Taking care of your business is not something we need to teach you. How you run your tasks, how you create your vision, and how you express yourself, is only and truly up to you. We can only give tips and guide beginners into becoming the best entrepreneurs they can be.
This is why at first, I thought it was weird to explain how important it is to provide great customer support. However, after revisioning how many beginners struggle with the ways to do their best at that, I decided to share with you some guidance.
1. Know Your Services and Products
When it comes to website managing or owning an eCommerce, there’s a bit of difference. And of course, if you’re still a small business runner and if you’re a grown-up. However, the basic matter is who is going to provide the customer service. Are you going to do it by yourself or going to hire someone to do it? And if you no longer have the time to do it, then the person responsible for that should be really well acquainted. Keep in mind that your website hosting is also important for the services you provide to your customers!
2. Be Prepared in Advance
At the beginning of creating your website, you must take a second to build an FAQ page too. And if you still haven’t done it – now would be the time for it. As I previously shared with you, it’s really a time saver having prepared and answered questions. For you, and for your customers. For providing good customer support, also be prepared with having live chat, email, and contacts easily findable, click to call button, and a good plan on how and when to answer.
3. Be Fast
Customer support services can include answering calls, emails, questions in filling forms, and any other kind of communication they choose to begin. Studies show that from an average of 17 hours to answer, now the top 100 companies have lowered it to 12. But the rest, which are smaller, have even lower timing probably due to the freer time they have. But no matter how busy you are, try to provide a fast response to your customers, readers, and website users.
4. Be Honest, Respectful, and Friendly
Honesty is in the basics of every customer support service. If you want to win your customers long-term, not for just one purchase or visit to your website, you must be honest about what they are getting or reading. As well as that, the customer is not always right, but it doesn’t hurt to be friendly with him!
How clearly explain things and how soft your language is, is the key to a nice conversation with a nice outcome! Even if you have to repeat the same thing over, and over again! Which reminds me – honesty also includes admitting to the mistakes you made. If it happened – it happened. There is not much you can do, except admit and prevent it from happening again.
5. Listen
I know when talking about FAQ I said you need to be prepared. But, as well as that, you need to learn how to listen to people’s asking and requests. You can’t possibly figure out all the questions that could be presented to you. So, when a new request or ask appears, listen carefully and then prepare your answer. Great customer support services require full attention.
6. Ask for Feedback
Feedback is really important when you’re running a business. And as I said, it can be just a website, or it can be an eCommerce. Either way, the best way to know how your work is doing is by receiving reviews from customers. With that in mind, it can also help you fix the problems you might not know you’re having. It gives you a new view of perspective and changes your focus when it needs to be changed. Here is how to track online business reviews.
7. Fix the Problems
Not only acknowledging the problems you have but also taking care of them, helps you with getting better at your customer support services. When you listen and ask for feedback you’ll get a lot of ideas of what needs to be changed. This is the main key to everything we’re talking about here. Because nothing will change unless you start doing something about it. And of course, if there’s a need.
8. Focus on the Relation
Customer support services are for the customers! They are not about sales. In long term – yes, maybe. But right now, you have someone waiting for you to hear and acknowledge. So, focus on building a relationship with this someone and take care of him. Even try to remember a name or two, just to straighten the relation.
9. Say “Thank you”
The best way to end the journey of customer support services is to appreciate the time and effort someone put into it. Hopefully, you’ll hear those two words first, from the customers, but don’t forget you should be thankful too. Your experience enriches and the life of your business can become longer, thanks to people that care enough to connect with you. So, don’t underestimate that! Plus, it gives a nice touch to the communication you had, so just make the other’s day better!
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