Impeccable customer service not only has an impact on the bottom line but also fosters customer loyalty through seasons. As industries are going customer-centric in their approach to doing business, let us understand what Customer service is and why it is paramount to business growth.
What is Customer Service?
Customer Service is the support you provide to your customer base before, during, and after a sales cycle. High-quality customer service ensures a seamless experience for the buyers. There is no dearth of options for consumers to chose from, so well-thought customer service is key. To prosper in today’s fiercely market, great customer service is critical to competing effectively and efficiently.
89% of companies with “significantly above average” customer experiences perform better financially than their competitors.
Qualtrics XM Institute
Importance of Customer Service to Business Growth
- Quality customer service experience means increased customer retention
- Customer Service promotes word of mouth business
- Increase sales with proactive customer service
- Improve products and services through keen customer feedback
- Foster Brand loyalty through the right information
- Happier Workforce means happier Customers
- Customers Are Willing to Pay More for Good Customer Service
- Customers are going omnichannel
- Higher Customer lifetime value comes from rich Customer Experience
Quality customer service experience means increased customer retention
Customer retention entails increasing the number of repeat customers and increasing the profitability of each existing customer. It’s a well-established fact that customer acquisition costs almost five times more than retaining your existing ones. Excellent customer service can help you reduce the churn rate and the costs to acquire new ones.
Honest and high-quality customer service practices aid customer retention. Successful companies ensure long-term money savings by nurturing a strong customer service culture where team agents are essential members to build and foster a cordial relationship with customers.
Customer service promotes word of mouth business
Word of mouth advertising can be one of the most effective drivers for business growth. But this marketing strategy is a double-edged sword. While it can promote your business and drive sales, poor customer service can also hamper your efforts. Studies show that brands that can build an emotional connection and trust bring four times more business through word-of-mouth.
To make the best of this tactic, it is vital that your customer service team goes above and beyond in supporting your customers. Good customer service results in a good reputation.
Increase sales with proactive customer service
A common reason for abandoned carts and online purchases is frustrated online shopping. According to Forrester Research, approximately 50 percent of potential sales are lost because your visitors can’t find what they’re looking for on the website. Enter proactive customer service.
A proactive approach to customer service instead of reactive can set you apart from other businesses. Training your customer support team to upsell and cross-sell can help you turn abandoned carts into profit opportunities. In addition to having a solid team, well-planned support channels, including a knowledge base – a repository of helpful, engaging, and easy-to-follow content, can ensure that customers find what they are looking for.
Improve products and services through keen customer feedback
No one knows your customer better than the customer service team, the team that keeps the customers’ needs at the forefront of every interaction. With every customer interaction, there is an opportunity to understand your customer’s needs better and fine-tune your products and services.
According to Bain & Company, an NPS promoter score has a customer lifetime value that’s 600% – 1400% higher than a detractor. Whether you use surveys, CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score), or Net Promoter Score (NPS) programs, coupling hands-on customer service practices with a powerful ticketing system can prove beneficial. A systematic approach to collecting and understanding data using applications like HappyFox Help Desk and HappyFox Business Intelligence can help businesses make the right product decisions and position themselves better to cater to the needs of the end-user.
Foster brand loyalty through the right information
96% of customers say customer service is important to brand loyalty. As customer service teams interact with end-users day in and day out, they are definitely your companies’ brand ambassadors and can promote a positive brand image. As your support team listens and honors your customer’s requests, it is important to be an authoritative source of information.
Ensuring your knowledge base is updated, and your agents provide honest and transparent advice can help you connect with your audience better and turn them into happy customers.
Happier workforce means happier customers
Some studies say while happy employees can help companies earn 147% higher earnings per share than their competitors, disengaged employees can cost companies up to $550B a year. Now, you can’t ignore these stark numbers.
Businesses are bound to crash if their customers are not happy with the support they receive from businesses. That is exactly why it is unavoidable not to take care of your employees. It’s important to train your staff well and provide them with the right tools to do their job. You can provide support from the leadership or bring technological upgrades such as a robust tool like HappyFox Help Desk to do their job better.
Customers are willing to pay more for good customer service
According to a survey conducted by the International Council of Shopping Centers, 67 percent of customers say good customer service encourages them to shop longer and/or spend more money across industries and services.
While product features and prices can oftentimes be objectively measured, how companies and agents can help customers feel acknowledged and heard along their conversion journey can truly set businesses apart. With customers being empowered and in control of their buying behavior today, they demand nothing less than a stellar customer experience. And they are willing to pay for it. That is why it is inevitable for businesses to dive deeper into their customer’s buying journey and to be ready to support them in any way possible.
Customers are going omnichannel
With technology and the digital landscape evolving at a faster pace, customers no longer seek support just through support reps and telephone lines. Chatbots and Knowledge Base have revolutionized the way customers seek help. Having support channels beyond the traditional methods can turn unhappy customers into satisfied ones. The goal of the omnichannel experience is to provides customers with support seamlessly across all messaging channels.
Data says that about 89% of consumers report frustration in repeating their questions to multiple customer service reps. There is value in perfecting omnichannel support. No responses, slow response, repeating queries to multiple agents, etc., are just some of the problems omnichannel customer support aims to eliminate. Self-service is here to stay, where customers can look up an answer and fix the problem on their own time without having to contact a customer service representative.
Higher Customer Lifetime Value comes from rich customer experience
Customer Lifetime Value is a very important metric that helps companies gauge how much net profit they can make of one customer over time. A higher value means that the customer will make higher profits and prove more valuable, which means the business can afford to acquire new ones.
While there are many ways to increase CLV, one of the most important and sure ways to increase it is by offering quality customer service. Bad customer service is a well-known reason for churn. With existing and returning customers looking to spend 67% more than new customers, companies investing in a good customer service experience have seen a phenomenal increase in profitability through customer retention and building brand loyalty.
Conclusion
Stellar customer service and satisfied customers are a competitive advantage. With the radical shift in people’s perception of customer service and with customer expectations at an all-time high, businesses are leaving no stone unturned to support their consumer base.
If you are looking for ways to provide your audience with a positive experience and turn them into loyal customers, look no further. Better customer service begins with a better help desk ticketing system. Learn more about the HappyFox suite of products to upgrade your customer service processes. Book a demo with our product expert today!
