R.E.S.P.E.C.T. : Fostering The Retaining Of Customers

In life we all want to be respected. Some people want more than others so they take upon themselves to be leaders and shoulder more responsibilities. Most people just want the basic respect level; nothing too demanding just common courtesy. A business that doesn’t show common courtesy to its employees and customers is going to live to regret it. The concept of respect in business is something that’s been long-established. You’re both parting ways with things that you once owned. The business is supplying a product that it created or standby, and the customer is giving you their hard-earned money. In this respect you can quite clearly see why there should be a level of respect because it’s a display of trust also. However, as the leader of your workforce you have to realise that respect and politeness are two different things. Being skin-deep and showing common courtesy is something everyone expects to receive. However, respect is showing a certain amount of loyalty and caring about the matter at hand. And if you hope to have a high customer retention rate, that’s what your business needs to show; that you care.

Replacing a misstep

For a whole multitude of reasons, shipments and package deliveries can go awry. For example, a mishap in the online order system you have, can give only partial details to your delivery and packaging team at the warehouse. What could happen is, that a customer uses an automatic address finder, which automatically fills in their details in the bars provided. What this can do is omit certain details while giving some other details. A person might find their address, such as their street, postcode and residential area. However their house number may not have been found or recognised, and thus it could end up going to the wrong address or simply not delivered at all.

When this happens, you can bet your bottom dollar that the customer will complain and contact you not at all happy that a product they paid for was not delivered. In this circumstance you need to do three things. Firstly you should contact the customer directly using your customer service desk team, either by email or by phone. Let them know that their complaint was acknowledged and that you’re sorry for the inconvenience. Then, send out the product they bought using the fastest delivery option you have, such as ‘First Class’ or ‘Same/Next Day Delivery’. This helps patch up the wound between the customer and your business, by getting their product to them as quickly as possible. And finally, make a not of what happened and why. You need to figure out what part of your process failed and how you could stop this from occurring again in the future. Obviously, you cannot recharge the customer, so yes, you have ended up losing money. All the more then, that you figure out what happened, while retaining great customer relations so you don’t end up losing the customer as well.

Online chat etiquette and attitude

Online chat is now becoming more and more popular for businesses. Phoning up customer service landlines is still in use, but nowadays businesses are employing customer service workers in the role of online chat assistance. Customers that are on your website and have a question, complaint or some other issue, can chat to your business via the chat software. Essentially, just like Facebook messaging, the customer can write something and send it to your customer service team. This could be a question about the website, a product or an order they have made.

It goes without saying, just because you’re not speaking to them on the phone doesn’t mean that respect cannot be shown through text. The customer service agent, should be starting every sentence in a particular manner, that gets to the point but also remains respectful. For example, a customer might have typed “Hi, I need help finding a product you sell called …….., could you show me where it is on the website?” The agent needs to always start off the conversation in a manner such as “Hello, welcome, how can I be of service?” And then respond to the question itself. It’s what you might do in real life, so why change the way you interact with customers just because you’re not face to face anymore, but online instead? The younger consumer is choosing to communicate this way anyway. It’s also a trend in smartphones as millennials are choosing to text each other much more than call.

Don’t take customer abuse personally

If ever there was a role that required a good thick skin, customer service is it. The complaint team is bound to get some rude and disgusting comments thrown at them by unhappy customers. It’s rough, going into work knowing that you may be verbally abused by someone for something that is entirely not your fault. However, this is the nature of business at times as tempers can flair. The bottom line is to not take it personally and never respond in the same manner to the customer. There’s an old saying that the customer is always right. That may sound like willful blindness but, the principle is that the customer is much more valuable to you, than you are to them. They have multiple choices on where to spend their money, but you need every customer you can get.

One of The 20 Most Important Customer Service Skills You Need To Have is to not easily be offended. As someone that is leading a business, you need to make it clear to your employees that they need to be able to brush off mean comments and get to the heart of the matter. Realise that the customer is irate not with them personally, but with the situation. And rather than lose this customer to another business, the main focus is to solve their problem as quickly as possible and always remaining helpful, courteous and understanding of their plight. People don’t call up customer complaint lines just for fun, they have a serious problem that needs to be taken care of in order to retain their trust in the business.

Don’t fool them with ‘new’ releases

Some companies are more guilty of doing this than others but once it happens, no one will ever forget. Giving false hope of any kind will badly hurt your relationship with your customers. If a new product is coming out, make sure that it is actually new and not just an updated version. Sadly, the once great company of Apple is known for doing this. The iphone X was it’s flagship model, however now their new apparent model is the iphone Xs Max. Nothing much as changed except some small features that do not justify the $1,500 price tag. It’s basically just the same model, with a slightly faster processor and better camera. The same can in fact be said for its rival Samsung. The Samsung S8 and S9 were released very closely and yet the only slight improvement on the S9 is the camera aperture.

Customers are rightfully angry at this and see it as the companies just trying to fleece as much money from thief customers as possible. If you are planning on bringing out a new product or service, make sure that it is actually new in terms of the fundamentals. If you are able to interchange the previous models by around 50% with the new versions, you’re not working hard enough to create a big enough change. You are improving something, but your business should not state the improvement as something new, but rather an upgraded version of what you already sell. Save the new launches of services and products for when it is wholly true.

Send out a survey

The old tried and tested method of gaining feedback, is the email survey. It may be a very well-known way of asking customers their opinions about all sorts of things, but it doesn’t make it any less relevant to today. Rather than the generic survey questions, you can ask questions pertaining to satisfaction of service and how the customer feels they have been treated by your business. Brace yourself for some harsh truths but if it makes customers respect you more, since you can take onboard their criticism, then the better relationship you have with them. By all means, use the classic extremely dissatisfied to extremely satisfied clickable options, but allow the customer to leave comments for every question section.

Common courtesy is something your customers expect, not something that is extra. However, respect is another issue as proving your care about their business with you through your actions is the only way it will have any meaning. Employees at the customer service need to have a thick skin, as they will be subjected to verbal abuse at times. This is so that the customer is not lost due to an outburst and lack of emotional control by the worker. Online chat etiquette is the same way, as politeness should be standard. If there is a mishap with an order, respond to that customer as quickly as you can and send out what they ordered with a premium delivery option, free of charge.