How to Improve Customer Service in 5 Steps

Customer experience today is marked more by relationships than transactions for their own sake.

This reflection is important for both Customers and Companies who want to build long-term relationships, but it is also true that it prompts rethinking both sales and Customer Service, how?

Defining priorities

Let's start setting priorities.

Sales team performance is measured by:

1. The number of calls made

2. The duration of calls

3. The number of scheduled meetings

In contrast those of Customer Service by:

Have you noticed the problem? Sales teams are incentivized to have conversations, while Customer Service is incentivized to end them as quickly as possible.

Data available to each team affects Customer satisfaction if they do not communicate with each other

Customer loyalty is the primary goal for every Company, but let's see what happens: sales teams try to attract new Customers into their funnel, while Customer Service tries to just as quickly manage expectations set by sales.

Both are too focused on efficiency, not Customer satisfaction, both act without communicating with each other.

This condition is not something Companies wish for, but arises unintentionally due to structural decisions. For example, if teams are divided by functionality, they end up feeling separate, competing with each other.

These divisions bring internal consequences, but it is the Client who is mainly affected.

Here's how you lose new opportunities

Missed opportunities and unclear communications make Customers feel frustrated and neglected. Requests fall on deaf ears, expectations are not met, and the Company misses opportunities to "wow" Customers.

Let's take an example. A Customer sends an email to Customer Service for a friend who is interested in a product. The agent may not know who to forward the email to, or in more serious cases, the message may get lost in the inbox.

There is a good chance that this will happen especially in a larger company. The result? The Customer feels neglected because of the lack of response and the Company loses the opportunity for a sale.

In the same way, it may happen that a sales team member promises a special discount to a Customer to try to conclude the purchase of a new product. After making the sale, the salesperson fails to communicate the discount to Customer Service. The Customer then has the thankless task of explaining the deal with a call to a new agent.

Here's what makes Customers feel frustrated and neglectedi

When conversations are not followed up properly or the Customer keeps having to explain a problem going from one agent to another you can't talk about loyalty.

New Voice Media's "Serial Switches 2018" report found that 67% of Customers will switch Companies due to poor experience.

Here are the main reasons:

• Customers do not feel appreciated
• Customers are unable to talk immediately with an agent who is suited to their needs
• Customers have contact with rude agents
• Customers are put on hold for unreasonable periods of time.

In contrast, 86% of Customers said they would be willing to stay with the Company if there was an emotional connection with a Customer Service agent.

Significant conversations with Customers are the key to your success. Here are 5 key points that can improve your relationship with Customers!

1. Work together

How to make sales and customer service teams work together?"

Sales teams and Customer Service can be strong on their own, but a connection will make them more effective both at the corporate level and in communications with the Customer.

We need to establish a continuous relationship between marketing, sales, as with Customer Service and other departments while continuing to interact with the Customer.

For Sales and Customer Service this relationship offers significant benefits:

• New contacts and opportunities from support ticket conversations
• Priority support or for large Customers and potential Customers
• Support facilitated through knowledge of the sales environment.

2. Bridging the gap

How to bridge the gap and make business teams' data more integrated with each other? Instead of focusing on the speed of employee activities, focus your attention on relationship with the Customer: quality over quantity!

Putting pressure to increase sales and reduce Customer Service impoverishes the overall Customer experience.

A winning strategy will depend on your company, but there are some key steps you can take to align sales teams and Customer Service.

3. Plan

First, you need a specific plan to guide how your teams will interact with each other, now and in the future.

What are the challenges each department has vis-à-vis Customers? What are the goals of each department and how do they align?

The ultimate goal should be to understand the Customer and their needs at every stage of their relationship with the company.

Make sure you have an onboarding process in place as new members join your team. Create a training plan in which current team members can also participate.

Do not consider the relationship with the Customer a transition between departments. The relationship between sales team and the Customer should continue, vice versa with Customer Service.

 

4. Establish a change in your metrics

What kind of incentives and performance metrics are considered to measure employee success?

Sales metrics

Instead of pushing the sales team to acquire new Customers, emphasize and give value to current ones. Lifecycle value (LTV) and average revenue per Customer are two useful metrics that encourage a better experience.

Customer Service Metrics

Focus on the quality of interactions rather than pressuring Customer Service to eliminate service tickets as quickly as possible. Customer satisfaction, average response time, and Customer contact rate are possible metrics.

Long-term sustainable growth must be the enthusiasm for both departments, not short-term wins.

Both Customer Service and the sales team should acquire skills in their respective departments and communicate all interactions with Customers to each other.

5. Implement clear lines of communication

If you deal with the sales pipeline, you will know that nurtured leads experience a 20 percent increase in sales compared to non-nurtured leads.

Communication is a key element and starts at the internal level.

Implement a CRM system that tracks the entire Customer experience. A Customer relationship management system is beneficial for productivity, processes and analytics. With Zendesk Sell, every customer interaction is documented, from emails to phone calls, and links the process between sales and support.

Every conversation = a better experience for the Customer.

Many Clients are frustrated because they have to repeat problems to multiple agents. Interactions must be documented at every stage to ensure that all issues (and expectations) are properly addressed.

The benefits of a CRM to make Customers more satisfied

Once again, a CRM system results the ideal solution:

• automates excellently handling all interactions
• encourages a transparent business environment
• aligns sales teams with Customer Service at a strategic and tactical level
• records performance
• ensures continuity and consistency to Customer experiences
• works with you to help retain your Customers

Rethink your metrics: move from meaningful conversations to extraordinary Customer experiences!

Customers do not care about business activities and efficiency measures. Customers care whether their needs and desires are heard and appreciated by the Company.

By linking the data collected across departments internally, the Customer experience will be continuous and loyalty will be encouraged. The process requires some changes and strategic thinking, but the results will help sustain this work.

Is your company ready to offer its Customers an experience that provides continuity among all its departments?

power2Cloud is a Zendesk partner in Italy! We can show you the benefits of this solution and how to integrate it in your company.

Request a demo from our team.