What is the importance of customer service

Good customer service can have far-reaching impacts on the success of a business, such as increasing customer retention and helping to attract new ones. The front that a business projects to customers is often their first experience with their product.

These first impressions shape the idea of the company itself. Even if a product is of a very high standard, bad customer service can leave customers feeling like they can’t trust or support that company. The additional support they receive, such as having questions answered, can help customers to feel more secure in their purchasing decision.

Customer retention and acquisition

Great customer service can create a positive business’ reputation. If a customer has a great experience, then they may be more likely to tell friends and family about the brand. They might also share reviews online or endorse the product via social media. Not only can this attract repeat customers, it can also lead to customer acquisition.

Some brands may reach out to customers to review their product, with the hopes a promotional product will generate a favourable review. However, a genuinely positive review may help to sell the product to new customers even more.

The flywheel effect

Overall, this is known as the ‘flywheel effect’. This is a cycle where great customer service and products can lead to positive customer experience (CX), which keeps them coming back, which generates even more positive experiences. The effect of this cycle helps to keep customers loyal. They are more inclined to stay and return with the brand as they have positive experiences every time.

How online shopping shapes what makes good customer service

Customer service encompasses the customer journey, their purchasing experience and any follow-up service such as refunds, troubleshooting or additional questions about features. As more customers may be turning to online shopping, customer experience includes:

• Troubleshooting customer issues via email or live chat;
• Answering customer questions about product features via live chat;
• Seamless and efficient self-service options;
• Using customer relationship management (CRM) tools;
• Responding to social media comments and questions.

While online customer support may not have the traditional role of greeting customers front-of-house, they can still benefit from similar soft-skills such as empathy and conflict resolution. However, their role may require more written skills rather than verbal communication. 

The relationship between UX and customer service

The many layers of a company’s website could be considered customer service, as its user experience (UX) is a service in itself. A customer’s UX can have an impact on their satisfaction, CX, loyalty and trust.

This may be particularly the case for businesses that integrate chatbot features into their websites, as well as links to contact them via social media, texts, or other real-time messaging services. Any customer support they engage with via the website can be considered to be UX.

Ensuring the smooth running and functioning of a website’s features on a range of different devices like tablets, smartphones and laptops can also be key maintenance. 

The relationship between customer service and customer satisfaction

As good customer service can increase customer satisfaction, this means that the two are interlinked. Customer service helps businesses to get the highest customer satisfaction. But it’s not the only way businesses can increase satisfaction. Selling a high-quality product that meets their needs is also a contributing factor to customer satisfaction.

This means that another function of customer service is to explain how a product reaches a customer’s needs. Each customer has their own specific needs and desires. It may be useful to educate customer service teams not just in the functionalities of a product, but also to understand why different customers might be interested in them.

Tips for improving customer service both online and on-site

In this section, we look at some tips that may help businesses to improve their customer service, for both on the shop floor or online.

Provide your online customer service team with a knowledge hub

Have a place where an online customer service team can find useful information which will help them to answer customer questions. This could also include error codes, so if a customer is experiencing a common technical issue, they can respond to them more effectively. 

Keep a record of customer support solutions

Another option could be to keep a record of customer conversations. That way, businesses can add resolved issues and a list of common concerns to a database. This can help them deal with future customer troubleshooting. However, businesses should look into storing customer data confidentially and safely, as well as get their permission prior to doing so. 

Consider keeping a record of common customer issues and how customer support resolved them in the past. This pragmatic approach allows businesses to handle future issues smoothly, as it provides a reference guide. While this mainly works when handling customer questions online, it could be helpful when dealing with customer questions over the phone. Making this information easy to reach and search for allows for faster resolution.

However, it is essential that businesses make sure any people data – including customer data – is stored securely and confidentially. According to our guide to data protection, businesses may have to ask people for permission to use their conversation for future reference. Customers may be entitled to decline this request.

Empathy in both verbal and written communication

Demonstrating written and verbal communication skills is important for both on-site and online customer support. Showing empathy in both helps with conflict resolution, active listening and team-playing.

Customer support teams can benefit from demonstrating verbal and written communication skills, particularly if they are handling customer queries over the phone, in-person and via online communications.

Even when communicating online, it is of value for customer service teams to show empathy or listening skills. While this may seem harder through written communication, it is still quite possible. Here are some ways that customer service teams can demonstrate written communication:

• Relate to the customer through shared experience (if appropriate) or explaining how they understand how the customer feels;
• Apologise if it is appropriate.

Following the situation, complication, resolution, action and politeness (SCRAP) rules can help customer support teams write more empathetic emails. Below is a quick guide to using SCRAP:

• Situation: The support explains they accept the situation at hand, thanking the customer for their email and responds empathetically to how they’re feeling.
• Complication: Then, they explain how they understand the content of the customer’s email, so it’s clear they understand what they’re asking.
• Resolution: They provide a solution or positive outcome.
• Action: The support team explains how the company will provide the solution, or how the customer could resolve the issues themselves if appropriate.
• Politeness: They provide a friendly and warm ending to the email which is open to any further questions. This is a chance to make a positive final impression on a customer. Customer support could also apologise again here if relevant.

Customer service is important to businesses looking to create an optimum experience for their audiences. It encompasses a wide umbrella of different aspects such as user experience, customer support and brand image. Learning how to manage customer service using empathy, clear solutions and a smooth customer journey is key to business success.