{"id":482,"date":"2018-06-07T16:19:25","date_gmt":"2018-06-07T16:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advicoach1.wpengine.com\/va\/2018\/06\/07\/how-does-your-customer-support-rate\/"},"modified":"2018-07-06T04:53:49","modified_gmt":"2018-07-06T04:53:49","slug":"how-does-your-customer-support-rate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/va\/2018\/06\/07\/how-does-your-customer-support-rate\/","title":{"rendered":"How Does Your Customer Support Rate?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You may be a small business owner, but you\u2019re also a customer. With advances in technology, your customer habits have evolved over the years. In fact, your shopping habits are probably smarter than ever before. You compare prices online. You read customer reviews and ratings before spending a dime. And, once you do make a purchase, you <em>only <\/em>stick with a company if it delivers superior customer service.<\/p>\n<p>If the customer experience is subpar, you\u2019ll quickly give your business to someone else. Why the lack of loyalty? Because, you know what a good customer experience is. You\u2019ve experienced it with companies like Apple, Amazon, American Express, and Nordstrom. So, let\u2019s turn this around to <em>your business.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Your business must deliver an excellent customer experience, its survivability depends on it. You may not be competing with Amazon, Apple, Trader Joe\u2019s, or Southwest Airlines, but your customers are going to expect a similar customer experience. \u201cBut my product is better than my competitors!\u201d That\u2019s not enough. These days, customers don\u2019t just compare one company or product to its competitors, they compare the \u201ccustomer experience\u201d to other companies as a whole.<\/p>\n<p>Suppose a customer has a problem with your product or service, and your staff refuses to correct the problem to the customer\u2019s satisfaction. Suppose your company made a mistake, but your employees charged the customer instead of providing a replacement free of charge. Imagine one of your customers had a complaint, but it fell on deaf ears. The point is, customers will compare your customer support to other businesses and when you fall short they are going to ask, \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n<h4><strong>How Does Your Customer Experience Add Up?<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>What is <em>customer experience<\/em>, also known as CX, exactly? According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.digitalgov.gov\/2014\/07\/07\/user-experience-ux-vs-customer-experience-cx-whats-the-dif\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">digitalgov.gov<\/a>, customer experience \u201cencompasses all the interactions a person has with your brand. It might be measured in: overall experience, likelihood to continue use, and likelihood to recommend to others.\u201d<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>A good customer experience gives the customer the ability to:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Have a pleasant interaction with your company.<\/li>\n<li>Have a professional and helpful interaction with your company.<\/li>\n<li>Feel positive about your company and everything they associate with it.<\/li>\n<li>Feel good about their overall <em>experience <\/em>with your company.<\/li>\n<li>Feel as if they would definitely use your company again.<\/li>\n<li>Feel certain that they would recommend your company to their closest friends and family.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Do you feel that when customers use your products or services, they have the positive customer experience described above? If your company has room for improvement, you could be missing out on valuable opportunities to deliver superior customer service, to better retain existing customers, to enjoy more repeat business, and to receive word-of-mouth referrals.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Room for Improvement<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>When your customers have a complaint, do they have to re-tell their story? If so, this is less than ideal. Businesses should have a system that records customer complaints. The first person the customer complains to should take detailed notes so the second person understands what\u2019s happening when they jump on the call. Customers shouldn\u2019t have to tell their story all over again.<\/p>\n<p>Another issue is social media. Is someone at your company monitoring the social media channels for customer feedback? Social media is one of the easiest ways to receive customer feedback and respond to customers, both thanking them for positive reviews and turning negative ones into positive PR opportunities by quickly and effectively resolving a customer\u2019s complaint.<\/p>\n<p>Depending on the size of your company, you may or may not have a customer service department, but that doesn\u2019t change the fact that customer service should always be a priority. When you fail to invest in the customer service initiative, you run the risk of losing valuable business to competitors who are.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Make CX Priority Number One<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>From the first call to your company where the customer reaches the receptionist, to the transfer to the salesman, to the last interaction with your business, the customer should feel valued and appreciated and like their opinion matters. They should receive a seamless, high-touch experience from start to finish, and the ball should not be dropped at any point in the process. When customers contact your company via phone, email, or social media, your company should be equipped to provide a stellar interaction that solves their issues in a friendly and efficient manner.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Don\u2019t Let Technology Stop You<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>As a business owner, it\u2019s important to identify your customers\u2019 main issues and find a practical solution quickly, even if you\u2019ll reach a better solution the following month. And, you don\u2019t need a state-of-the-art customer call center to \u201clisten\u201d to your customers daily on social media. The objective is to take the resources you have and ensure they are geared towards elevating the customer experience.<\/p>\n<p>If your customers aren\u2019t having a positive experience, it\u2019s going to affect your bottom line. If they\u2019re spending their money with you, shouldn\u2019t they walk away feeling like they were given the best customer experience possible? At AdviCoach, we help business owners take their customer support to the next level, and we can help your small business too. All you have to do is give us a call!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You may be a small business owner, but you\u2019re also a customer. With advances in technology, your customer habits have evolved over the years. In fact, your shopping habits are probably smarter than ever before. You compare prices online. You read customer reviews and ratings before spending a dime. And, once you do make a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-growth","category-success"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/va\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/06\/0309.AdviCoach-May1.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/va\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/06\/0309.AdviCoach-May1.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"tforehand","author_link":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/va\/author\/va\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advicoach.com\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}