In this day and age simply offering customer service isn’t enough. This customer service also needs to be as personalized as possible. You can use a help desk ticket software such as the one offered by Kayako to scale your customer service operations, but it is always important to make your customers feel like people and not statistics. Here are some ways in which you can do that.
1. Create Customer Profiles
The first step you need to take in order to make your customers feel like people rather than numbers is to create profiles for said customers. You can store data about said customers in these profiles and allow your agents to access these profiles whenever a customer calls. It will be difficult to scale such a practice, but you can always keep doing so for some of your more frequent customers. You can’t very well personalize service for your customers if you don’t have information on who they are.
2. Modify Tone According to Customer
A common mistake that a lot of customer service representatives make is that they use the same tone with all customers. Greeting your customers in a professional yet positive tone is always good, but your CSRs will need to know how to improvise from there. Some customers will want a warmer, friendlier tone while others might think that your CSRs are getting a little too chummy if they do so. Train your CSRs to figure out what kind of tone would work best with each customer. Of course, it always helps to classify the types of customers you get calling in so you can adopt the appropriate demeanor accordingly.
3. Match Agents to Customers
No matter how well you train your CSRs, some CSRs are just going to be incompatible with certain kinds of customers. This is because of the fact that they have their own personalities, and there might be a few customers here and there that don’t like these personalities. Try to be proactive about your CSRs and see what they are like. You can then use this information to match the right CSRs to the right customers. If someone needs a defter touch, you can assign someone accordingly. Some customers will need someone to hold their hand. Again, there is probably a CSR that would specialize in that sort of thing.
4. Keep Asking Customers For Preferences
Another common mistake that a lot of people in the world of customer service make is that they don’t really ask customers what they want. Rather, they assume that they can do their own research and figure it out. One of the best ways to serve your customers is to just ask them what their preferences are. Their responses can be recorded and you can then use this information to ensure that whenever they contact you they end up getting the type of responses that they prefer.
5. Have Real Conversations
It is very important that your CSRs focus on talking to your customers. However, these conversations absolutely can’t be perfunctory or mechanical. Instead, they need to sound like they actually matter. Your CSRs need to have meaningful conversations. Of course, this does mean that they become each customers best friend, at least not literally. All it means is that whenever they do start having conversations with customers, these conversations need to sound like they come from a place of genuine respect rather than being something that your CSRs are doing because their job demands it.
6. Take The Extra Step
This is the sort of thing that most companies think they are doing but not in the right way. Taking the extra step means making sure that the right customers get the right kinds of offers from you. The occasional freebie doesn’t hurt, especially if a particular customer of yours has had an experience that was not quite what they wanted. It is important that you show your customers that you are not just trying to bribe them into not caring about the problem that they faced anymore. Rather, you should try and show them that this is your way of apologizing, whether or not they start feeling differently about your company.
7. Offer Custom Content
Once again, this is something that a lot of companies are doing but not in the right way. Customer content means that whenever you reach out to a customer there is a bit of personalization in there. Generalized statements like “valued customer” can easily be replaced with a name, at least if you have been doing a good job at gathering data from each customer that phones in. If you want your customers to feel like you care about them, custom content is an excellent way for you to start doing that.
