Good customer service has four major principles on which it runs: proactive, convenient, competent, and personalized. Excellent customer service is one that relates with customers on a personal level. People know when they’re chatting with chatbots or other AI-enhanced technologies, which can be a turnoff for many. You want to personalize your interactions and let your customers know that you genuinely care about them and their questions.
Additionally, you should be proactive in your customer service; reach out to customers first. For example, if your system or operations will experience some glitch, you should explain the situation to the customers. This way, they don’t get blindsided by a webpage that takes forever to load.
Furthermore, customers should be able to contact you easily; you want to choose communication channels that are most convenient for them. Identify what communication channels your customers find easy to use and implement that in your customer support. Also, providing 24/7 customer support is essential so that customers can reach you at ‘odd’, urgent times.
Finally, good customer service is competent; this element has been reported to play the biggest role in customer experience. Businesses should carefully choose the customer support professional, ensuring they have a strong knowledge of the business and its services. They should also have the power to fix customer problems and answer their questions.