What happens if somebody told you customer service is the key to success in every company? That statement may sound absurd initially, but there is an explanation for why it holds true. Customers have always been the backbone of businesses. Without customers, no business can survive. Good customer service has become even more important in today’s highly competitive environment. If you don’t offer your clients quality support services, you’d better rethink your strategy.
Customer service is often undervalued. Many managers overlook customer service because they see it as happening after a sale. They need to realize that good customer service has the power to turn a brand into a household name.
Good customer service makes a huge difference between satisfied and happy customers and someone who leaves negative feedback. So if you want to increase sales and improve your bottom line, your focus should be customer satisfaction. This article explains why customer service matters and shows you ways to provide stellar support.
13 Reasons Why Customer Service Should Be Part of Your Marketing Strategy
It will be your customer service strategy if there is a one-to-one relationship between your customers and your business. It keeps them engaged and gives them reasons to recommend your service or product to others. If you provide great customer service, it will keep your existing customers happy and attract new ones.
Better Employee Retention
Employees want to work for caring companies. In fact, according to Gallup research, 83% of employees say they’d consider leaving a job where they felt mistreated. And while there are many key reasons why people choose to leave a particular employer, one reason stands out above others: a company’s treatment of its employees.
When your company shows its employees that it cares by consistently demonstrating excellence in customer focus, employee satisfaction, and workplace culture, employees will believe that your organization cares. This makes it easier to retain talented workers. And because employees tend to develop strong relationships with coworkers over time, they’re far more likely to stick around and help you grow your business long-term.
Better Revenue
Treating customers’ needs effectively has an important influence on a company’s performance. A 2017 study found that companies that provide quality customer service see increased sales, while those that don’t see lower revenues.
Another study shows that even though most online purchases don’t require face-to-face contact, almost half of them involve some kind of human interaction at one point or another during the transaction. So making your unhappy customers into happy ones pays off in the long run, both in terms of retention and profits.
Better Reputation
Customer satisfaction could either improve or ruin a company’s image. In fact, according to research conducted by TNS Global, 93 percent of consumers surveyed cited poor customer service as a reason for switching brands. In addition, according to a survey conducted by Accenture, 92 percent of respondents said that a single bad experience with a company could influence their decision about buying products or services.
Customer Loyalty
A recent study by Salesforce found that loyal customers placed a high value on how good a customer service team treated them and that companies would directly profit from positive customer experiences.
The research showed that over 80% of surveyed customers were willing to pay a premium for a better and more positive experience. Furthermore, respondents ranked excellent customer service as the most important factor in choosing a provider, above features like security, reliability, and performance.
Participants who had experienced poor customer service during a purchase transaction questioned whether they would continue to use a particular company. However, those who received excellent service continued to use the same providers without hesitation.
Scales Up Customer Lifetime Value
Customer lifetime value (CLV), or how much money a customer spends over their entire relationship with your brand, is one of the most important metrics in retail. This number gives us a sense of how profitable each customer is to our business. Business owners can use it to determine whether they are spending enough resources on retaining existing customers or attracting new ones. In addition, it helps business owners understand what should be done to grow customer lifetime value.
But despite the importance of CLV, many retailers need help knowing where to begin measuring it. For example, only 42% of retailers say they can accurately measure customer lifetime value, according to a recent survey conducted by RetailMeNot.
Investing in your company’s customers’ satisfaction by investing in your company’s internal departments for providing quality support and services has been proven to provide significant returns in terms of increased sales and profitability.
Customers who have a good experience with your customer service reps are more likely to return to your store and buy more products. So make sure your customer service representatives are doing a good job.
Improves Conversion Rates
Personalized customer service can help increase your eCommerce conversion rates by up to 8%. This includes providing detailed product information, including shipping times and costs, to make it easy for shoppers to buy what they want. If you offer this level of detail, your conversion rate could stay the same.
The key to increasing your conversion rate is ensuring everyone who visits your site feels like they matter. They do matter. They’re part of your brand. And they’re important to you. So treat them like royalty. Make them feel special. Give them something extra. Something unique. Like personalized single-customer service.
Creates More Marketing Opportunities
Proactive customer service doesn’t just make your current customers loyal to the brand happy; it’s also a great marketing strategy. If you hear feedback about a specific issue with your product or service, consider reaching out to the person who reported the issue.
A proactive customer service strategy allows you to introduce new features, promote your brand, and build relationships with potential future customers. And while some people might think that asking satisfied customers about problems they’ve had with your product or service is intrusive, it builds trust.
Impacts Brand Image
The way happier customers perceive a brand can vary greatly depending on how well it handles helpful customer service needs. If a customer has a problem, they want someone to take care of it immediately. In fact, according to research conducted by the American Customer Satisfaction Index, customer satisfaction increases by 10% when companies respond quickly to inquiries. This is why it’s important to ensure your employees are trained properly and understand what it takes to provide excellent customer service.
People with negative customer service interactions are more likely to share their bad experiences via social media and post them on review websites than ever before.
Even if you provide great products and services, you still want to ensure that your brand is perceived positively. If your brand is seen negatively, customers are less likely to return to purchase another product or use your services.
Better Company Resilience
The most resilient companies understand that they cannot afford to operate without strong customer relationships. They know that if their customers aren’t happy, they won’t keep coming back. And they make sure that every interaction—from providing great products and services to responding to complaints—is handled professionally and thoughtfully.
Provides Seamless Customer Experience
Modern consumers want a seamless experience across channels, devices, and platforms. As a result, consumers trust brands like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Uber. These companies understand how to solve customer issues quickly and efficiently because they know what it takes to deliver a great customer experience. This shift is driven by increased competition, rising customer expectations, and the rise of digital technologies.
In addition, potential customers want to avoid filling in customer support forms, wait on hold during the entire process, or even speak to someone over the phone or via live chat. Instead, they prefer to talk to someone who knows who they are, can solve their problem immediately, and isn’t tied up doing something else.
Traditional types of customer service support – including phone calls, emails, web chats, and self-service portals – are riddled with inefficiencies. These include long waits on hold, explaining one’s problem to a robot, filling out forms, and waiting for a call center agent to return the call.
Employee Empowerment
The studies vary, but there is no question that happier employees are better workers. In one study, researchers found that happy employees were 13 percent more productive. Another study showed that happy employees were more engaged and had fewer sick days. A third study showed that happy employees produced twice as many quality leads as unhappy employees.
Despite this fact, more businesses should take employee satisfaction seriously. Unfortunately, only 39% of customer service leaders surveyed by our experts agree that their organization considers high-quality service a key part of its strategy for growth. This lack of focus on exceptional customer service agents hurts the bottom line and the brand’s reputation.
But when companies provide the proper technology, training, and work environment, employee satisfaction increases, customer retention increases, and overall customer satisfaction improve. For example, a survey conducted by CSI found that 74% of call center employees felt empowered to make business decisions about how to serve even the most angry customer best. And those employees who feel empowered tend to make better purchasing decisions, providing better service and ultimately increasing revenue. So when you’re looking to improve your customer service, start with your employees.
Decreases Churn
Customer churn means to the number of customers dissatisfied with a product or service to stop buying it altogether. The problem with churn isn’t necessarily the quality of the product itself; it’s how well the company handles problems. In fact, according to research conducted by Gartner, 89% of consumers begin shopping for a replacement after experiencing a poor customer service experience. Poor customer service leads to churn, so it’s important to ensure your products and services are created and designed to help people in times of trouble.
Easier Business Transactions
Customer service is important because happy customers are synonymous with loyal ones. In addition, good customer service is important enough to influence how much consumers trust companies. For example, a study conducted by Accenture found that 88% of respondents agreed that “good customer service makes it easier to do business” with a brand. And another survey revealed that 92% of millennials believe great customer service is essential to building strong relationships with brands.
To End
Customer service has already become a component of every successful business story. But do you need help improving your business’s customer service? We are here to help. Contact us so we can offer you the tools you need.