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How to Deliver Exceptional Customer Service for Your Start-Up

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You may have an innovative product or service, but if you are failing to deliver exceptional customer service, it can be detrimental to your business’ success. With millions of new businesses beginning to spring up online every year, there is a vast amount of competition to contend with, and as a result, you simply can’t afford to overlook the customer experience.

Corporations are beginning to understand that the better the service they provide, the more likely customers will return to your company and even pay more for the products you offer. In this blog, we’re going to look at a few important ways of how you can deliver exceptional customer service for your start-up business:

Know your product

It may seem like an extremely obvious point to make, but product knowledge is critical to ensuring you’re giving customers the very best support. Product expertise is a critical customer service skill – you should be able to discuss the features, benefits and usages so that the customer knows exactly what they’re buying into. They’ll likely wish to understand all there is to know about the product before deciding to invest in you. The bottom line is that if you don’t know the answers to their queries, there’s a very good chance they’ll shop elsewhere. Do your homework on your product and consider the most common questions that are likely to be asked, so you can plan a much more professional answer.

Maintain a positive attitude

The attitude of your team goes a long way in delivering exceptional customer service. This is exceptionally true if a customer approaches a company with a negative viewpoint and ends the conversation with a changed mindset. Even when a customer is giving you a difficult time, never let your emotions get in the way. Stay calm, polite and give the best advice you possibly can, to resolve any disputes. With many businesses now online-based, physical communication is a rarity, however, you can still show excellent service through the use of language and expression.

Stay consistent

If you wish to make a positive impression for your brand, providing superlative customer service on very rare occasions isn’t going to cut it in the long-term. Customers are looking for consistency from companies they’re purchasing from. Every time a customer makes contact, aim to give them the best experience possible. A study carried out by the American Express Global Customer Service barometer discovered that 59% of customers would consider shopping with a new brand if they felt let down by the level of customer service provided. The truth of unpredictability is that it can have a knock-on effect on customer loyalty and trust in your brand.

Hire customer-focused people

During the hiring process, getting individuals on board who have an extensive customer service background is the groundwork to kickstarting an excellent way to improve your customer service. Your team will become the public face of your brand, so you must ensure you select the right person for the job.

In this regard, it would be wise to look for key skills and experiences within the applicant’s resume and ask specific questions as to how they have managed issues or solved a customer’s concern in the past. In doing so, you will gain a clearer insight into which candidates would be most suitable to work in the customer service sector of your business and ensure that queries are dealt with swiftly and professionally.

Respond to customers quickly

When a customer has a query or wishes to solve an issue, they wish to have an immediate response. In fact, 66% of people believe this to be the most important factor for good customer service, so shouldn’t be overlooked in your campaign. Aside from resolution speed, other help desk reporting metrics include first response speed and average response speed.

With that being said, it’s not always possible for your employees to be available on a 24-hour basis (and besides, this is also extremely costly to maintain), so you may need to consider alternatives. Live chatbots have now become a popular option used by businesses as they allow consumers to search for answers to their questions out-of-hours. If a chatbot is unable to provide a relevant answer, the query can be passed onto an employee by the chatbot leaving a message to be picked up when back in the office.

Another alternative would be the use of an external virtual receptionist whereby calls are answered by live telephone staff and queries sent directly to your email inbox. This would be a useful option if you simply don’t have the time to personally answer calls within your daily schedule but need assistance in this area. The benefit of this tool is that answering service prices that are affordable should help you save cash as a start-up as opposed to hiring full-time receptionists.

Ensure your website is mobile-friendly

If your business is based online, you need to ensure that your website is set up for mobile browsing. According to statistics, over 50% of web traffic now derives from mobile devices. If your website isn’t suitable for mobile browsing, you’re sure to lose a substantial number of customers. Most people surf websites while on the move as a time-passer, therefore, you need to ensure your website is sufficiently designed for this type of browsing.

Your website should be designed to be used across all devices and be highly responsive when buttons are clicked to move between pages. Customers should be able to browse easily and complete the sales process with ease – just as though they were using their desktop PC. If this isn’t the case, you may need to hire a professional web design to re-construct your website and make it accessible for mobile device usage.

When you create great customer experiences, you’ll certainly leave a positive impression in the minds of your customers – and as such, you’ll reap the benefits. There’s a higher possibility that they will stay faithful to your brand, pay more for your products despite the fact that cheaper alternatives are springing up on the market and even recommend you to their own social circles.

 

Kossi Adzo is the editor and author of Startup.info. He is software engineer. Innovation, Businesses and companies are his passion. He filled several patents in IT & Communication technologies. He manages the technical operations at Startup.info.

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