6 Customer Service Challenges That Can Be Addressed Through Surveys!

With the burgeoning “age of the customer” looming over our heads, our customers will be the uncontested judges of how customer-centric our businesses are, and how we will inevitably fare in the cutthroat race. No wonder, customer service is receiving an unprecedented spot in the lime light!

An enhanced customer service has a direct bearing on the bottom line. In fact, a meek shift in customer experience for a $10 billion company can result in $103 million from word of mouth marketing and a $116 million reduction in churn. The furious advances in technology are constantly evolving the field of customer service, and while this paves way for new opportunities for companies, it also poses challenges in terms of customer service that must be resolved without a second’s delay.

However, until you gather customer feedback and know what your customers have in mind, you are bound to make strategic business decisions that are misaligned with your customer interests, eventually resulting in disgruntled, begrudging customers (ex-customers). Here we have listed out the most common challenges faced by customer service representatives and how they can leverage the voice and prowess of customer surveys to address them seamlessly:

1. Challenge: You have a barrage of customer complaints pouring in, like a nagging wife, and they run the gamut from how inappropriately your product responded in an “emergency”, to how ineffective your pricing policy is, to how somehow your product caused them to miss their daughter’s birthday. You are left in a conundrum trying to unravel what they are actually ranting on about!

Solution: Remember that your customer’s anger stems from inadequate interactions with your product, and is not specifically directed at you. Every time you incorporate a new aspect to your business or change some functionality, there are always kinks left to be straightened out, and unfortunately more often than not, your customers are the ones stumbling over the kinks and falling flat. Effective strategies for handling angry customers can help alleviate these frustrations and foster better relationships.

Garnering customer feedback through surveys help you uncover those subtle flaws in your business, whether your prices are skyrocketing or your website still hasn’t responded in the time it took the customer to travel around the world and back.

Keep in mind that your customers are not interested in monetary incentives, discounts, and anonymity to share their ideas with you. All they want is to be respected, heard, and have their guidance and insight incorporated into your strategic plan and vision. Remember to design intuitive and laidback surveys to help your customers voice their opinions and concerns.

2. Challenge

: With social and digital channels increasing business competition and restructuring customer expectations, call centers are more pressed than ever to meet customer expectations. Customer attrition has also seemed to escalate with the evolving customer expectation. With the ubiquity of technology, customers expect to glean immediate service and hasty response through the channel of their preference.

Solution: An average business receives complaints from 4% of its discontented customers, and more than 95% of customers take to sharing their bad experiences with others. Before you know it, news spreads like wild fire and you end up the bad guy with the horns and three eyes.  This goes to show how indispensable content customers are to the success of how business.

In order to improve your customer service, call center representatives need to put themselves directly into the shoes of the customers. No one can guide this process better than the customers themselves. Let your customers share their customer service experience and their ideas about how it can be improved. Be sure to post Customer Satisfaction surveys and introduce a feedback system, so that your customers can leave comments after every session. The pain points revealed after customer feedback can help businesses innovate

3. Challenge:

Retaining Customer Loyalty

Solution: Customers like nothing better than to feel included. They perceive it as being valued by the company, and recognize that the company is devoted to retaining them as long term customers and capitalizes on their feedback to make business decisions. When you let your customers share their feedbacks and suggestions about your services and products, and then implement those updates and changes that the customers deemed fit, an influx of loyal customers inevitably ensue.

4. Challenge

: Empowering Frontline Teams to effortlessly  Address Customer Issues

Solution: The results of your surveys benefit no one more than your call center representatives. Since they are the ones dealing directly with the customers, it is imperative to not only share but also elucidate the results of your surveys to your frontline teams, so that they are in a better place to comprehend where are they falling short and what they need to do to help your customers proficiently.

5. Challenge:

Winning Back Lost Clients

Solution: In addition to striving laboriously to retain existing customers, the results of your customer surveys can go to great lengths in winning back some old ones. For each customer lost, be sure to ask them why they had come to that conclusion. Perhaps, you might hit a goldmine and receive useful insights to fix whatever compelled them to part ways. Even if they don’t come back, at least you could avert other customers from leaving due to the same reasons.

6. Challenge:

Integrating Social Media Support

Solution: Customers of today are more reliant than ever on use social media when it comes to sharing their experience with companies, asking questions, or even complain. If negative posts are left to fester for protracted period, they may scare customers away and harm your brand.

Surveys help you stay abreast of where your customers hang out the most, their preferred channel of interacting with you, and how often they wish to interact with you. This would greatly help you vamp up your social media presence and customize it according to customer preference. Listen to conversations about you, eves drop, and jump in where necessary!