A business is a totally different ball game as compared to any other profession or job. That’s because in a business there are a lot of different things that need to work together seamlessly and simultaneously in order to make it work.
Any problem in any one of the departments can prove to be catastrophic for the whole business. That is why owning a business is no child’s play.
When it comes to a job, you just have to work a set number of hours and just go home, while a business is a full-time job as there are different avenues to manage like accounts, sourcing, manufacturing, technical aspects, quality assurance, human resource, marketing, and probably the most important out of all of these, customer service.
Since in the current consumer-oriented market no business can thrive without a proper customer service department that is always present to cater to all the needs and queries of a customer.
After the pandemic, there has been a rapid shift observed in consumer behaviour. Where the consumers in the past were quick to switch companies and service providers.
In contrast to that, a consumer of today wants to stick to their brand. So subsequently, to stick to a brand and the decision of initiating a business comes after a lot of background checks and scrutiny.
Since a customer is willing to stick to a company for the long term and spend their hard-earned money on their products or services year over year, so to ensure they make the right decision, an average customer does extensive research about a brand before deciding to buy even small and insignificant things.
They extensively check user reviews to get an idea about the price, quality of service, and most importantly the customer service of that particular brand.
On the other hand of the spectrum, brands have become desperate for new customers. That’s because the pandemic had been the worst time for every type of business no matter how big or small.
And as the situation is getting stable and life is returning to normalcy, brands are spending heavily on aggressive marketing tactics in order to lure more and more customers to gain back the profits in order to cover up the losses endured during the pandemic.
While the unfortunate state of today is that due to immense saturation there are more products than customers to sell to. So in these desperate times when customers have so many options and attractive offers, and discounts to choose from.
One simple mistake from any business can make them lose a chunk of customers, for eternity probably. And since the most powerful tool of customer retention is good customer service, we can’t emphasize enough why it is essential for a business of today.
Why Customer Service Is Important Today?
We have explained above how the consumer pattern has changed and how important a single review of a customer can be for any business. But apart from a brand’s image building and positive word of mouth, customer service is something that directly influences the revenue streams of a business.
The longer the customer stays with a business the more profitable it becomes over time. This is due to the increase in a metric called CLTV (Customer’s Lifetime Value) and it is a well-known business fact that acquiring a new customer can be 3 to 4 times more expensive than retaining an existing one.
And thus customer retention is the direct responsibility of the customer service team so it is evident how big of a role customer service plays in increasing the revenue of any company.
This was the approach taken up by Cox Communications, the third-largest cable company in the country today. Cox had humble beginnings back in 1960 and it was only due to their excellent customer service that Cox communications is rated at such a prestige level today. This is only because Cox takes care of every type of customer without any discrimination.
In fact, they have separate customer service channels for both English and Spanish-speaking customers in the country. English speakers can just visit the website or call customer support for any assistance, and Spanish customers can go to Cox Servicio al cliente en Español.
This should be the approach of every business, which wants to become successful in this consumer-oriented market of today. However, for the customer service department to work properly, there should be a basic understanding of the core components that make a customer service department successful.
Basic Components Of Customer Service
There are some basics of customer service, which are enough if done in the right way to provide an excellent customer experience to the users. The list below details some of those basics.
Communication Skills
The basic building block for any good customer service team is effective communication skills. Since communication skills are the only thing an agent has through which either they can satisfy the customer and retain them or make them frustrated and lose them.
So good communication skill is necessary in order to remain in a customer service job as all other components are founded on communication skills in a customer interaction role.
Problem Solving Skills
Another core component that is ever so important in customer service is analytical and problem-solving skills. That’s because more often a customer that reaches out to customer service is in distress and requires some kind of solution to their problem in regards to their product or service.
That is why the agent on the other end needs to possess strong problem-solving skills to effectively resolve the problem a customer is facing in a timely manner in order to improve customer satisfaction.
Patience
Patience is the key in any customer interaction job. Because most customers that interact with a customer service team are desperate, angry, or confused and most of the time a mixture of all these. That is why it requires a great amount of patience to hear their problem and in most cases a long list of problems with occasional abuses.
However, a good customer service team figures out the problem and finds a solution out of this gibberish, something that is only possible if they have an adequate amount of patience to bear such pressure situations.
Summing Up
There is no doubt that customer service is a tough job, however, this is also a fact that there are some basic principles and core components of customers like the ones mentioned above which if learned correctly can do wonders in terms of the success of a customer service department and for a business in the long run.
