3 Things You Can Start Doing Immediately to Improve Your Customer Service

Delivering top-notch, bottom-line-boosting customer service has never been more important. Why? Competition is fierce and social media essentially gives happy and unhappy customers a megaphone—so it’s no surprise most companies are looking to up the ante ASAP. But how? While implementing a brand-new protocol takes time, there are simple but effective practices you can start doing right now to see results. Here, we outline three:

1. Empower your employees.

Best practices and scripts don’t account for every possible customer scenario. That’s why it’s critical to give your frontline employees the power to solve unforeseen problems that arise for customers. When employees do whatever they can to improve a bad situation, customers remember—and more often than not, return the gesture with loyalty.

2. Respond, respond, respond.

There’s almost nothing more frustrating to customers than when their questions, comments or concerns go unanswered. Task your employees with responding to all customer inquiries as personably and as soon as possible. Even a simple, “Hi __, thanks so much for reaching out. We’ll look into that and get back to you with an answer very soon.” will do the trick. So long as you actually do follow up—and soon!

3. Embrace first and last impressions.  

The two most memorable parts of a customer’s experience? Hello and goodbye. The way you greet customers and send them on their way is critical—and crafting a script to ensure you give excellent first and last impressions doesn’t take long. Try taking an uncomplicated approach that focuses on ensuring first interactions are warm, welcoming and sincere. And never say goodbye without thanking customers, inviting them back and asking if there’s anything else you can do for them.

Yes, completely transforming your customer service takes time—but starting with these three steps will help put you in a great spot. And if you’re ready to take the next step, we’d be thrilled to help you develop a customer service plan tailored to your needs at one of our training sessions.