THE CUSTOMERS!! WHAT THEY WANT AND EXPECT

Your company’s customer service can make or break you. Of almost 1,000 consumers polled, 92 per cent say they would stop purchasing from a company after three or fewer poor customer service experiences. Twenty-six per cent of those would stop after just one bad experience. That’s according to Gladly’s 2018 Customer Service Expectations Survey

The numbers are out, and the stats and facts are a compelling argument that if you haven’t fine-tuned your customer service efforts, you could be facing a gloomy future.

Customers expect more than ever before. I’ve have sounded this notice to my colleagues and management of my firm that today’s customers no longer compare you just to your direct competition. You are being compared to the best service they have ever received, from any company or any person. It could be a salesperson, a marketing store, even an online merchant or any business. Customers are now fully aware of what great customer service looks like, and they expect it from you.

What else do customers expect?

Customers Expect Zero Repeats: When there is a problem, they only want to tell their story one time. They don’t want to repeat it to multiple customer service agents. Furthermore, if the customer makes a complaint online with a chatbot, an agent who takes over should be asking questions about the complaint, not asking the customer to repeat the story. Customers expect no repeats, one answer and multiple channels. According to the survey, 71 per cent desire a consistent experience across any channel, but only 29 per cent receive it.

Customers Expect a Personalized Service: It used to be that customers wanted a fast response to their questions or complaints. Now they want the experience to be personalized. Sixty-one per cent of the people surveyed felt they were treated like case numbers rather than people. To them, that must stop. The survey found that 59 per cent of customers said being treated as an individual was more important than how fast the issue was resolved (53 per cent). The numbers are close, but the point is that customers want to be treated like people, not account numbers. And, if you can deliver both speed and personalization, you have a winning combination.

Customers want Consistent Answers: Seventy-six per cent of customers receive conflicting answers from different support agents when asking the same questions. This is a real dilemma. It causes confusion and a loss of the customer’s confidence. It’s not uncommon to hear customers claim that if they don’t like an answer they receive from a support rep, they just hang up, call back and present the same question to a different rep. There is an old saying that insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result. Unfortunately, with many support centres, this kind of irrationality and inconsistency does exist.

For those that can meet the customers’ needs and want, bearing the above factors in mind there will be ever-increasing expectations and this expectation will be that customers will be willing to pay for goods and services. Please bear in mind that good service doesn’t cost rather it pays.

When customers’ needs and wants are met adequately and in the right manner, the business will experience:

Repeat Purchase:  It is on record that organizations that meet customers’ expectations have a return rate of 68% of the total customers. Amazing, isn’t it. That is what good customer service can do.

Loyal Customers:  This group of customers will never patronize your competitors no matter what. This is because they are loyal to your goods or services rendered and are ready to defend it at all cost.

Positive Word of Mouth: In the market parlance this is the quickest and best form of advertisement. Here, somebody tells one to tell one to tell others. And it goes on and on without you paying for the information been spread around about your goods and services.