Providing better customer service is something that all businesses should strive to achieve. Customers want to know that you are there to help them when they have questions and concerns, and good customer service can mean the difference between choosing you and a close competitor.
These days, good customer service has gone well beyond placing a phone number on your website and asking people to call. Increasingly, businesses are using improved technology to provide better customer service that their customers appreciate.
Here are some of the options you could consider.
Provide Customer Service Over Social Media
Social media has become one of the most effective ways to deliver customer service. Many people follow brands on social media, and the popularity of networks like Twitter and Facebook means that for many people these are the first places they look when they want to ask a question about your products and services.
Rather than sending customers to your website, encourage them to ask questions directly on their social media accounts. You could even set up an account dedicated to customer service.
Just make an effort to reply to questions quickly, perhaps by using a social media monitoring service. And make sure it is someone’s job to respond promptly so you keep your customers happy.
Set Up a Detailed FAQ Page
A good FAQ page has many benefits, and it can provide a lot of information to customers so they don’t have to contact you with their questions. You can make your FAQ section even more effective by setting up a knowledge base and recommending possible answers before your customers contact you.
So, after they have written a question, recommend an answer, and hopefully this will provide them with the information they are looking for. If they don’t find the answer they need, they can then go ahead and send in their questions.
Create In-Depth Content
One of the smartest ways to improve your customer service is to provide all the information your customers need before they have to ask you for it. The FAQ page is a good start, but you can go further by creating detailed content.
If you have a blog, publish regular articles providing detailed answers to the types of questions that your customers ask. That way, people can educate themselves about your products and services without the need to contact you.
In doing this, you will present yourself as an authoritative and helpful resource, and you will also take pressure off your customer services department.
Use a Live Chat App
Live chat has become a common feature on many websites these days. It has many benefits, and it is another example of how businesses can provide better customer service.
By setting up a simple app on your website, you can encourage people to ask questions and get support as soon as they land on your site. Visitors will appreciate this because you are making it easy for them to contact you, and it could even help you to convert more of your visitors into customers.
Just make sure that someone is available during office hours to chat with visitors, otherwise you could end up frustrating the very people you are trying to help.
Create a Customer Service App
Another idea is to create your very own customer service application for smartphones. Most people have their phones on them all the time, whether they have budget smartphones or the latest fast processors like the Xperia from Sony. So it makes sense for you to offer customer service via an app.
Whether you create a dedicated app, or simply add a customer service feature into your main app, make sure customers have a way to contact you via their mobile devices, and improve your customer service.
Use Tech to Improve Your Customer Service
These are some of the main ways that you can use technology to improve your customer service. The overall aim should be to make your customer service as simple as possible for people to access, so consider using all of the above to ensure you are providing the best service you can.
