Focusing on the customers’ needs from their point of view and not from the business view plays a big role in discovering and understanding your customer service, areas of improvement and wonderful customer experiences. The customer always comes first.
The best way to understand and delight a customer is to first think like the customer. Once you think like the customer, you are able to know what the customer wants and give the best service based on their previous experiences and current needs.
How do you think like your customer?
What does the customer want from you?
You can gather this from the requests and suggestions on call or on various social media platforms. You can also gather this information from the information collected from the outbound team.
How can you give them what they want?
You first need to know what they value in your business, not what is of value to you or what you think is important to them. By doing this, you will understand what will actually delight your customers and make them loyal to you.
You must also ensure that your business sticks to the set T&Cs to the letter.
What challenge is the customer facing?
Do not assume based on their first statement.
Some of the customers may be saying one thing but actually mean the other; where I work most customers confuse the App, the website, the pin, and the password. So before giving a solution probe, probe, and probe more.
The assumption will make you give the best solution to something that does not actually solve the customer’s problem. This, in turn, leads to a repeat call and we do not want that.
How has the customer tried to overcome the challenge?
This is a good question to ask the customer before bombarding with unnecessary information.
Asking this question helps understand the customer’s mindset and their product knowledge. With this information, you not only understand the customer’s frustration but also know the best approach to their problem.
More often than not, I have interacted with customers who say they have tried a million and one times to create a new password but on proper probing, the main challenge is that they cannot remember their pin.
What impact does the customer’s problem pose to your organization?
A disgruntled customer may, in turn, stop using your products and move to your competitors. This does not end, the customer may give a bad review about your product or even tell those close to him about his frustrations thus more people lose trust in your service.
One unhappy customer can lead to more than one-person losing trust in your product.
As a customer service professional, it is best to have a list of possible risks your customer may face for example delayed payments, high prices, lack of product understanding, also have a list and responses for the frequently asked questions.
For customers who compare your product with your competitors, find the best responses, which show why they should stick with you despite you not offering what your competitor has.
Do not ignore your customer; ignoring any question is more like not offering service. This is very common online where we chose to ignore some concerns raised by customers. Acknowledge their concerns and give a solution.
More often than not, your customers will ask why your prices are higher than your competitors’ prices, why your service is not as good as that offered by your competitor, why you do not offer product X yet your competitor does and at some point even threaten to leave your brand because of high prices or lack of a product they feel is better for them.
As a service professional, you should have predetermined responses for such and this is the point to upsell your product and even use quality to convince your customer. Do not give a response like we are better than company XYZ because of… instead, align your response along with the customer’s needs and what you have. Customers need value for their money; they need to know what is in it for them.
Next time you are handing a customer either on call on online, place yourself in the customer’s shoes.
