Best Business Practices: Balancing Customer Service With Efficiency
By Tom Readers
Tools such as a Virtual Assistant or Interactive Voice Response system are crucial in increasing the efficiency of your business, but how customer service representatives deal with clients is just as important. Dealing quickly with calls is efficient business practice, but it is vital that customers should never feel rushed.
Fail to get the balance right and you will have dissatisfied customers with unresolved problems or an ever growing need for more representatives to get through all the calls. Here are a few ways to ensure that you successfully balance customer service with efficiency in your business.
1. Be Ready for Your Customer
When you begin your conversation with a caller, make sure you are ready to devote yourself entirely to their case. That means not answering a new call while you are still writing up notes from the previous call. A good initial impression that demonstrates you are interested will go a long way to persuade your customer that your company cares about them and wants to resolve any problems as quickly as possible.
2. Listen
It sounds simple, but it is easily forgotten. Really listening to the customer's issue is essential if it is to be dealt with efficiently. It might be tempting to assume you know early on what the problem is, but if you listen carefully you will prevent yourself and the customer from heading down any blind alleys. More than that, listening intently will give you the opportunity to assess the customer's mood and respond accordingly.
3. Don't Make Your Customers Repeat Themselves
If you use an automated answering service with interactive voice response, make sure that any information your customer is prompted to give is transferred to the customer service representative. Customers find nothing more frustrating than keying in lengthy sequences of numbers only to be greeted with "Can I have your account number?" when finally they are transferred to a representative.
4. Explain What Happens Next
Once you have got to the bottom of a customer service issue, you need to be clear about the solution and ensure that the customer understands it too. Make sure that they know what will happen next and whether they are required to take any further steps. Fail to do so and the customer will be back on the phone before you know it — a waste of both your time and theirs.
5. Be Positive
Building a rapport with the customer is a vital part of efficient and effective customer service. The best way to do this is by thinking and being positive. Show that you identify with the customer, that their difficulties are perfectly understandable, and that you want to help them rather than just get them off the phone. If you are predisposed to like the customer, you are far more likely to build a rapport that will ultimately lead to customer satisfaction. Being positive is particularly important when you are finishing a call; don't refer back to the customer's problem — you don't want to remind them of the frustration or anger they had been feeling. Instead focus on the solution you have found and the positive outcome it will lead to.
6. Take Ownership
If you are the first point of contact for the client, it is a huge advantage if you are able to take ownership of their case. There is nothing customers hate more than being passed from one person to the next, with nobody willing to take responsibility. Even if you cannot deal with the problem directly, it is far better to say something like "I need to pass your case to our accounts department, but I will make sure that it is dealt with and will remain your point of contact". The more autonomy you have as a customer service representative, the easier it is to balance customer satisfaction with efficiency.
By the way, do you want to learn more about customer service? If so, I suggest you check answering service and virtual assistant.
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