CrossCheck Blog

CrossCheck Blog

Check Processing & Payments Information

Serious About Service

Posted by Kris Coughtry | Fri, Apr 15, 2011 @ 11:26 AM

How is your service? Everyone has a customer service horror story...excruciating wait times on hold, unresponsive or unfriendly help, inaccessible hours, the list goes on. These experiences can destroy a hard-earned relationship with a business, affect future sales and referrals and, in extreme cases, even cause legal problems. Focusing on good customer service, on the other hand, can reinforce your customer relationships and help strengthen your business. Here are five tips to make sure your customer service really does serve your customer.


  1. Be Available: Do you provide customer service when your customers really need you? If you have customers throughout the country (or the world), having someone available to accommodate different time zones is important. Being staffed during off hours may impact your costs, but consider your cost to acquire new customers. In addition, being available on the weekend, or ideally 24/7, can be one way to differentiate your business from your competitor's. If you do have selected hours for your customer service, make sure to let your customers know when your customer service is available by publishing it on your web site and in company materials. Also include frequently asked questions or typical customer service inquiries on your site to help answer those questions that don't need personal attention.
  2. Train Well: Poorly trained employees reflect negatively on your company and can hurt or ruin customer relationships. A well trained staff is better equipped to answer questions, of course. But providing correct knowledge and consistent training is something every business owes it's employees. A well trained staff member is able to answer questions confidently, correctly and quickly and this can directly translate into a positive attitude about the job and company. This is often crucial in a high-stress customer service position where frustration can creep into a conversation. Consider offering your staff certificates or awards for accomplishing varied levels of training. This contributes to employee retention, another way to improve your business.
  3. Help Resolve: When a customers' concern can't be addressed immediately or satisfactorily on the initial call, provide a next step. Being able to "take it higher" is an effective way of letting your customers know you appreciate their concerns and are willing to work with them to resolve their issues. For issues that can't be resolved, just having some additional attention is sometimes enough to relieve some of your customers' frustration and concern. Escalation can also bring to light recurring issues that may need correcting on an operational level.
  4. Reach Out: Customer service shouldn't be only in-bound. Consider calling your customers if their business has slowed down or stopped altogether. Outbound calls to your existing customers can be an opportunity to address an outstanding problem and get them back on track, or maybe their business needs have changed and there exists a new product or service to introduce to them. Use this as an opportunity to check in and reinforce the relationship or sometimes just say thanks for the business . Have a promotion coming up, a new service to introduce? Let your customers know in advance. They'll appreciate it.
  5. Add Value: Do your customers need training or support to use your product or service? Give value to your customers by providing free training or materials or send out supplies at no charge. Do you have a new product or service coming out? Consider sending out a sample or perhaps a link to a demo. Can you offer online reporting or information that will be useful to your customers? Make sure they know about it. If you have a product newsletter distribute it to your customers at no charge and fill it with tips and tools that will help their business. Providing value and keeping your name in front of your customers are positive ways to keep them coming back to you.

CrossCheck provides 24/7/365 customer service at no additional charge. Contact us for more information or call (888) YES-2CHX (937-2249).

 

Written by Kris Coughtry