The main factor that distinguishes a company that customers feel loyalty towards and those they just do business with is trust. The first step to gaining that trust is to consistently provide quality goods and services, but the factor that really seals it for most customers is the quality of the customer service. If customers feel confident that their questions and issues will be resolved quickly and satisfactorily by someone competent, it goes a long way towards encouraging repeat business. For any company looking to build customer trust, these 10 suggestions are good guidelines to follow.
- Be Easy to Reach. Every customer should know how to get in touch with customer service. Don’t bury phone numbers and email addresses on a hard to find page on the website. Make sure all inquiries get directly to a human being, as it can be very frustrating to receive an automated response when facing a problem.
- Keep it Personal. Each customer should be assigned to one representative. Contacting a company about a problem can be more daunting than contacting the individual who was helpful and knowledgeable last time that the customer now feels comfortable with. Mojo Helpdesk makes it easy to make sure customers are consistently assigned to the same representative.
- Be Honest. If there’s a problem, address it. Don’t try to dodge it or cover it up. When unsure of what’s causing the problem or how to fix it, it’s better to be honest and show a willingness to learn more than to risk offering inaccurate information.
- Be Human. It’s easier to trust a human being than an entity. Make sure customers know the name of the representative they work with and avoid keeping the language used overly formal and stiff.
- Stay in Touch. Keep customers in the loop with emails about company and product updates and specials. Strive to keep the company top of mind though be careful not to overload inboxes.
- Don’t be Afraid to Apologize. Dodging blame when the company or representative is at fault is a surefire way to lose trust. People appreciate when someone can admit an error.
- Be Quick to Make Amends. Respond to any bad customer experience or company mistake with something to make up for it. Make returns easy and offer a future discount, a free item or something comparable that will show customers that concern for their satisfaction isn’t just talk.
- Be informed. No one’s prepared for every possible issue, but customer service representatives should be trained well enough in the company’s products and services to ensure their responses are always well informed.
- Be proactive. If there’s a problem with a product or a mistake that’s been made, contact customers before they have the chance to learn about it themselves the hard way.
- Maintain positivity. Throughout every customer service correspondence, be reassuring and optimistic that a resolution will be realized.
By simply treating customers with respect and honesty, a company can rise above many competitors. By incorporating the rest of these tips, a company will benefit from a reputation of good customer service to the level of customer trust that inspires long-term loyalty. Between repeat business and word of mouth, loyal customers are the best resource a business can hope for.