A guide to why customer service is important to businesses
Customer service is something that every business needs to focus on and in this customer service guide, we’ll give you all the information you need to start optimising your approach and give your customers the care, attention and support that they need.
Here at Sigma Connected, our approach to customer service is rooted in outsourcing – it’s a smart, cost-effective approach that enables businesses to provide top-class service without the significant resources and costs associated with managing customer care in-house.
If you’re looking for outsourced customer service solutions, get in touch with a member of our team today!
Once we understand your challenges, we’ll help you to design a bespoke suite of services that are tailored to tackle your challenges as a business, ensuring that you have all the tools, manpower, and analytics that you need to maintain high levels of performance from your customer service offering.
For more information on the importance of customer service to both your customers and your business, carry on reading below!
Why it’s important to your customers
To your customers, the service they receive when they’re contacting your business has a huge impact on how they’ll respond to your brand in the future.
As is the case in many different aspects of life, you only have one chance to make a good first impression.
And that’s what your customers will be looking for when they reach out to your customer service teams for support or advice as they make their way through the intended customer journey and the post-sale support funnel.
Here are the top reasons it’s important to provide your customers with the best level of customer service possible:
1. It’s what they expect
In the fast-moving world that we live in, there’s very little room for things that don’t meet expectations – customers need a friendly, knowledgeable point of contact if they have an issue with your product or service.
Pair this with an expectation for high-level service amidst a sea of serious competition in every industry and it’s easy to see why it’s so important to spend the right amount of time, effort, and resources to ensure that your customers have quick and efficient access to a helpful team of customer service professionals.
2. It helps to improve the customer journey
Another thing that often causes problems for customers is the customer journey that they travel along as they learn about your products/services and the USPs that you present to them.
Whether it’s a lack of accessible information, a problem with the payment process, or simply confusion over pricing, it’s important to give your customers the option to get in touch when they’re needing support.
By giving your customers the option to chat with a representative of your business, you’re adding a human touch and a degree of transparency that’s valued so highly by customers.
And it’s these little differences that can make all the difference when it comes to gaining a customer and retaining a customer.
With Sigma Connected’s outsourced customer service teams, you’ll be able to scale your capacity for handling calls, replying to emails, monitoring social media and managing automated touchpoints (such as chatbots) in one swift move.
Using our industry-leading integrated tools, we’re able to keep a close eye on all of your currently active customer service channels, ensuring that every customer query is handled with speed and compassion, giving your customers the experience that they desire every time they get in touch.
The benefits for your business
In 2022, if there’s any way to gain an edge over your competitors, you need to take it.
Whether it’s the ability to enter the market at a lower price point, promotions and sales, alternative payment methods, or any other avenue that could set your business apart from your direct competition, it’s always worth considering.
In our opinion, one of the most valuable ways that you can look to gain this edge over the competition and secure/retain customers is through your customer service capabilities – whilst you may not be able to control the cost of production and shipping, you are capable of tailoring your customer service protocols to treat customers with the level of respect and care that they deserve.
Here are some of the most prominent ways that an expert customer service offering can work to the advantage of your business:
It adds value on top of your goods/services
In many industries, there may only be very subtle differences in the products or services that you’re looking to sell when compared with those offered by your rivals.
So in many cases, it may not be the quality of the product that sways customers but the experience that they’re given when shopping with your business.
What this means is that your customer service could actually be a way to add value to customers on top of your products and services, giving them an additional reason to choose your business over others in your field.
In times when customers are spoiled for choice when browsing the market for options, the prospect of buying from a supplier that’s renowned for the quality of care that they provide to customers could be the deciding factor.
It leads to increased customer retention
Of course, the biggest impact that high-quality customer service will have on your business comes after a sale has been made.
The way that customers are treated following a transaction is key to customer retention, with poor customer service likely leading to customer retention rates falling significantly.
Research shows that the process of acquiring a new customer is 5x more expensive for businesses than retaining an existing customer, which makes it all the more important to make sure that you’re offering customers all the support that they need post-sale.
From technical support for faulty items to delivery queries, customers want to be able to speak with a friendly, experienced customer service representative who can help them to resolve their issues as quickly as possible, without the need for multiple calls and emails.
Sigma Connected’s expert customer service team is well versed in providing customers with accurate technical support, balanced with calming compassion and an understanding of the inconveniences caused.
This helps you to engage with customers in a more professional and productive manner, leading to happier resolutions across the board.
It helps you to generate positive reviews
Before they engage with your business to make a purchase, customers want reassurance that they’re choosing the right seller, which means it’s crucial to ensure that your business has a positive profile amongst the correct target audiences.
But how do you ensure that your business is presented as a positive, reputable choice to potential customers?
Reviews are a key factor in securing confidence from your customers – with a visible history of happy customers, new potential consumers feel much more at ease when buying from your business.
This helps them to feel more assured in progressing with their purchase, increasing the number of customers that you’ll be able to connect with.
To ensure that your customer reviews are overwhelmingly positive, it’s essential to ensure that you’re maintaining high customer satisfaction in every aspect of your operation, including customer service.
With Sigma connected’s customer service team, you can feel confident in the quality of your customer service solution – our friendly, personable, and empathetic team are available to help you manage customer relationships and solve customer queries.
In turn, this reduces the number of negative customer experiences and the frequency of poor reviews from verified customers.
Improving your customer service with Sigma Connected
If you’d like to find out more about our outsourced customer service solutions, it’s time to get in touch with our team!
Fill out the contact form here on our website and a member of our team will be in touch as soon as possible to discuss your current customer service experience, areas for improvement and your capacity needs to ensure that you’ve got the right solutions for your needs.
Alternatively, head over to our insights page for the latest news and information, as well as our Case Studies page where you’ll be able to check out how we’ve been able to assist businesses just like yours in amplifying the impact and efficiency of their customer service solutions using outsourced teams.
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