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Many businesses believe in a simple mantra; “Customer is the king”. It has been emphasized so frequently by motivational speakers and business gurus that it has become yet another business jargon. In fact, organizations spend considerable time and effort in building a kickass customer service team as one of the ways to improve customer service.
Moreover, companies try all from building a sound customer service strategy to buying a good customer support software, they do it all. Despite such painstaking efforts and leveraging multiple ways to improve customer service, the organization still struggle to build harmonious relationships with their customers. So, what could be the possible reason? Is your customer support team not good enough? Sure, they are. Organizations get so engrossed in gratifying their customers that they completely forget about taking care of their employees that gradually becomes the point of difference between successful and unsuccessful businesses.
Virgin Group founder Richard Branson said in his famous interview that he puts his employees first and customers second. Simply put, if your employees are happy, your customers would be happy too. So, besides training your customer service team with excellent customer service skills, you should ponder on the ways to improve customer service by motivating and encouraging your support team too.
First, let’s understand how a motivated support team can impact your customer relations positively.
Happy employees, happy customers
Buying expensive customer support software and training your staff for excellent customer service skills are only a tip of the iceberg when it comes to improving your customer service.
If you want to sweep your customers off their feet, first build a foundation of a motivated and satisfied support team that radiates positive vibes about your company to your customers.
This simple activity benefits you in following ways:
1. Faster and stronger bond with customers
A smile goes a long way in encouraging your customer support to perform better. If your chat executives are content with their job and love their workplace, their attitude is a lot more positive towards work. While serving a customer they will subconsciously bring that positive attitude in their conversations and that transfers to the customer too. In short, they would not say good things about your company just because it’s in the script. Rather, they would do so because they believe in it that causes a larger impact.
Besides, they have a sense of gratitude in themselves. They believe that the company is doing so much for them and they should return the favor by even going out of the way, if need be, to get a customer on board or to retain an existing customer.
2. Convert and retain more customers
Once your employees are content and motivated, they look forward to work for your company and contribute to its growth. Because they truly believe that if the company grows, they will grow with it. As employees stick with you for longer periods, the knowledge that they amass about your product becomes strengthened. They now know your product inside out which results in better client engagement, better customer service experience, and more sales.
3. Differentiate your brand from the competition
Your customer service strategy should be to strengthen your relations with your support team. Because your employees are your biggest asset and if they are content, they can even be a differentiating factor that sets your brand apart from your customer. After all, customers are people, and if they are getting good service from a company, they will always be associated with it.
How to motivate your support team
So, now we know that having a motivated support team is one of the most important ways to improve customer service. Let’s look at some of the activities that would help you achieve your goal:
1. Amiable Work Environment
You should ensure that the workplace is filled with positivity and happiness. Just a friendly work environment can go a long way in imparting happiness to your staff. Ensure that they are getting timely help and assistance whenever they need. Employees commit mistakes, especially when they are new. Instead of lashing out, guide them on what they did wrong and how they should improve it. This builds their confidence and reflects the customer service experience that they provide.
2. Vibrant office space
Dull and gloomy interiors of your office area have a very negative impact on the productivity and psychological well-being of your employees. Ensure that their desks and cubicles are well-illuminated. Try to incorporate vibrant colors on your walls to enhance the zest in your team. You can also try motivational posters and wall decals to pep up the spirits of your employees even more. Moreover, you can also use desk dividers to take care of their privacy.
3. Share positive feedback
It is important to monitor the support team to ensure that they are adhering to the script and system in order to maintain a good quality of customer service. When they commit mistakes, you are there to take notice and point out to them so that they can improve in future. Although it is an absolute necessity, negative feedback hampers employee confidence. Make sure that you balance the negative and positive feedback to keep their spirits high and maintain confidence levels. Appreciation and acknowledgment go a long way and you’ll see a drastic improvement in your customer relations.
4. Empower them with tools to ease their job
If you support team is busy most of the time in handling paperwork and making reports, they’ll never become productive. With decreased productivity, their motivation levels will drop down too as they’ll feel that no matter how hard they try, they can’t generate good results. Hence, make sure that you invest in up-to-date tools (such as customer support software) that make the mundane tasks easier for your staff so that they can focus their whole mind on just one thing. Making your customer happy!
5. Ensure proper training
This is your duty to train them properly so that they can get their job done in a better and faster manner, with as much ease as possible. Besides focusing on excellent customer service skills, product knowledge and soft skills should also be a part of the complete training for every team member. After undergoing a holistic training, the support team would be better prepared for their job, which results in a much better client engagement.
6. Break the monotony
Repetitive jobs tend to get boring very soon and same is the case with customer support service. There are lots of small initiatives that can be taken to get rid of this monotony and inject fresh zeal in your team members. For example, make Friday a casual dressing day. Or simply convert your Thursday into Pizza Thursday! These small steps can make big difference in the performance of your support team.
7. Offer growth opportunities
Show your employees the path forward. Motivate them to reach higher positions that they can attain with better performances. Nothing encourages anyone than the appraisal that is waiting for them at the other end of excellent work.
8. Allow flexibility
One of the ways to improve customer service is allowing flexibility to your team. Although discipline is very important in the functioning of your customer service team, a flexible approach can be helpful to smooth things up. For example, allowing two members to swap their shifts.
9. Listen to their perspective
Simply attending to your employee’s pain points can bring a difference in their performance. Many times they are having a genuine problem in work or in their personal life at home. Understanding their viewpoint as a human being is necessary for creating an emotional bond with them.
10. Involve their families
Another great way to motivate your customer service team is by sharing a team member’s positive feedback, appreciation, and rewards with their family members. Even a small gesture like a certificate of appreciation being sent to someone’s family member means a lot to the employees. Invite them to office events if possible or share a newsletter with them from time to time.
11. Group motivation games and activities
This is one of the most fun ways to improve customer service through support team encouragement. When your support staff members are engaged in team activities and interesting games, they foster good relationships among themselves and their happiness quotient increases. There are a lot of firms out there who help with corporate team sessions for such activities. With better team dynamics, your stress-free support team would attend your clients with a smiling face and a positive attitude.
Summing up Ways to Improve Customer Service
Investing your resources and efforts in nurturing your relationship with your support team is vital for your business since they are your biggest assets. Happy and content employees are the ambassadors of your brand and would always convey positive things to anyone they talk to, including your customers. This results in a much better customer service.
In simpler terms, if your employees are happy, your customers are happy too. So, ensure that you revisit your customer service strategy and include these ways to improve customer service and relations by motivating your support team!
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