Customers are the number one group that you should consider when making decisions for your brand. More than your stakeholders and employees, you should be listening to what consumers have to say about your company and the industry as a whole.

About 96% of consumers reported that customer service plays a significant role in their loyalty to a brand. Moreover, 33% admitted that they abandoned a business because their service lacked personalisation. (1)

Knowing this, it’s no longer enough to have a traditional customer service process. You need to make sure you’re catering to the specific needs and demands of each person in your target audience. Here are some ways you could do this:

 1. Invest in the right tools

Before you can personalise your service, you need to know your customers first. As such, you should invest in the right tools to gather relevant information and reports so you can tailor your services according to the needs and preferences of the consumer groups you want to reach.

These are two facets of customer service that you should optimise with digital tools:

• Customer relationship management – Something as simple as addressing customers by name has a significant impact on making them feel valued by your company. CRM software can help you with this task by serving as a centralised location for all customer information.
• Communication – Calls remain to be a popular way of reaching out to consumers without losing that personal touch. To make your communication with customers even more effective, you’d want to work with a reliable call centre solution provider. This will enable you to deliver the personalised experience that your customers desire. Some of the features you’ll enjoy include:
• automated strategies to facilitate customer self-service,
• ability to connect all your voice and digital channels with a cloud contact centre to elevate agent experience,
• intelligent routing to improve your response times,
• artificial intelligence tools capable of assisting your call centre agents to maximise operational effectiveness,
• built-in quality monitoring and
• automatic tracking and analysis of critical call metrics.
• Nonetheless, there are also people who don’t enjoy taking calls, so you should also invest in other communication platforms like email and chat messaging.

2. Train your agents

Your customer service agents are on the front lines of your business. They interact with customers directly. That means you should make sure they know what they’re doing.

Although answering a client’s call and addressing them by name are good practices, your agents should do more than that. These are the skills that you should teach your team:

• Listening – If you’ve ever experienced calling a company and voicing your complaint only to repeat it without getting anywhere with a brand’s representative, then you know that it can be frustrating. The primary solution to this dilemma is to have agents that know how to listen. Train them to read between the lines and understand where the customer is coming from so that they can address the root of the issue immediately. (2)
• Positive scripting – Aside from listening, you and your team should also be adept at finding solutions rather than focusing on the problem at hand. Positive scripting doesn’t mean that you invalidate the client’s complaints. Rather, you must politely help them see the bright side as well as the possible solutions.

3. Be mindful of your tone

The way you deliver your message, whether verbally or through text, can change how people interpret what you’re trying to say. Knowing this, you should be mindful of your tone, especially when using your official online profiles, whether through your website or social media channels. If you haven’t defined your brand’s voice, you need to determine how you want people to perceive your organisation. You can adopt a playful and casual voice if your target audience is younger people.

Make sure that your tone also matches your industry. For instance, clothing and food businesses can get away with talking informally to their target audience. However, if you’re in the finance or legal sectors, it’d be best to adopt a more authoritative tone to establish yourself as a leader and expert in your field.

4. Respond promptly

Even if you don’t have the answers yet, you should respond to customer queries promptly. Think about it — customers would opt to have any answer at all rather than be left hanging without knowing whether you actually received their inquiry.

Moreover, the back-and-forth allows you to keep on interacting with a potential customer and, in turn, give you more time to market your products and services to them.

Takeaway

Adding a personal touch to your customer service can elevate consumer experience with your brand. This way, you establish your company as a cut above the rest. Having the right tools, equipping your agents with the knowledge and skills, being mindful of your tone and responding promptly can help you boost people’s perception of your brand. You also gain more sales opportunities and, ultimately, growth.

References

1. “100 Essential Customer Service Statistics and Trends for 2021”, Source: https://www.nextiva.com/blog/customer-service-statistics.html
2. “16 Ways to Make Your Customer Service More Personal”, Source: https://www.nicereply.com/blog/personal-customer-service/