We all know great customer service leads to increased loyalty and reduced churn, but with so many tools and methodologies out there, what really sets the top 50 apart from everyone else? Believe it or not the answer is simple. Below we explore the common practices employed by the companies who give us the best customer service....
Step 1: Make contact efficient
The top 50 companies offer quick engagements consistently across all touch points. This is important as it doesn't discriminate against the way a customer wants to get in touch and means the level of service and first impressions will be consistent. This also helps to create a positive brand perception which leads to increased customer loyalty!
Step 2: Easy to use IVR
Another thing all these companies have in common is a simple-to-follow, shallow IVR which directs them to the right agent. With the right know-how, this is often a quick win for companies and their customers when done correctly. A contact centre with on-brand, straight forward IVR can in turn have overnight success in improving their customer's experience.
Step 3: Be reliable
We have all been there, when we get an amazing customer experience at point of sale and then - BAM- you crash land into a world of technical problems, dropped calls and "sorry we can't take your call right now" messages. Some of the best companies for customer service know they need to be reliable and consistent throughout the customer's life cycle with them. Make reliability a measurable KPI.
Step 4: Be knowledgeable
Great customer service essentially comes from having queries resolved at first contact by whichever channel the customer has opted to use. Knowledge needs to be there ready to go, with as little user effort as possible. Video for example is a great cost-effective way to build up a knowledge base that can be used across all channels and is being used more and more by companies to get their knowledge out there.
Step 5: Take personalisation to the next level
Top 50 companies not only personalise correspondence and greetings on the phone, they go one extra and offer 'soft skills' in conjunction with personalisation to make sure understanding and ownership is communicated to the customer. Simple adjustments like targeted on-hold and in-queue messaging are a great way to introduce these soft measures of personalisation.
So there you have it, a whistle stop tour on how the top 50 companies for customer service go that extra mile.
Why not take a look at some of the stats around this article and see how some of our contact centre customers have excelled.
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