How To Survive Losing Touch With Customers (And Other Customer Support Tips)

It’s likely that some of your leads will be reaching out to your customer support team. Them reaching out to you might happen via:

• Email.
• Social media – public posts or private messaging.
• A live chat box on your Website.
• A live conversation – phone call, Facetime, Skype, Zoom.

You will need to be available and service your customers via the systems they want to use. You also wouldn’t get to choose your customers hours… the hours of service will be based on when they want to be served.

When customers come calling, respond FAST – within minutes, within 24 hours, never within too many days.  Customers tend to want answers now especially if it’s their first purchase decision. If you fail to get back to them quickly enough on let’s say email, then they might contact you on Facebook, or Twitter, then on maybe live chat, or they might phone you… all this creates extra work for customer support team. 

Keeping them waiting will also get them annoyed. An annoyed customer experience will lessen their trust in you, making the order harder to get. Make it all about ease and speed when it comes to the sales process.

You don’t need to turn your customer support channels on 24/7 by next week. It’s important to provide great customer support, but you also need to make a profit, so your focus should be on changes that will make the biggest impact on customers for the right price first. Test and optimize everything.

Start out by first working on what you are currently capable to provide. Which ones can you cover well enough right now, and which should be delayed until a future date? Ask yourself:

• Which customer support channels you should be providing and using?
• What will be the hours of customer support operations?
• How will you implement?  Should you outsource?  Staggered working hours?

When dealing with customer support or inquiries, a ticketing system can help you and your customers keep track of requests. This can dramatically lower the burden on you and your staff to respond to status updates, phone calls and emails. It also gives your customer confidence that their request can be tracked and hasn’t disappeared into thin air.

These are just some of the tools that can help you continue to fight the trust bias that continue to plague small businesses. When you use these tools, you can punch above your weight and be seen as a professional business, even if you’re just starting out.

While these tools aren’t a replacement for having great products and great service, they can help you manage perception. Always ensure your team delivers great customer support on a consistent basis.  Stay focused on your marketing and soon perception will become a reality.

Your customer support team needs training in the technicalities of outstanding service, but more importantly about how everything fits into the Interaction.

Training should be provided to your customer support team but more importantly about how everything they do fits into the interaction with customers.

Ensure the support team gains an understanding in:

• The theory of the Interaction – why it’s important and its impact.
• What key messages being put out there?
• What is being done to improve things further?
• Show them what marketing is currently live.
• Explain the audience you’re attracting to your business.

You also need to have systems in place to enable your customer support team to do their part in building on the interaction with customers.  Make sure they have the training, resources, and systems in place to deliver on the promise you made to your prospects from the beginning of the Interaction.

How Can Customer Support Help in Getting Them to Buy Again?

At this Stage you must keep on top of everything.

Your customer support team needs to do everything already discussed, in addition to delivering a great order.  At this Stage, it’s more than just getting your customer support right, it’s also about the delivery.

The delivery needs to go well, as this will prove to customers that they’ve placed their trust in the right business.  You must ensure:

• Your delivery method (digital, couriers, etc.) lives up to all you’ve promised.
• Delivery information is accurate and simply provided to the customer.
• Basic expectations are met when products arrive in perfect condition.
• All expectations are met by making sure products live up to everything that’s been promised.

When something goes wrong, fix it fast and well.

Nobody wants an upset customer, but an angry buyer could be a great opportunity to show how much you care. A customer dissatisfied due to their order going wrong, if you serve them well by fixing the problem fast, that customer can become a lifetime one that frequently buys.

Make sure your team has the training to fix problems and the flexibility to do so fast, without having to jump through a lot of hoops to keep customers happy.