The customer experience, that’s what it’s all about, right? Ensuring that your customers have a positive interaction with your business helps to increase sales and returning customers. But knowing how to provide an excellent customer service can be challenging. How do you effectively connect with and communicate with your customers while trying to make a sale?
For companies that are primarily interacting with clients and customers on the phone, this can present its own unique challenges, since you aren’t able to see facial expressions or read body language. However, the good news is that are a few things that anyone can apply to their customer service that will help to enhance it, whether it’s in person or over the phone.
7 Tips for Providing Exceptional Customer Service
1. Personalise the experience.
You want to make the conversation a pleasant experience. One way to do that is to remember small details about the customer, such as if they have pets or children, or where they live. Ask questions (not too many though) that don’t relate to the sale. Such as what is the weather where they are located, or the ages of their children or names of their pets.
Also, be sure to mention the customer by name and introduce yourself right from the start.
Another thing that you can do is to offer a bit of personal information about yourself, as that helps to “humanise” your interaction. Something so simple as saying that you love skiing (or mentioning that you also have children) is a great way to connect with the customer.
2. Educate yourself.
Prior to the conversion, try to learn as much as possible about the customer. That way, you aren’t wasting your time or theirs, and you will know how to present your products or services in a way that will best benefit them.
If you can immediately let the customer know what you are offering and why it would be in their best interested in purchasing it, you have a better chance of getting their attention.
3. The final sale is not the end goal.
Yes, the goal is to convince the customer to realise why they need a product or service and then make a sale. But there’s more than that. The goal should be to have returning customers.
If you are effective in your customer service, you should be able to not only show the customer why they need to make a sale but the benefits of returning to buy more.
This is what really shows an effective customer experience.
4. Be polite.
Yes, this can sometimes be difficult. People often feel more comfortable being rude when they are not face to face with you, and may even be annoyed at receiving a phone call. However, the number one rule of customer service is to never be rude to the customer. Always be courteous and friendly, even when dealing with angry, or hostile customers.
5. Give a CTA.
The best way to encourage a customer to make a decision or to take action is to give them a call to action. This may mean presenting something as exclusive, or a special deal. If you get off the phone with the customer there is a good chance they will never follow through with signing up, making a purchase, etc. You may want to phrase your wording with, “This deal ends soon”, or, “We have limited sign-up available”, or something similar to create a sense of urgency.
6. Be transparent.
This means being honest with the customer. Highlight the pros and cons of what you are offering, so that you don’t appear biased, and speak plainly (a phone conversation is not the time to use fancy technical terms). You are trying to inspire confidence and trust with your phone conversation and don’t want to seem vague or uninformed about what you are offering.
7. Be intuitive.
Be aware of boundaries and if the customer seems to be feeling uncomfortable adjust your behaviour and the conversion. Remember, you want this to be a pleasant interaction for the customer, and if at any point they seem to out of their comfort zone change your tactic or the conversion topic.
A report by RightNow Technologies showed that 86% of U.S. adults are willing to pay extra for better customer experience, while 73% of U.S. adults reported that a positive customer service made them fall in love with a brand. So, data is proving that excellent customer service is directly related to a company’s success.
If you are wondering how you can improve your customer experience, there are services like Omni, that allow you to have a customer call centre right at your fingertips. Omni provides a full phone support system, enabling your company to provide the very best customer phone support.
With Omni, you can remove the complications that involve desk phones and PABX equipment as there is zero hardware when you use Omni. With features such as a virtual receptionist, voicemail transcription, and real-time notifications, Omni is your all-in-one solution for a virtual phone system.
Learn more about how Omni Hotline can help you to build a better business!
