Without great customer service, your company could sink! Scary, but research-proven true. Here’s what you need to know (and do).

Customers care about your products, technology and social responsibility.

But they put their money on customer service and the overall experience. Service seriously correlates with better business results. So you want to put your money where customer service is.

What the numbers show

Researchers found:

• 84% of organizations that work to improve customer service see a bump in revenue
• 75% of customers will return to a company with excellent customer service
• 69% of customers will recommend a company to others after a great customer experience, and
• 55% of customers purchased because the company had a reputation for great customer service.

What you can do to be the best at service

Many companies focus solely on rolling out new products or advancing technology to gain and retain customers. Sure, that’s important — customers do want “new” — but improving service almost always has a bigger impact on gaining and retaining customers.

Here are tips that focus on each of the four critical survey findings mentioned above:

IMPROVE SERVICE TO INCREASE REVENUE

Make improving customer service a priority. That’s the only way you can make it a reality.

The key is to garner support from the C-suite. To do that, you need numbers, too. Focus on one or two metrics that you already track in customer service — for instance, number of one-and-done experiences or satisfaction with one communication channel. Show the positive rise in results that happened after training, process changes or technology investment to gain more support for ongoing or new efforts.

GET MORE CUSTOMERS TO COME BACK

Often, customers try a company for its product or service. They stay for the outstanding customer service. Even if the product was OK, great service will keep them coming back.

Some of the best ways to provide service that keeps customers coming back:

• Be flexible. Strict rules and dated policies aren’t good ways to make nice with customers. Allowing frontline service pros some flexibility when helping customers gives them opportunities to build better experiences. Stay true to rules that ensure safety. Provide guidelines that let good employees make judgment calls.
• Empower employees with training. When frontline employees thoroughly understand how your business works and succeeds, they’ll be equipped to make the right judgment calls in service situations – the kind of calls that delight customers and get the right ROI for the company.
• Give time. Employees who don’t feel under watch to meet quantity goals will exceed quality expectations. Allow frontline service pros the time (accompanied with flexibility and training) they need to handle customer questions and issues effectively and in outstanding fashion.

MAKE IT EASY TO SPREAD THE WORD

Happy customers spread the word. Once you have the elements to wow customers in play, make it easy for them to tell others about the experience and they will.

For instance, at the bottom of email messages, invite them to tell their social media followers about the experience or give a shout out on your pages (embed your urls). Follow them in social media and share their positive news – and they will sometimes do it for you. Ask customers who give positive feedback to give online reviews.

FIND YOUR REPUTATION MAKERS

Since most customers buy because they hear you have a good customer service reputation, encourage customers to be your reputation-makers.

Offer incentives for good reviews, referrals and introductions. Some companies give discounts for customers’ efforts to get their names out there. Others offer trials or free merchandise. Or you can give dollars off a next purchase for the customer who refers and the new customer.

Resource: Adapted from Internet