The quality of customer service you provide to your customers can heavily influence whether they do business with you — and if they'll make a repeat purchase.
According to a study done by PwC, you risk losing 25% of your existing customers who have a terrible customer service experience. And that's just the beginning of your problems...
Each of these disgruntled customers will tell as many as 20 people about the bad experience they had with your customer service team. Since 90% of people will listen to others' opinions about a brand, you’ll also be losing potential customers that may have been interested in your products.
Excellent Customer Service Pays Off
Brands that prioritize customer service, on the other hand, can reap the following benefits:
- 81% of happy customers will become repeat buyers
- An increase of 5% in customer retention rate, which can result in increased profits by up to 125%
- You save money on marketing efforts, since marketing to existing customers is 7x cheaper than with new customers
Additionally, repeat customers spend 67% more than first-time buyers, increasing their lifetime value.
With so much to gain and a lot to lose, your should always be keeping your new and existing customers happy. Here are five strategies you can use to increase the quality of customer service you provide.
1. Go the Extra Mile With Your Customers
It sounds cliché, but it’s true! In order to keep your existing customers coming back, you have to be willing to work harder to make their experience more enjoyable.
For example, rather than just giving out a phone number for customers to call if they help, why not call them yourself?
This is what Google does for its Google My Business subscribers. Subscribers can request a callback from a customer service representative by filling out a form.
This makes getting support convenient for your customers, especially if they live outside the US.
2. Provide Enhanced Customer Service to VIP Customers
Your VIP customers bring in the most revenue for your business, so it’s only fitting that they receive extra care and attention from you.
One way you can do this is by giving them exclusive offers and incentives not available to your other customers. Check out this example from BaubleBar:
If you have a physical store where you’re selling your products, you can invite your VIP customers to exclusive in-house events like product launches.
3. Segment Your Emails to Send Personalized Offers
Email segmentation allows you to send personalized offers to subscribers based on their previous purchases, which is especially crucial if you offer a wide range of products or services. This practice can also help increase your email clickthrough rates by 14% and boost conversion rates by up to 10%.
If you’re running a service-based business, segmenting those in your email list allows you to share content that's relevant and helpful to them as they use your service.
Kartra is one company that does this well. Plan subscribers receive a series of emails, each offering tips and training tools to help them maximize the use of a specific feature in the platform.
This kind of segmented email achieves two things. First, it makes the onboarding process easier for customers, so that they can reach their marketing goals faster.
Second, it drives new business by prompting existing customers to not only keep using the platform, but also to recommend it to others.
4. Include a Topical FAQ Page on Your Website
Grouping frequently asked questions into topics gives you the same benefit that you get from using topic clusters in your inbound marketing strategy.
Linking and grouping related questions makes it easier for your customers to find the answers that they're looking for. Check out how MyUKMailbox does it:
And because the pages containing your different FAQs are linked to each other, search engines like Google can index them and help your website rank higher in search results.
5. Give Your Customers Multiple Ways to Get Support
Your customers have their preferences when it comes to getting help. Some are fine with sending an email, while others prefer to talk with a live person about their concerns.
That said, it's essential to make sure that you provide them with different channels they can use to communicate with your customer service team.
Apple does a great job at giving customers the option of talking to a customer service rep over the phone or through their chat portal:
The Bottom Line
Customers today have a plethora of brands to choose from when buying a specific product or service they need. If they’re not happy with your customer service, they won't think twice about doing business elsewhere.
Each of the strategies shared here will help you improve the quality of your customer service, thereby encouraging new and existing customers to buy and keep coming back for more.
from Volusion Ecommerce Blog | SMB Marketing, Design & Strategy https://ift.tt/2oif8ic via IFTTT
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