Existing customers are the foundation of your business. They fund the marketing to acquire new ones, pay for the new tech, and are the safety net for any troubling development. When your business bleeds existing customers, the whole thing can come down like a tower made of cards. On the other hand, your customers are your best brand ambassadors. Keep them happy and satisfied, and they will bring their friends and family to your business. People trust nothing more than a personal recommendation. Here are 3 tips to boost customer satisfaction and word of mouth. 

Customer satisfaction is more than just a good product. It is the sum of all experiences and emotions the customer experiences during the entire journey. In other words, every time the customer interacts with your business is an opportunity to leave an unforgettable, positive impression. Your staff on the phone is as important as your website or the janitor. 

Pay special attention to every point of contact. Typically, customers only get in touch when they need to solve a problem or have questions. Providing quick, efficient solutions is a sure way to improve customer satisfaction. Failing, however, is risky. Some customers are unforgiving and will switch to competitors even after only one negative experience. As a rule of thumb, the easier and effortless the process is for the customer, the better. Many businesses moved to an omnichannel strategy in their customer support.  

Omnichannel is more than just offering different modes of contact. It is an overarching customer support architecture that brings everything together in one place. It ensures that your customer can have seamless conversations with your agents, whether they call, send an email, or a Line message. You can hit two birds with one stone with a properly implemented omnichannel strategy. On the one hand, you can meet your customers where they are and talk to them on a medium where they feel comfortable. On the other hand, you can provide your support team with the background and context of every customer and their problem, helping them find and deliver a solution faster. 

How effective is your customer service? Are you able to reply to all emails within 24 or 48 hours? Does your customer have to wait for longer than 30 minutes to receive a reply to their Line message? Is your FAQ easy to find and navigate? If any of these cause your business trouble, you need to work on efficient ticket management. An efficient FAQ is your first defence against overwhelming inquiries. Your existing customers will typically have the same types of questions: 

• Due dates 
• Rent / invoice amounts 
• Payment methods 
• Late payment penalties 
• Cancelation period, etc. 

You could have your agents repeat the answers time and time again. Or you could once again opt for a win-win scenario. Publish all repetitive questions and their answers in an easy-to-navigate FAQ section. A chatbot can pull answers from the articles and offer your customers 24/7 support. 

Sometimes customers will have more complex questions that only an agent can help solve. You should have an obvious and intuitive process to reach a human for those situations. When a ticket is beyond an agent’s competency, they should have the option to forward it to the supervisor or responsible with a few simple clicks. Once again, reducing customer effort should be at the core of the process design. To ensure that no ticket goes unanswered or forgotten, you can work with triggers to escalate past-due items. 

Efficient request management techniques, such as those, can reduce the time effort by 30%.  

CSAT – The Customer Satisfaction score is one of the most important KPIs to monitor. You can only improve your customer experience if you don’t fly blind. The best way to measure CSAT scores is through regular customer surveys. 

We recommend having one-question rating surveys after every closed ticket and a more comprehensive annual or bi-annual survey with all your customers. Don’t overdo the frequency. Your survey should include a mix of rating-based quantitative questions and open-ended qualitative questions. The first type is easier to analyze, but the second can offer you valuable insights into areas of improvement. Consider offering some incentive to improve response rates. Typically asking customers to fill the survey by email has the lowest response rate. Calling or SMS yield better results but cost more.  

Customer feedback is one of the most valuable sources of information about your business. You can ensure high customer satisfaction and a positive customer experience by tackling and improving any weakness. In turn, it will improve customer loyalty and word of mouth. 

Have we got your attention? Do you want to bring your customer experience to the next level but don’t know how to go about it? Our vetted, bi-lingual consultants got your back. We will take care of the tech, so you can take care of running and growing your business.