In the realm of customer service, consistency is the honey that holds everything together. This begins and ends with your brand’s outreach and communication efforts. If your customers are attempting to contact you for a customer service issue, then you need to provide a solution that is streamlined across all access points. From your social media to review sites to telephone communication, your company should provide consistent customer service. Let’s take this a step further and discuss how you can make this happen each and every time a customer tries to contact your company.
Savvy Social Media
Whether your business is most popular on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter is not the issue here. Anywhere that your business has a profile on social media that profile needs to be updated regularly and consistently in use. Your social media profiles are the first line of contact for most potential customers who turn to the web to do their business research. On your social media profile, all contact information must be up-to-date and accurate. Furthermore, you need to use your social media profile to the best of your abilities. In the instant days of the internet, customers are frequently turning to social media to ask customer service-style questions and voice complaints. Be ready for this. Every time you receive a customer service question via social media, you need to have a customer service rep there ready to answer them specifically and accurately.
Business Review Sites
Along the same lines as social media are publicly available review sites discussing businesses. Some of the most popular of these include Yelp and TripAdvisor. Start by searching for your business on these sites; chances are likely your business has been reviewed. Typically a review is a customer service complaint, but many reviewers also voice their satisfaction with a business. Take both of these to heart. Begin with the customer service issues and answer each question or comment directly. Offer to provide further assistance with any complaints, and provide multiple points of contact for the customer. If your business has been deemed negatively by several reviewers, use a voice of reason here rather than losing your temper. This is an ideal time to take the constructive criticism and improve your business. Review sites are free ways for you to gain feedback on your business, which can help you grow and evolve.
Telephone Tactics
While the majority of customer service issues are being handled via the Internet, such as through emails, chat lines and social media, the telephone holds its own for customer service communication. Whenever a customer wants to speak with a real person, they depend on the telephone for that form of contact. Take advantage of this by ensuring your customer service reps are on point with their responses and the information they provide. Start by creating a dialog that involves moving from the greeting to the close while keeping a conversation constructive and positive for the customer. Make sure to include a professional greeting and closing that is encouraging to the customer, since the majority of calls made to businesses are due to a complaint or issue. Avoid showing any hostility or rude behavior over the telephone, no matter how negative or disheartened the customer. The key phrase to remember here is to use kindness to overrule the conversation.
A Professional Answering Service
If you are concerned with providing customer service across all channels on a regular basis, you aren’t alone. Many businesses outsource their answering service needs as a way to ensure their customer service is aligned. Here at MAP Communications we offer total answering and call center management. Our goal is to create a streamlined process from the point of contact, whether that is on social media, through review sites or on the telephone, to the close of the conversation. Through our professional customer care call center services, your business has the capacity to elevate your current customer service experiences.
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