Costi

7 Essential Customer Service Skills (And How to Master Them)

One of the most important aspects of running a successful business is good customer service. Without it, a business is likely to fail even before it begins. 

If you have ever been on the receiving end of terrible customer service then you know how much effect it can have on future purchasing decisions. You are more likely to go back to a place where you were treated with dignity, than a place that did nothing but frustrate you. 

Today, most business owners have taken into account that customer service is an important skill to have which is why training programs are coming up every day.

There are, however, businesses that are still dragging their feet when it comes to good customer service practices as long as sales are being made.

According to an America Express report, 33 percent of Americans claim that they are likely to change companies when they are subjected to poor customer service even if it happens once.

More so, these customers are also likely to talk about a negative experience they had with a certain brand than about the positive experiences. That is how much good customer service is important!

Contrary to popular belief, customer service skills are not only a reserve of the customer service department or those who are in marketing and sales.

Every person needs to have good customer service skills as long as you deal with clients and customers whether directly or indirectly.

Empathy

The first step to being good in customer service is mastering empathy. Empathy involves the ability to put yourself in the shoes of the other person to be in a better position to understand their feelings as well as their emotions.  

Why is empathy important in customer service? According to several studies, 70 percent of buying decisions are made based on emotions. A customer will choose to buy a good or a service based on the way they feel about how you treat them. 

At the end of the day, their loyalty will not be based solely on whether you solve their problem, after all, there are so many businesses where they can get what they want. What makes a difference is the way you treat them when they are there and that’s the bottom line. 

Always remember that the customer is not only sacrificing their hard-earned money but their time as well and by the time they are walking into your store, there is a certain outcome that they expect to be fulfilled.

When that outcome is not met, frustration sets in, and that will affect their buying decisions in the future. It, therefore, pays to think along those lines before you approach them. 

How do you master empathy? It’s plain and simple. The first thing you need to do is to understand where they are coming from and why they are feeling that way. Before you respond, therefore, think about your tone of voice and how you are going to react to that. 

The natural reaction is to try and prove that you are right but don’t that. Remain calm and make the customer feel validated and then match your tone to theirs. 

This can be done across various channels whether one on one interactions, email, phone, or live chat. Avoid coming across as too formal because it spells robotic and not personal, rather be warm, accommodating, and understanding.

Respect

Respect can be tied to empathy in some way. Respect involves mainly treating others the way you would like to be treated and this is where most people get it wrong when it comes to customer service. We are all human beings and are therefore likely to react the same way if the situation was reversed. 

Put yourself in the shoes of the customer and determine how you would like them to treat you if they were in your position. Lack of respect to a customer whether or not you think their complaint is uncalled for is likely to ruin your reputation fast.

When a customer is trying to get an issue resolved, the first thing they expect is to be treated with respect and if that is lacking, you can forget about their loyalty to your brand. They are likely to talk about that negative experience even if they have never had issues with you before. 

Imagine if you spent your money on an item, only to encounter problems later and when you call the customer service department, rather than the person being accommodating, they are disrespectful and make you feel like you don’t deserve to complain about anything. It’s disheartening, that’s what it is!

When it comes to respect, there is so much that goes into it besides using pleasantries like ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’ Respect revolves around treating the other human being with patience and kindness. 

With that in mind, there are certain factors that you need to consider so that you can accord them the respect that they deserve. Consider the timelessness of your response, in which case, don’t wait too long to respond to their issue. 

Also, ensure that you present then with a few choices so that they can make a more informed decision, don’t toss them back and forth between different agents, and lastly, ensure that the solution you come up with has the customer in mind.

Active listening

When a customer calls, in most cases, they are calling to have a certain issue resolved. Active listening is the foundation of successful customer service. It makes all the difference between a successful conversation and ending one where the customer is left more frustrated than when they called. 

Active listening involves more than just getting every word the customer is saying. It involves taking into account their tone of voice, word choice as well as what they are trying to convey. 

Truly hearing the other person is the first step to finding a solution to their issue which is why active listening is important. Additionally, failure to listen will only add to the frustrations that the customer already has. 

When it comes to active listening, allow the customer to speak first without interrupting them to ensure that you don’t miss anything. As they are speaking, reinforce positive statements like “I understand” and smiling in case it’s a one on one meeting. 

When communicating via email or live chat, you can reinforce such statements by personalizing your messages the best way you can and using emojis where applicable. 

After they are done talking, summarize what they said to determine whether you got everything and make them believe that you were listening to them. 

Lastly, ask questions for clarification and so that you can find the best solution for them. The active listening practices that you employ however, will depend on the medium of communication. 

Excellent communication skills

While this is obvious when it comes to customer service, so many customers have a hard time communicating with customer service representatives. 

Why are communication skills very important? According to different studies, 33 percent of customers claim that a customer service representative must be able to efficiently answer all questions the customer might have. 

While you can be empathetic and respectful to a customer, if you mumble, lose focus or use a language that they can’t understand, you are likely to lose them. 

Any customer service agent must be able to explain solutions to customers clearly and concisely. Excellent communication also means conveying your message without using jargons especially those that a customer is not likely to be familiar with. 

Clear communication also means that you know when you are getting your point across. During one on one conversations ensure that incorporate non-verbal communication is used as well. 

Effective time management

Customer service can be quite overwhelming especially when you have to deal with so many customers in a day. It might lead you to make mistakes here and there, some of which might end up costing you the loyalty of such customers. As such, knowing how to manage your time is very important if you are to succeed. 

Since different customers have different needs, you need to know how to prioritize tickets depending on urgency and priority. The triage system is the best way to know which tickets need to be dealt with first.

This means assigning tickets to different people to remain organized and ensure that every customer is served efficiently. 

When you put this into practice, it makes it easier to give enough time to different customers until you can resolve their issue, and it also minimizes the chances of tossing them from one agent to another which can be frustrating to the customer. 

With customer service, however, since you are dealing with so many clients in a day, there is a limit to how much time you can spend with one customer. 

This is where the other skills such as active listening come into play so that you can solve issues within the stipulated time without feeling overwhelmed or not attending to some customers. 

Knowing when you cannot help a customer is part of proper time management. If you have no idea how to handle their problem, the best thing you can do for them and yourself is to point them to the right person who can handle without making them feel like you are just doing it to get them off your hands. 

At the end of the day, it would be in your best interest if you don’t waste your time with a customer trying to find a solution that you know very well you can’t get. 

Willingness to learn

Things change every day and as a customer care representative, it would be in your best interest and that of the company if you kept abreast with these changes. 

This skill is critical in customer service because it means learning even more skills that will help you deal with customers and clients effectively. 

In such a case you need to be willing to learn everything from the products, how to communicate effectively, and how to deal with the tickets as they come in. 

If you are not willing to learn, you will be left behind as others invest in skills to better themselves. With that in mind, take every opportunity you get to learn a new skill. 

Positive attitude

Working in customer care can be overwhelming knowing very well that the only reason a customer will call you or send an email is when they have a problem they want you to solve for them. Its human nature to feel frustrated especially when dealing with difficult customers who are frustrating. 

In such a case, you need to have a positive attitude which entails being positive even when circumstances tell you otherwise. A customer can tell from your tone that you are being positive. 

How do you master a positive attitude then? It can be as simple as taking deserved breaks in between dealing with customers. Taking some time away from the computer to take a walk or have lunch with a friend is a great way of dealing with a bad mood. 

The other thing you can do is to try as much as possible to be positive even when the customer is being difficult. This is because sometimes, the best way to deal with someone who is being difficult and bring them down to your level is to treat them with kindness rather than trying to be as aggressive as they are. 

Customer service is probably the most important skill you can have whether you work in legal or the ever-busy customer service department. Its human nature to want to talk about negative experiences with brands compared to the positive ones which is why customer service skills are important. While it can be overwhelming dealing with people who only want problems solved, at the end of the day, if you master the above skills, it can be rewarding and not to mention can end the frustrations associated with customer service.

by Costi

11 Customer Service Interview Questions to Ask Job Candidates

Before you go on and hire that eager and smart customer service candidate, it’s essential to gauge whether that individual will be a productive and engaged team member. But is there any way to do so? Other than using a time machine, there is no sure-fire method, which makes the interview the best way to judge customer support and service candidates. 

With the right questions, you can force interviewees to reflect on their experiences and think on their feet, thus making them reveal useful information. Their body language and reactions will speak volumes about how they’ll manage real-life situations and will help determine any red flags.

It’s important to remember that the qualities and core skills of every customer service job are the same. To ensure you hire top talent, here are some interview questions you can ask candidates and what you can hope to learn from them:

• How would you define customer service, and what does it mean to you?

This question will enable you to see the mindset and philosophy the candidate will bring to the position. You’ll be able to gain insights and details about their philosophy and gauge their commitment to the job. 

The best response 

Candidates you choose should talk about the impact and importance of customers for the growth of the company, should believe in the significance of retaining customers, and should be interested in learning from and working with others. They should also be dedicated to servant leadership and believe in the fact that customer satisfaction can change businesses in the same way as sales and marketing.  

• Can you recall a time you handled a fussy customer, and how did you manage the situation?

This question will help determine whether a candidate will go the extra mile to help a customer, even in a difficult situation. 

The best response 

Good answers include detailed examples of the candidate’s own experiences, which showcase humility and the ability to accept their mistakes. Candidates should be able to easily answer any follow-up questions about those experiences. It’s also important to see if they remained calm, understood, and empathized with the customer. Furthermore, candidates suggesting new improvements or ideas to de-escalate the situation is always a big plus. 

On the other hand, mediocre candidates will talk about how unreasonable the customer was and how frustrating it was to solve the issue.

• What can you tell us about our company or our product?

This question will help evaluate the amount of research a candidate did before the interview and will help determine whether they want this particular customer service job or are looking for any customer service job. 

The best response

Good candidates will have done their research about your company, thus showing that they’re really invested in this particular opportunity.

• How do you handle and de-escalate angry customers?

In order to gauge a candidate’s level of empathy, it’s important to determine their views on how difficult customers should be handled. You should be looking for candidates that can easily empathize with others and are able to turn a bad situation into a constructive learning experience.

The best response

Good candidates are characterized by their respect for customers, humility, and practical conflict resolution skills. They should also understand that angry customers prefer an apology rather than an explanation for their problem.

• How do you maintain a positive attitude when customers are rude to you?

Customer service jobs involve plenty of unpleasant encounters with unhappy customers, who are often quite vocal about their problems. This question will help determine whether candidates have considered this part of the job and if it’s something they will be able to manage. 

The best response

Good candidates should understand that a customer service job has its disadvantages, but at the same time, should be able to convey that its advantages far outweigh them. You should look for individuals that won’t burn out and won’t yell at a customer. 

Look out for candidates that complain about customers in their interview. Mentioning the phrase, ‘dealing with customers’ is also a red flag, as it shows that candidates don’t view their job as something they would enjoy. Although it’s not a deal-breaker, you should still ask follow-up questions to see how they’d interact with angry customers and if they really want a customer support job. 

• How would you define empathy? Did you use empathy in any of your previous roles?

This question is how interviewers screen for empathy. It’s important to understand that you don’t want the exact definition of empathy, but are looking for candidates who can explain empathy in their own words. It’s also a good sign if they provide examples of how they understand and relate to customers. 

The best response

Good candidates will provide a concrete example that includes more than just apologizing to a customer. They should explain how they used rapport-building and understanding to establish a strong relationship with the customer and how they consequently solved the problem.

• Was there a time when you didn’t know how to help a customer? What did you do?

Even with extensive experience and training, it’s practically impossible for customer service representatives to have the solution for every problem. Ask this question to determine whether a candidate will respond efficiently and calmly if presented with this situation. 

The best response

Good candidates will be honest, confident, and will be able to demonstrate how they handled situations where they didn’t have an answer. Look out for individuals who claim they’ve never been stumped or only provide examples where another colleague gave the final answer. 

• When answering a customer, how do you determine what information to exclude and what to include?

The most important skill for customer service representatives is the ability to clearly communicate information with just the right amount of detail. This section will enable candidates to explain how they write or talk to customers, helping you identify the best ones. 

The best response

Great candidates will be able to properly understand the needs of a customer and change their communication styles to suit different audiences. Beware of inflexible candidates who can only explain one communication approach.

• What do you think was your biggest failure in your last job, and how did you learn from it?

This question helps gauge a candidate’s honesty and coachability. Every person has failed at least once in their life, but the important question is whether they blamed someone else for it or learned and improved from it?

The best response

Moderate candidates will give an evasive and vague answer. It’s better to look for answers that showcase resilience, an ability to learn and improve from mistakes, and a sense of personal responsibility.

• Are you experienced with any customer service tools?

The customer service stack of every company is different, but it’s always a plus if a candidate is experienced and knows how to use CRMs, collaboration tools, and ticketing systems. 

The best response

Look for candidates that express a desire to learn new systems and technologies. They should also be experienced with specific systems and tools and should possess the ability to grasp new concepts quickly.

• What qualities do you think a good teammate should have?

This question will help you understand whether a candidate is a good teammate, and if the individual is able to work well with others. 

The best response

It’s important to look for candidates that are eager to learn new skills and are supportive of their co-workers, along with their customers. People who can easily talk about their interests and can have a casual conversation are usually better suited for customer service roles. 

Traits to look for when interviewing customer service candidates

Asking the right questions is only half the battle. When interviewing candidates for a customer service job, it’s important to look for the following traits:

• Drive

Customer service representatives should be eager to start and ready to learn. They should be driven, have a desire to prove themselves, but most not be entitled. They want to be promoted to better positions but know that they’ll have to earn it. 

• Coachability

Customer service representatives should be eager to grasp new concepts, but should not get defensive if given criticism. The best candidates pick things up pretty quickly. 

• Positivity 

This is one of the most overlooked traits. A negative person makes for an incredibly poor team member as they might talk poorly about colleagues and customers. It’s important to ensure that every new hire is a positive person. 

• Problem-solving skills

Unfortunately, people rarely contact customer support to praise and thank them for exceptional service. Since a customer service representative is responsible for solving people’s problems, it’s important to look for candidates that can untangle sticky issues, think on their feet, and quickly find effective solutions.

Conclusion 

The most productive interviews are never straight-forward question-and-answer sessions; instead, they’re carefully constructed conversations that determine candidates’ strengths, challenges, and attitudes. It’s important to remember that the questions are only starting pieces for different conversational topics. If you find an answer concerning or interesting, remember to ask follow-up questions to glean more details. 

by Costi

SaaS Customer Support Best Practices

SaaS companies thrive on repeat buyers, who in turn thrive on good customer support. 

It won’t take more than one bad experience to compel 51% of users to cancel their subscription, according to NewVoiceMedia. And while 72% of customers will tell six or more people about a pleasant experience, poor support will have 13% of users telling 15 or more people who not to buy software from. 

In fact, one study by Slideshare found that a bad experience with customer service was the primary reason for a canceled subscription among 67% of respondents. So, even if you have the best software on the market, it’s not going to keep people coming back if you can’t provide the assistance they need. 

With this in mind, let’s take a look at the best practices to offer superior SaaS customer support. 

Accessibility

Perhaps a user is confused about certain changes made in a recent update. Maybe they’re having compatibility issues. They could have found a bug that you weren’t aware of. In any case, it shouldn’t be difficult for them to let you know. 

Make sure that your support service is easy to reach. It’s also important that customers can use a contact method that’s convenient to them, be it email, live chat, or social media. Those details should be clear and visible wherever you’re present - both on desktop and mobile devices. 

Don’t forget to clearly state the times during which your team is available. Ideally, that would be 24/7, or at the very least, during business hours. You don’t want to keep customers waiting too long, which brings us to our next point.

Self-Service

Not every user wants or needs to talk to a support agent. Sometimes, they’re just looking for a quick answer or solution. 

Knowing the most common questions and problems that come your way, you can develop a knowledge base or FAQ for your website. This can significantly reduce the number of messages that your team receives while helping customers effortlessly find out what they need to know. Make sure that it’s informative, responsive, and easy to navigate. 

You can take this further by setting up a community forum where users can discuss and resolve issues amongst themselves. This is a good way to identify the biggest problems your customers face and send feedback to your development team accordingly.

Live Chat

Your users have high expectations when it comes to the quality and responsiveness of your customer support. Most of them are probably not willing to wait hours (and definitely not days) for a reply to their email. 

Providing a live chat service can help to remedy this problem. Users can have their questions answered and problems solved almost immediately, without having to take any additional steps after reaching your website. Most live chat services are far more affordable than a support hotline, while also being an effective way to onboard new users.

Staff

At the foundation of any effective customer support service is a good team. 

Given the complexity of your product, it’s important to have educated and knowledgeable staff who know what they’re talking about. At the same time, they need to have adequate communication skills and an ability to build relationships.

They need to know how to deal with stressed, rude, and angry users in a diplomatic manner that upholds the values of your company. Ensure that these qualities are present among the rest of your organisation as well, with a particular focus on those who are likely to interact with customers. 

This is a good time to discern the difference between customer support and customer service. The former refers to staff who respond to queries, while customer service is responsible for improving engagement. Tasking certain employees with identifying trends in the messages your users send is a great way to reduce ticket numbers. 

Standards

More on the above point, it would be a mistake to assume that all of your support agents have the same approach to their job. This is why it’s important to have standards for how they treat customers. Here are some considerations:

• Response times. 
• Refund discretions.
• Handling certain situations.
• Greeting and welcoming customers. 
• When and how to send follow-up messages.
• Tracking requests and avoiding missed tickets. 
• Categorising issues and assigning them to the right department. 

It would be wise to have published service level agreements that users can see to gain peace of mind knowing that your company upholds certain standards when it comes to customer support. Here, you can provide a FAQ of sorts with answers to questions regarding issues such as how you deal with downtime and how fast you respond to requests.

Transparency

Being part of the ‘big data’ industry, SaaS companies tend to be perceived by customers with a certain level of weariness or suspicion. Some users think that they’re being charged a high price for something that costs much less to provide. 

Your support service is an ideal place to reduce this kind of scepticism. This is done by being transparent about your policies and pricing, with a particular focus on how you handle customer data. The following practices can help you keep your users at ease:

• Downtime notifications.
• Advance notice of changes in terms or fees. 
• Information about how you spend customer money. 
• Making it easy for users to cancel their subscription. 
• Answering questions asked by prospective customers. 

Staying in touch with your customers and monitoring what they say about your company on public channels such as forums and social media will help you identify and address any other sources of scepticism. This is key to maintaining a strong reputation. 

Central Platform

One way to make your support team’s job much easier is to stick to a central platform upon which you can handle all enquiries, whether they’re sent via email, live chat or social media. There are several advantages to this approach.

Aside from saving time, it will spare your staff from having to log into numerous platforms to stay on top of their respective requests. Another benefit is being able to see how your team is performing. Regular analysis will help you identify room for improvement. Having a central platform also makes it easier to flag and escalate tickets. 

Feedback

The customer support process doesn’t end when you close the ticket. There’s one more step, which is asking for feedback. This is key to finding out whether the support you provided is satisfactory and how you can make it better.

Customers will also appreciate the opportunity to send that feedback, especially if they weren’t happy with the support they received. The data you collect can help you build a more comprehensive knowledge base and a better chatbot, which can reduce tickets and improve the morale of your support team. 

With enough information, you’ll be able to automate routine functions and significantly lower the workload faced by your team. This will only become more important as you gain customers. There’s always room for improvement and being open to any feedback that comes your way is key to identifying it. 

By following these practices, you can make leaps and bounds in providing the best possible support service any customer can hope to interact with. Be sure to spend some time on this, as the level of effort you put in can make-or-break the success of your SaaS company. 

by Costi

Customer Service Email Tips for Better, Faster Support

A loyal customer base is an asset for any business or company. They are the reason to increase your sales of products or services. However, earning their trust and retaining your clientele for a long time is not an easy task. Customer service emails are the best way to build a relationship between you and your customer. It must provide support to the customer, giving them an insight into your products and services. The design of a customer service email should be such that it attracts the customers towards you, and forces them to remain loyal to your brand or service.

You need to consider the following tips when sending an email to your customer. 

• Personalize Your Emails

Emails personalization is key in customer service. It makes the customer feel that they are interacting with a human being and not a robot. When your customer feels that they are getting custom-tailored service from you, they develop trust in your company. 

To design personalized emails, make sure to use customers' names at the beginning and your name at the end of the text of the email. This gives a sense to customers that there is a real person behind the computer screen. 

• Make It Simple

In your day-to-day business, you use different jargon of your field, i.e., terms specific to your niche. However, many customers may not be familiar with those terms and may face difficulty in understanding your email. So, substitute that vocabulary with the simple ones, which aids your customers in better understanding. 

Of course, it doesn’t mean that you are underestimating the reader of the email. But you need to make sure that they comprehend the email information and don’t misunderstand anything. 

• Keep a Smooth Tone

What type of tone will have more impact on your customer, casual or formal? This question has always been under debate.

Well, you can use both, but customers prefer a more casual and friendly tone because it has a human touch. Moreover, when you need to deny their request, people prefer to be told more formally and politely, as it feels more professional. 

If you don’t know which tone is going to work for you, then go with a similar tone as of your customer. Make sure that, along with copying your customer’s style, you must provide some valuable information about your company. 

• A Simple Thank You

It’s important to appreciate your customer's effort to write. No matter what complaints or problems are, make sure to let them know that you feel pleased by their response or email. Just add, "Thank you for your email” to your text. 

The feedback, both negative and positive, is crucial to push your company’s growth. 

The majority of the customers stop doing business with you when they don’t like the quality of your service. But if someone is trying to approach you and give his/her feedback, this means they are doing a favor to you. It helps to identify the hidden issues you were not aware of; thus, you can address these issues and improve your service. So, make sure to thank your customers for their valuable time and provide solutions to their problems. 

In A Nutshell

Attracting customers is a challenge in itself, let alone retaining a clientele. You need to work on the little things to establish a trustworthy relationship with your customers. Also, you must improve the quality of your product and provide faster customer support. Make sure to follow the tips mentioned above when sending a customer service email. You will see the difference in your company's sales. 

by Costi

How to Respond to Negative Reviews - Real Examples That Worked

We live in the age of the internet, and unlike in the past where companies could rely on suggestion boxes to find out exactly what customers thought about your products, services, and the business at large, the internet has changed that.

Today, online reviews are done online be it on your social media pages, website or external sites like Yelp or Google. 

What’s even frustrating is that such reviews are visible to anyone who searches for you online unlike a few sheets of paper in a suggestion box that are only accessible to you and anyone else who has such clearance.

The norm is that a large percentage of consumers will first go through online reviews before making a purchase. 

As such, you need to know how to respond to each review including the negative ones because ignoring them is not going to cut it.

Acknowledge the problem

Sometimes, a user will just leave a negative review because they are going through something and are frustrated. Sometimes, it will be a genuine negative review because something is wrong with your products or services.

Whatever the case, the best thing you can do is to acknowledge the issue rather than playing the defensive card.

Example:

When a JetBlue Airways passenger complained that their TV screen was not working, the Twitter team was quick to respond to the comment by acknowledging that it happens but they were more than happy to resolve the issue.

Say you are sorry

At the end of the day, acknowledging a problem and not offering an apology in return will do more harm than good.

When you have a negative review, the consumer expects an apology whether you are on the wrong or not.

And it’s not just about throwing words out there in the name of an apology rather, make it sound genuine and sincere, and like you are committed to excellent service.

Example: 

In August of 2017, Lexus dealership in Calgary found themselves facing a PR nightmare when Calgary Airport got rid of disabled parking stalls to create Lexus designated spots.

With so many one-star reviews, Lexus was able to turn around the situation in their favor by acknowledging that they were not happy that that happened.

By infusing their personality in the response, it came out authentic and genuine.

Offer an explanation

Sometimes an apology will not cut it and you need to go a step further and explain the situation. Avoid however making excuses even if the negative review is uncalled for.

Example:

When a customer complained of poor service at Mother Bear Pizza, the management responded to that by apologizing and giving an explanation that service is usually unpredictable during summer when their students are not around.

Offer compensation

If you have ever been on the receiving end of a poor service, you know how frustrating the situation can be mainly because you would not only have wasted your time but money in the process.

It’s even worse when the company just dismisses your complaint like it was nothing and like you are in no position to complain.

With that in mind, sometimes an apology will work but in some instances, a customer will feel better if some form of compensation was offered.

Example: 

In 2016, a Dominion Pest Control Services customer complained of poor customer service from one of their customer service representatives when they called to reschedule an appointment. 

The Owner responded by apologizing and offering a discount due to the negative experience.

Take matters offline

Once you have apologized and acknowledged the issue, the next best thing you can do for the customer is to offer to resolve the issue offline to come to a resolution that works for both parties.

Give them your name, title as well as a way they can contact you directly to discuss the issue. This goes a long way than just apologizing online.

However, after they have contacted you, never ask them to take down their review because what that means to them is that you have something to hide and don’t care about resolving issues with your products and services.

Example:

A Honda of Thousand Oaks customer complained of being asked to pay despite the company promising free oil change when you brought your car back to the auto dealership.

The company apologized for the issue and asked the customer to contact their general manager directly to have the issue addressed, something that they have become good at.

Negative reviews are part and parcel of running a successful business even when in your best judgment you know that the customer is just unleashing their frustrations on you. The mistake that most companies make is thinking that they don’t need to address negative reviews especially when they have so many positive reviews. To protect the integrity of your company and business, you need to respond to these negative reviews in a way that shows consumers that you are committed to offering the best services.

by Costi

The Checklist You Need When Choosing an Outsourcing Company

Today’s businesses are well in tune with the advantages of outsourcing. Controlling and reducing costs, being able to focus on core operations, and solving capacity issues are the main reasons why companies consider paying for external talent, according to Deloitte’s 2016 Global Outsourcing Survey. 

Improving service quality, gaining access to skills, and facilitating organizational transformation also made the list. These are all compelling reasons to outsource. But being able to access a global workforce comes at a cost, which is figuring out who exactly to work with.  

Opting for an outsourcing company is a good start, as this already brings a certain degree of service quality and reliability into the picture. To further narrow down your search and find the right partner, use the following checklist for choosing an outsourcing company. 

Cultural Compatibility

If cutting costs forms part of your reason for outsourcing, chances are that you’ll be looking abroad. This has its benefits, but it’s important to remember that your potential partner might be operating under a corporate and societal structure unlike your own. Reviewing their hiring policies and processes can help you get a better idea of what to expect. 

Consider whether your partner has the knowledge, discipline, and soft skills your business requires. This is especially important in areas such as customer service. The outsourcing company should understand the values, beliefs, and quality standards upheld by your employees. In doing so, you can foster a more productive relationship. 

Feedback

Ideally, you want to work with a company that puts the time and effort into measuring their performance, informing you about it, and seeking ways to improve. Your partner should value the process of setting numerous KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and regularly providing feedback on their success - not just when a certain goal is achieved. 

The level of effort that they put into doing this speaks for the transparency of the company and how proud they are of their work. If it doesn’t seem like you’re going to hear from them until something goes horribly wrong, then you’re probably better off looking elsewhere. 

Industry Experience

The more experience your partner has with businesses in your industry, the more likely they are to avoid the mistakes that newer outsourcing companies are yet to learn from. It can mean the difference between efficient communication and receiving a never-ending stream of questions that your partner should already know the answers to.

You can gauge their industry experience by looking into their portfolio. This is also a useful way to get a better idea of the quality of their work and the type of businesses they’ve worked with in the past. Of course, a portfolio doesn’t always tell the full story, so it’s a good idea to contact the company and ask some questions. 

In a similar vein, the people they hire should display relevant qualifications and experience. It’s better to avoid the jack-of-all-trades and master of none, opting for a team that specializes in your specific industry instead.

Technical Expertise

Is the company always looking for the latest technology to improve their output, or are they stuck in the past? Your ideal outsourcing partner should have a solid set of tools for managing workers, tracking performance, staying in touch, and resolving issues so that you have a better idea of how quickly and effectively your needs will be met. 

One way this shows itself is the company’s willingness to tailor their services to your specific business. For instance, they might be able to make use of automation tools or analytics to improve your efficiency. How interested they are in not only moving themselves forward but also your own business, speaks for the level of dedication you can expect.

Communication

Your future outsourcing partner’s approach to communication can make-or-break your relationship with them. Ensure that they’re skilled with and available to use all of the channels you require, be it email, phone, or any other messaging application. Time zone hours should be considered to minimize any gaps. 

It’s also a good idea to agree on a single channel for exchanging feedback, queries, and concerns. You can gauge their level of effort by making a call or sending an email. How soon do they reply? Are they genuinely interested in meeting your unique needs, or do they just want to make a sale? Be sure to pay attention to these factors moving forward.

Trust

While not always easy to determine, it’s worth looking into whether your future outsourcing partner is a stable and solvent company. They should be there for as long as you need them such as to avoid situations where their services are suddenly unavailable, which can otherwise cause hiccups in your own business. 

This is especially important if you’re going to have to entrust your partner with sensitive information. Look into the legalities of your relationship, which can include insurance, liability, contractual obligations, and nondisclosure agreements. Peace of mind knowing that your partner is going to play by the rules can save you a great deal of trouble. 

Another aspect to consider here is the company’s ability to hire new workers when you need them. You want to work with a partner who can meet the demands of your business as it grows. 

Costs

Another area where your partner should be as transparent as possible is the fees they charge for their services. Fixed project costs can go a long way in helping you budget and will inevitably prove more affordable than hourly rates. You should be able to receive all of this information upfront. Hidden fees are a red flag. 

Don’t forget to conduct market research before settling on a specific company. Low prices usually mean low quality, but you don’t want to be overpaying for something either. Working with an overseas partner is usually more cost-effective, however, and comes with potential benefits, such as time zone differences that allow you to get work done overnight.

Of course, this depends on your specific needs. Outsourcing your customer support to a country that’s awake when yours is sleeping probably won’t solve many problems. On the other hand, being able to wake up and see all your accounting work up-to-date for the day ahead is a good start. 

Finally, an outsourcing partner that can provide some sort of guarantee related to the quality of their work is often a better choice. In the same way a good laptop manufacturer will provide a hardware warranty to protect your device against any malfunctions, a good outsourcing company will be able to replace any underperforming workers. 

Keeping the above points in mind will go a long way in helping you choose the best outsourcing company for your business. Your due diligence in making this decision will certainly pay off. 

by Costi

Proven Methods for Measuring Customer Satisfaction

For any business to succeed, satisfied customers are essential primarily because they are loyal and promise excellent word-of-mouth advertising. However, it’s not as easy to measure as it is to measure website visitors or the revenue earned. But there are metrics and methods available specifically for this purpose. The following are some of them:

1. Customer Satisfaction Score

This score is the standard metric for customer satisfaction and asks customers to rate satisfaction with your service or product. The average rating of your consumer responses makes up your average rating. Typically, the scale could be 1-10, 1-5, or 1-3. The best thing about this metric is its directness; however, what’s wrong with it is the fact that satisfaction is a fleeting sentiment, making it difficult to judge at times.

2. Customer satisfaction surveys

This is the standard way of working out the customers’ happiness. The questions ask customers how satisfied they are. Such surveys are of three kinds.

a. In-app surveys
These involve a subtle feedback bar within the website that generally has a couple of questions. This method has the highest response rate because the customer is asked for his or her opinion while being engaged with your company. These are especially useful for measuring standard customer satisfaction metrics. Good tools for such surveys include SurveyMonkey and Floq.

b. Post-service surveys
These focus on the customers’ specifications relating to a certain service. This survey is done right after the delivery so that honest feedback can be received while it is still fresh in mind. The best method for such services is sending a rating link via email.

c. Email surveys
Since the above two methods don’t offer in-depth information about customer happiness, the best solution is email surveys for greater insights. Despite having low response rates, these allow customers to take their time while answering their questions. An incredible tool for this is Google Forms.

3. Customer Effort Score

With this metric, you basically get to measure the effort it took consumers to get their problem solved. Usually, the customers are asked to rate on a scale of 1-7 with 7 being quite a lot of effort.
With this metric, the aim is to reduce the average score. There are several tools with which you can make your own customer effort score survey, such as CheckMarket.

4. Net Promoter Score

This measures the likeliness that the customer will refer your business to someone else. More than the satisfaction, it measures the customer’s loyalty. Customers have to rate on a scale of 1-10 the likelihood of recommending you.
Since this metric tests the intention of referring rather than satisfaction, customers find it easier to answer. With this kind of survey, you don’t have to question consumers whether your product is good enough.
It also has two benefits. Firstly, it gives you insight into how well you fare in the industry. Secondly, the option of referring is introduced to the mind of the consumers, something they might not have thought of previously.

5. Number of complaints

As the name states, this measures the number of complaints. This is called the things gone wrong metric and measures the number of complaints per certain number of either survey responses or units sold. For instance, it could be measured against 100, 1000, or 1,000,000 units sold.
While the standard for this metric is to measure complaints via customer surveys, you can also maintain internal metrics. At worst, your score could be 1 or higher, which means that you receive at least one complaint per your chosen unit (such as survey response recorded or unit sold).

6. Social Media Monitoring

It’s no secret that social media has a great impact on the business-customer relationship. While a great experience or poor service could only be shared with the closest friends before, social media now lets users vocalize their experience, even if it’s extremely bad, that reaches up to millions of people. Therefore, it’s the ideal place for knowing what customers think about your service.While both Twitter and Facebook are important platforms, you should also not dismiss the feedback you receive on TripAdvisor, Yelp, and Quora. Helpful tools for social media monitoring include social mention and Google Alerts.

Conclusion

The importance of measuring customer satisfaction cannot be underestimated. Once you know your customer satisfaction, you can start working on reaching greater levels and ultimately have more happy customers.

by Costi

How to Deal with Bad Reviews of Your Online Business

Before we get into how you deal with them, you have to accept that they do happen and, in some instances, it has nothing to do with you. They hurt financially and emotionally as well. It is the emotional part that is usually a problem when service and products providers decide that they are going to say something to their reviewers. 

Bad reviews do not necessarily mean that you are bad at what you do. Here are five important things to help you see this from a better perspective so you can get started on how responses should be framed and approached:

• It is possible that your business might not be a good fit for the customer. That’s not a bad thing. You cannot be great for everyone. 
• If your business is a good fit, their review should be seen as a gift. It is a way to discover weaknesses and fix them.
• A bad review should be taken as an opportunity to shine. It pushes you to do more by revealing something you may not have seen.
• The customer could very well be having a bad day and taking it out on you. It’s not fair but, it happens.
• The customer could be a jerk, plain and simple.

How Do You Respond?

If you thought about having it removed, don’t. That is not the approach you want to take. The bad review is not the problem per se. The real problem is what happened between you and the customer. 

Try empathy, compassion and commitment to see if you can rectify the review. 

Here’s a technique developed for and used by the Walt Disney Company. They host 135 million people in their parks every year and have to deal with angry parents who are feeling the pressure of even angrier kids. 

• Hear- Let the customer give you their side of the story without interrupting. 
• Empathize- Let them know you understand. Use words that relate with them “I’d be frustrated as well”
• Apologize- Make it sincere, even if you feel you are not at fault. 
• Resolve- Give them solutions or allow them to express what they would like done, to make the issue go away. Ask “what can I do to make this right?”
• Diagnose- Find out how the problem emerged and fix it at the source so it does not happen again. Do not blame anyone while you do it.

When responding, do it publicly but DO NOT go on the defensive. Do not tell them whey they are wrong. Make your response an apology for how they feel. If you go on the defensive, it just throws fuel on their anger. 

When you get bad reviews, try to drown them out with good ones. If you serve people well, the good reviews will come in and the bad ones will be lost in a flood of support for your business. 

Learn by reading what other successful businesses do and say when responding to customers. 

by Costi