Are you looking to grow your customer service in the next year but aren’t sure where to begin?
While there are a lot of things you can do to improve your company’s customer service, one of the most important things to focus on is reducing customer response times.
If a customer sends your business an inquiry, it’s almost always because they have some issue that needs to be resolved. Waiting around for help on an issue can be very frustrating. If a customer has to wait too long for a response, they may even take their business elsewhere.
To prevent this from happening, you need to reduce customer response times. But how do you do this?
Read on to learn the most innovative tips for lowering customer service response times.
1. Hire More Customer Service Reps
Sometimes, the solution is as simple as hiring more customer service representatives. It may just be that the number of customer inquiries your business receives far outweighs the number of customer service reps available.
If you’re a small business that’s growing quickly, you may not even have a dedicated customer support team. If you find that your customers’ needs are accelerating, it’s time to beef up your customer service team.
Here are some tips for hiring the best customer service reps:
- Look for reps who show some personality in their cover letters.
- Pay attention to their demeanor during the interview. Are they polite and listening closely to your questions?
- Consider reps from different backgrounds — recruiters, salespeople, real estate agents, and teachers can all make great customer service reps!
- Ask for concrete examples on handling dissatisfied customers.
Whether you’re adding to your current customer service team or hiring an entirely new team from scratch, you want to make sure the onboarding process is consistent across the board. All of your customer service reps should receive the same training so they know how to handle customer complaints in a consistent manner.
2. Set Up Automatic Responses
A lot of times, customers are okay if they don’t get an answer to their problem right away. However, most customers want to know that someone is at least looking into their problem and that their email hasn’t been lost in the shuffle.
To put your customers’ minds at ease, we suggest setting up automatic responses. An automated email response will serve as a confirmation email after a customer sends you an inquiry. We suggest linking your auto-responses to your FAQ page and community forums.
The customer may find that the answer they’re looking for is on one of these pages. In addition to providing automatic email responses, we also suggest that you allow customers to opt into automatic text responses, as some customers prefer SMS messages over email.
Additionally, you should make these automatic responses as personable as possible. This way, the customer will feel more valued. For example, instead of just saying “Dear Sir/Madam,” you should use the customer’s name in your opening line.
Draft your auto-responses so it sounds like an actual human being is communicating with your customers instead of just a machine.
3. Make Use of Customer Service Software
The right customer service software (CSS) can also help you cut down on your response times. Customer service software can help improve your workflow by keeping track of all of your customer interactions.
It stores, tracks, sorts, and backs up everything so you don’t have to worry about organizing your customer interactions. You can even link your customer service software to your email and social media pages.
By keeping all of your necessary customer information in a centralized location, it’ll be easier for you to sort and respond to messages in the future. It can also help you organize your top complaints so you know what issues your company needs to work on to make your products or services better.
CSS can also help you learn about the demographics of your customers so you can create better-targeted messages. In addition to customer service software, you may also want to set up a digital mailroom.
4. Categorize and Prioritize Your Emails
While all customer inquiries are important, some are more time-sensitive than others. When you receive a new email from a customer, it should receive a tag based on its priority level.
The priority level should be based on different criteria, including the complexity of the problem, the necessary response time, and the importance of the customer to the business.
For example, it’s a good idea to respond to sales-ready leads before you respond to general customer inquiries.
5. Create a Detailed FAQ Page
Earlier, we mentioned directing customers to FAQ pages while they’re waiting for a follow-up response after receiving an automated email.
Many customers actually prefer to use the FAQ page as their main tool when solving a problem. If you create a robust FAQ page, you can cut down on the amount of customer service emails and calls you get in the first place. This way, your system won’t be bogged down by simple inquiries that can be resolved in a matter of seconds or minutes.
Instead, your customer service team can focus on solving the more complex customer issues. To create a robust FAQ page, you need to put yourself in the shoes of the customer.
Conducting surveys and research groups can help you understand their main pain points and issues. It’s also a good idea to look back on your history of customer complaints to see what issues arise the most. Then, draft questions and answers based on these issues.
Are You Ready to Cut Down on Response Times?
Now that you know how to cut down on customer response times, it’s time for you to implement these tips. By reducing your response times, you’ll be able to improve your customer satisfaction levels, and in turn, improve your bottom line.
Of course, reducing response times is only one part of the customer service puzzle. You can check back in with our site to learn more ways to improve customer service.
