When you are running a business, one of the most important tasks is staying organized. Part of that requires tracking customer service requests accurately and making sure they receive quick responses. The best way to accomplish this is to collect all the necessary information, make sure customers have options to help themselves and put help requests in the right hands.
The Impact of Good Customer Service
If you are curious about the impact of good customer service and why organizations matters, researchers have the answer. A study in the Human Resource Development Review journal found that customer service is a major factor that affects how customers evaluate their experience and satisfaction with a company. Good customer service can have a positive effect on a customer’s overall satisfaction.
Researchers discovered that customers want businesses to handle questions quickly and accurately. In general, they want immediate answers. Since online services are available 24 hours a day, customers now expect help to be available around the clock.
In addition, the study found that customer relationship management (CRM), like software, should be used to help consumers reach a company in multiple ways, such as via email or phone. It is also important to note that the post-purchase experience matters. After people buy your product or service, they expect to be able to contact customer service easily and want ongoing support.
The Impact of Bad Customer Service
When you consider your company’s customer service strategy, you have to think about what happens if things go wrong, and there is no organization. A bad customer experience can lead to negative reviews and social media posts that discourage others from using your company in the future.
Studies show that 68% of customers stop doing business with a company because of being treated poorly. This happens if they feel indifference from the company or customer service representatives. In general, a customer who is not happy will tell eight or more people about it. More than 20% of customers with negative experiences talk about it with more than 20 people.
It is important to point out that if a company handles unhappy customers well and resolves the issue in their favor, then 95% of customers are willing to give the business another chance. Sometimes all it takes is a simple apology to keep a consumer’s loyalty.
Getting Organized Offline
The first step is to organize your business offline. This means your personal office and the spaces used by employees need to be clean. Your physical surroundings can affect productivity, so keeping them organized is essential. You can hire professional services to organize office spaces or figure it out on your own.
If you have desks filled with papers, it makes it harder to find customers service requests and handle them. Paperwork can overwhelm employees, so organizing it will help find relief. Your business will save time and money by tracking things better offline.
Getting Organized Online
Unless you run a very small business, an Excel spreadsheet is not going to be enough. To keep customer service requests organized you need more than a spreadsheet or a pile of papers. Organization is the key to making sure customers are satisfied.
The key to staying organized online is to automate as much of your systems as possible without losing the human touch that is necessary for good customer service. First, this requires offering multi-channel support, which means customers can reach out to you through email, live chat, phone or social media. By offering a variety of options, your business will be able to satisfy more people.
Second, a robust help desk ticketing system for keeping track of customer service requests is essential. A good system should integrate seamlessly with your multi-channel support across all platforms. For example, if someone contacts your company on live chat, it should generate a support ticket. If they follow up with email, then the ticket should still be updated.
A ticketing system collects customer interactions and logs them in the system, so your employees always know the status. The system needs to be efficient, fast and accurate. In addition to tracking, the system should help customer support representatives prioritize requests. By having all the information in one place, managers and other staff can access it to see progress.
Another feature you should consider including is a way for customers to help themselves. Self-service can reduce pressure on your staff and make consumers feel like they are in control. Whether you create a detailed frequently asked questions section or a knowledge base of information, the key is to make it easy to use. Customers should be able to ask questions, get automatic responses and request more help if necessary from a person.
Important Goals
Your company should set goals for staying organized, such as improving response times. Tracking requests is only the first step of truly becoming better organized, and goals will help you achieve the next level.
For instance, if improving response times is a goal, then consider automating one part of the process. You can send an automatic response that shows you received the request and will answer by a certain deadline. This works if your customer representatives are busy or offline and reassures the consumers that you care about them.
Your goals will vary, but it is important to set them and evaluate them periodically. You want to set realistic objectives that are still somewhat ambitious. You also have to inform your employees about the goals without making them feel like they are in a race.
When you are organizing your customer service requests, keep in mind that having good systems is the foundation for success. You want to be organized offline and online. From the desks in the office to the help desk tickets, every aspect should be clear.
The process may take time and investments in professional help or software. However, considering the cost of having unhappy customers, it is essential to have organization.