It comes as no surprise that businesses that provide great customer service not only become successful, but gain customer loyalty. We’ve all been in frustrating situations – be it with airlines, banks or retail stores – where one helpful employee who never lost their nerve and assisted you with your issue to the best of their ability made you appreciate the company, even if they couldn’t completely solve your issue.
When setting up your company’s customer service policies, keep in mind the great interactions you’ve had when you’ve reached out to other business’s customer service reps, and stress to your team the importance of helping and respecting customers who get in touch due to issues with your product.
Here are five ideas to get you started:
- Set up an FAQ on your website
This may seem obvious, but it’s sometimes a page that new companies completely forget about when setting up their website. By adding an FAQ page addressing questions you can see customers asking about your company and products, it’s entirely possible you’ll provide the answers to simple questions that many people - Provide as much service online as possible
Considering how boring it can be to sit on hold for minutes on end waiting for a customer service representative to take your call, a company that provides online customer service is greatly appreciated. As a startup, it’s likely that you won’t be able to provide 24/7 service, but there is still a lot you can do – especially for simple issues. Look into social media features like chatbots you can implement into your business’s page, which can assist in answering quick questions from customers. If their problem is complex, the chatbot can then refer them to a human representative. - Set up a call-back service
In the same vein as setting up a chatbot to assist, setting up a call-back service where customers can log their issue online and then be alerted to when they can expect to receive a call from a customer service agent. Just make sure that your team is calling back when the customer expects them to, and everything should go smoothly. - Offer free shipping over a certain spend and next-day local delivery
Yes, even as a startup – especially as a startup – you should offer free shipping if a customer spends over a certain amount of money with your company. If the spend is a affordable amount – say, $100 – it can often be an incentive for people to spend up to that amount just so they don’t have to pay for shipping. For local orders, you should strive to have those delivered the very next day, either via a courier, or, if need be, having staff members take turns hand-delivering, at least until you’re really up and running. - Always keep it friendly
Though the saying goes ‘the customer is always right,’ that isn’t actually true: customers are often wrong. However, even when a customer is incorrect or having difficulty understanding a policy, you should have your team be calm, patient and as friendly as possible. Even if they can’t solve the person’s problem, they can treat them with respect, and that will hopefully leave the customer with as good an impression of your company as possible.