Good customer service is essential to give your customers a pleasing experience. According to a survey by PwC, 73% of consumers say that customer experience is a key factor in their purchasing decisions. Additionally, a study by American Express found that customers are willing to spend 17% more with companies that provide excellent customer service.
It may happen that at times, your service and customer expectations might not match. As technology advances and becomes more digital, customers are becoming increasingly informed and more likely to demand services at a faster pace. They also expect to have a consistent experience every time they connect with you. If you fall short of meeting your customers’ demands, you may lose out on some good ones. Studies reveal that around 78% of consumers on a transaction did not make an intended sale due to poor customer experience.
Moreover, poor customer service can negatively impact your brand image, with 58% of consumers telling others about their negative experiences. Additionally, it is estimated that it costs five times as much to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one.
In this blog, we shall discuss some reasons why businesses are not able to meet customer expectations. We will also put some light on what steps you can take to bridge this divide and offer services as expected by your customers.
Some customer expectations and reality
Customers want to have connected journeys with consistent interactions with the businesses they follow, however, customer service generally feels like sales.
Most businesses make the mistake of assuming the customer journey. This however provides you only the commercial insights as to what works well for the customer and what does not. It does not reflect the customer’s views, touchpoints, or emotional drivers, leading to dissatisfied and disconnected customer service.
Customers expect companies to understand their unique needs and provide them with personalized customer service, but they end up being treated like numbers.
Personalized customer service involves treating customers as individuals and not as groups based on factors like geographic location, gender, etc. Providing personalized customer experiences increases customer loyalty and enables businesses to carve a place for themselves and gain a sustainable competitive advantage.
Suggested reading: Hyper-personalization is a necessity in the post-pandemic era, states IDC India
The surge of digital transformation after the pandemic led to customers expecting innovation in the services they receive forcing businesses to think of new ways to satisfy customers.
The accelerated use of digital services after the Covid-19 pandemic is making businesses unsure about how they must offer their products and services to maximize profit and improve customer experience. Customers expect constant innovation and a company’s innovative experiences have become as important as the quality of its products. Studies show that 84% of customers consider these factors when deciding to buy products.
In this digital era, data has become extremely valuable and sought after, but customers expect businesses to offer protection for their data.
Customers have started feeling that they no longer have control over how their personal information is used by businesses. Privacy concerns among consumers are increasing with about 65% saying that they are concerned about how personal data is collected, finds the Internet Society and Consumers International. Therefore, businesses must be honest and open with their customers. If you are more transparent in your customer data policies, it will encourage users to trust you more.
Customers expect to receive the same levels of service as portrayed in the commercials, but there is mostly a gap between what is being advertised and offered.
Companies use commercials to build high customer expectations but over-promising services in advertisements do not match what is being delivered to the customer, creating customer service gaps. Businesses must identify and close service gaps to offer high-quality customer service and customer satisfaction.
What businesses must do to deliver a positive customer service?
By providing quality customer service, businesses can improve the overall service experience of customers to match their expectations and reality. Read some ways by which you can improve your customer service delivery and enhance customer satisfaction.
1. Interact with your customer to understand their journey
You must interact with your customers to know what they feel about the products and understand their behavior when they log in to your website. Many tools and means are available by which you can engage with your customers. By using tools for recording customer behavior on your site, conducting exit surveys for customers who discontinue your service, analyzing customer sentiments, and evaluating the Net promoter score, you will get insights into what customers do. This helps you plan how you can improve your service.
2. Resolve customer issues before they cause damage to your business
Once you know how customers interact with your site, you can get an idea about their satisfaction levels and work to improve in those areas. For example, if conversion rates are low, it may be because there are more fields that customers must fill in before checkout. You can try reducing the number of fields by removing unnecessary steps to make the checkout process easier for them.
3. Improve your communication with customers
You must proactively communicate with the customer to improve customer satisfaction and reduce the number of complaints. For instance, in case of any fulfillment issues or service outages, you can inform the customer beforehand so that you can manage their expectations before they feel dissatisfied with your service.
4. Train your team to deliver customer expectations
To serve your customers as they expect, you must ensure that your teams are trained well to do so. They must be aware of what customers want and what they must do to meet those expectations. You must also help your team by providing more training or developmental activities based on requirements.
5. Always do a follow-up with your customers
You must remember to follow up with your customers. This gives them the feeling of being wanted and helps to build trust, loyalty, and reputation. It will also help you resolve any issues faced by customers, For example, in case a customer exits before completing a transaction, you can always do a follow-up to understand why the customer did so and offer help if they are facing any blockers to complete the same. Moreover, you can also ask for reviews or feedback or send notes of appreciation to those customers who bought your products.
6. Invest in technology to keep up with customer expectations
You must optimize your business with the latest technologies to meet growing customer expectations. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are becoming tools to enhance customer experience by streamlining the customer experience, reducing fraud, and offering personalized marketing schemes.
7. Use a customer service management solution
Having a platform where you can streamline your processes based on customer activity and feedback enables you and your team to serve your customers better and provide them with a positive customer experience.
Enhance customer service with ZNetLive
ZNetLive provides you with a unified, streamlined, and intelligent service management solution based on AI technology, enabling you to enhance your service to your customers and maximize efficiency.
How does ZNetLive help you improve customer service:
Complete enterprise service management: Maximize visibility and efficiency across all lines of business by streamlining your service management with Freshservice. This platform brings consistency to various areas such as IT, HR, Facilities, Travel, Legal, and more.
Faster time to value: Freshservice’s AI-powered enterprise platform enhances customer service and employee productivity. Its easy-to-use drag-and-drop integrations allow for swift deployment and effortless adoption at a large scale.
Minimize downtime: In order to achieve effective service and operations management, it is important to bridge the gap between the two and increase reliability. This can be done by using advanced alerting systems to proactively identify critical issues, and by collaborating within a contextually-aware environment to enhance the end-user experience.
Increase CRM team’s efficiency: By providing your agents with an AI-powered service management tool, you can optimize their time and expertise. The tool’s suggestions and responses act as a helpful resource that enables smooth and effortless customer experiences.
Improve employee productivity: Empower your employees to quickly and easily access all IT services. Allow them to connect in their preferred formats, such as MS Teams, Slack, or through the Freshservice chatbot, to enjoy a complete self-service experience with an enriched knowledge base and unified service catalog at their fingertips.
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