the feedback you receive, there's little point in asking for it. What's more? You risk harming the relationships you have with your customers. For example, if a majority of responses shows customers find it difficult to receive a quick response from you. Yet you don't put efforts into improve this area. Then of course, your customers are going to feel a little short changed in being asked for their valued opinion, yet seeing no improvement. In contrast, receiving positive feedback need not fall under the radar. It's worth shouting about. It can be a real boost for staff morale will help teams feel valued for their contribution. There's a great marketing opportunity. Knowing how your customers feel about you is instrumental in growing your business and your personal career growth. When you know how your customer feels, you can make decisions that lead to higher revenue, increased customer loyalty, and understand the pitfalls and your individual skill set empowering you to grow better. 11. Ethics in customer service: Ethics in customer service. In business and customer service, you will likely be faced with ethically challenging situations quite regularly. Acting ethically is the concept of doing the right thing morally. And they derive from a series of principles governing the conduct of both the company and you as an employee. Acting ethically and customer service will help you to improve the service you deliver and foster positive relationships with everyone involved. Simply put, having a firm code of ethics shows good business sense. Let's explore some of the key points which should be considered in every company's code of ethics. Honesty. Being honest in business means you do not try to deceive by giving out false information or try to cover up situations. It's an excellent value to have. Honesty creates a trusting bind. Customers will know that they can trust what you're telling them. It's important that we own up to our own mistakes too. Be honest if something has gone wrong and explain the steps you're taking to put it right again, customers are much more forgiving than you may think provided that they know you're being honest and communicating with them clearly. Loyalty. We've discussed loyalty a fair amount throughout this course in regards to generating customer loyalty. But it's important you share your own loyalty to your customers to make sure your customers know that they all your focus. That could be through opening feedback opportunities, scheduling regular catch ups, or offering discounts to long-term customers. Whatever the method, find something you know, your customers will appreciate, approval, feel valued. Integrity. Employees with integrity are usually the ones you can count on. The ones with the highest moral values and the ones who are bent on doing the right thing at all times. Having integrity is possibly the most important ethical value. It shows your customers that you have a good moral conduct and principles. And we'll always strive to do the right thing. Fairness. When you are trusted to be the point of contact with customers, you need to ensure that all of your actions are fair and just showing favoritism. Bending the rules for particular customers are only offering discounts to those customers you enjoy speaking to our sure-fire ways to ruin your reputation as a fair business. Respect. Always remember that every one of us deserves to be treated with respect and dignity, regardless of who they are or which position they are at. Being respectful of others will develop a mutual respect from customers and colleagues alike. Responsibility. Remember that you, as both an individual and accompany, have a responsibility to deliver what has been promised to the customer. You are directly responsible for the satisfaction and happiness of your customers. So you must acknowledge that and take accountability for when things have gone awry. Quite often. It's not always popular to do the right thing in business. And the desires to achieve can often hinder our moral principles. But doing the right thing will ultimately be the better choice. It's so important to treat all of your customers consistently with respect, honesty, and integrity. And in doing so, you will read the long-term benefits and maximizing customer loyalty. Thank you for joining me in this course. I hope it has proved useful for you in discovering the fundamentals to achieving customer service excellence. Customer service is the most crucial component to a successful business. It leaves a lasting impression. A great customer experience is invaluable. Customers will appreciate it and they will share their great customer experience. Any business that goes out of their way to make the customer experience special, will reap endless rewards. As a follow up, I'd highly recommend taking a look at the other courses in my business suite, including mastering assertive communication, excellence in leadership, digital marketing fundamentals, the art of selling, communicating your vision and values, and Agile project management. Each of these courses explore many of the topics we've covered in today's course in much further detail.