We don't have to tell you how important it is for companies to have customer service that loves exceeding customer expectations. When companies want their customers to have great interactions and possibly become brand advocates in the future, one of the best ways to maintain a good relationship is to have a solid understanding of what customers want and how to deliver it.
Today, we're breaking down specific customer service expectations — and how to meet them — to ensure your customers walk away completely satisfied.
The Ultimate Guide to Customer Service Expectations
The best customer service is one that anticipates consumer expectations and rises to not only meet them but exceed them. This gives the customer the best possible experience when working with your company's representatives.
As we list some of the most significant customer service expectations, it's also important to consider your audience. Some of these expectations will be more crucial to certain age groups or demographics than others, although all of them are relevant for today's digital world.
Customization
One of the best ways to give good service is to meet your customers' needs with personalization. For example, when you call a pharmacy and provide some key information like your birthday, it automatically accesses your account. When you get to the pharmacist, they can automatically see who is calling and check your file immediately to answer whatever questions you might have about a prescription.
Having customer information stored in your database and accessible through accounts online or phone menus is a good way to save time and effort for both the customer and your representatives. Instead of wasting time being transferred among multiple agents and repeating the same information, again and again, your customers can be automatically routed to the best agent for their questions. Little things like this lead to excellent customer satisfaction.
Be Proactive Whenever Possible
You should keep track of your customers' interactions with your team. Monitoring your customer behavior and asking customers to fill out surveys is a good way to measure overall satisfaction with your company. Keep track of key data, such as how long it takes to address complaints, how long it takes for customers to get a resolution to their inquiry, and how long they wait on average for a free customer service representative at your help desk.
This may also aid you in finding potential growth opportunities for your organization. If they are having a bad customer service experience with chatbot responses, it's possible the bots aren't providing as many functions as they should or that the knowledge they're providing isn't applicable to the customer's needs.
Tools help keep track of and respond to customer feedback and customer issues. At Yext, our tools can assist you in analyzing customer comments, evaluating the performance of your locations, and help your customer service teams deliver a consistent experience.
Decrease Wait Time
According to Nextiva's survey, over half of their respondents aren't willing to spend over five minutes on hold waiting for the next available customer service representative. Therefore, your customer support teams must do whatever possible to decrease response time in a live chat or on a phone call.
This can be done in a variety of ways, but the best way is to give your customers the ability to find information on their own for some of the most common problems or questions. That way, the only people calling in are those who have more complicated problems that require a customer service agent to solve, and your customer service rep won't be overwhelmed with an onslaught of calls that could have been answered in a few seconds.
A long wait time might add to the irritation as customer support agents strive to make room for the real-time caller. Poor customer service is one of the leading causes of customer churn since clients are unable to contact your customer care professionals and become trapped in the navigation menu.
Listen and Learn
No one wants to feel like they're talking to a wall, especially not when you have a burning question you need to be answered. When consumers call, they do so because they want to speak with a live person. They could have used your chatbot or looked through the FAQ themselves if they thought their problem could be handled with automated answers. Customers will rapidly grow annoyed if you have a long and confusing voice menu that they must travel through in order to talk with a person.
People want to feel like they're reaching through to someone who can assist them and listen to their problems after they've made contact with a live representative.
Make a point for your support team to be sympathetic. While you should still develop a script for them to follow when engaging with consumers, you should make it sound genuine and authentic so they don't think they're talking to a robot.
This also ties into offering surveys to customers since consumers who feel like they aren't being listened to are less likely to spend time giving you ideas about the next steps to take or their expectations. An easy way to combat this is to publicize widely when you implement changes to your products, services, website, or company based on suggestions from your clients. Let the world know that you listen to what your customers have to say, and pretty soon, all of your customers will have plenty more to tell you about what they hope to accomplish with your help.
One of the biggest things to remember with this expectation is that people give criticism when they are disappointed and believe your company can do better. If they don't care or have no hope that you can make a change, they won't bother. As long as you continually prove that your business wants to know what your customers want, they'll be happy to tell you.
Offer Learning Tools
Clients will never have to waste time scrolling through dozens of pages to find the one thing they're looking for if you include a comprehensive search bar on your website. In addition to having a search box, adding criteria to searches helps clients to narrow down their results to goods and websites that are relevant to their search.
These days, many customers, especially millennials, prefer to use self-service technologies rather than talk with a customer care agent. By offering FAQs, training videos, and clear counsel for common website issues, you may reduce the need for customers to contact or call your service center.
This is both less costly for your company and more convenient for your customers. Having a big number of blog entries that cover certain topics and provide answers to commonly asked questions is a great way to develop a knowledge base that customers and employees can use to learn more about your company's goods and services.
Choices, Choices, Choices
Your customer base appreciates having choices, and the ability to communicate in their chosen method will be highly valued. Customers desire additional options for less urgent engagement outside of phone conversations, which is crucial to remember when developing digital solutions. Live chats, chatbots, email services, and applications that check internet reviews are all less costly and similarly beneficial as contact centers. You may allow consumers to send you questions or messages directly through a query system or by starting a ticket on your website with some apps.
It's also important to have active forums, message boards, and support channels through popular social media websites like Facebook and LinkedIn. Customer service expectations differ from generation to generation. Younger generations will want to research your company and learn more about it before purchasing anything. They will be open to learning more through those websites or through review websites like Yelp! so it's essential that you have accurate information about yourself out there.
Millennials are more likely to send tweets or direct messages on Instagram and your customer service representatives better be active on the website and prepared to get back to them quickly since many of them expect a response in ten minutes or fewer. Just don't neglect your phone services, or everyone over 50 may have a challenging time contacting your business.
In Summary
Consumers may now be more vocal than ever about their business dealings. Positive experiences documented on social media can result in a large influx of new clients, while negative ones might result in considerable customer churn in a single day. Customers may quickly make their thoughts about your company known on a wide scale in a matter of seconds; therefore, it's more important than ever to give it your best.
Contact us to learn more about what your customers expect from your company and how to provide excellent customer service.
Sources:
5 types of customer service you should know | Zendesk
6 Customer Service Expectations to Help Grow Your Business | Nextiva
How Are Customer Service Expectations Different from Generation to Generation? | LiveChat
