Business Tips 5 min read
06 Sep 2021

Low Customer Satisfaction? Here Are 5 Surprising Reasons Why Your Customer Service Needs To Be Faster Than Ever

Do you offer fast and efficient customer service?

Do you focus on resolving your customers’ problems?

If your answer is YES - that's great!

But, if your answer is NO, it’s time to rethink your customer service.

Why?

Because if you're not giving your customers top-notch service, then... you can lose some of your customers and your competitor will steal the food off your table.

So, if you want to win your customer’s loyalty, step up your customer service game!

Have a look at the following reasons your customer service needs to be faster than ever...

Here's Why Your Customer Service Needs To Be Faster Than Ever

1. Parameter To Judge Customer Experience

Suppose a shopper visits your website.

As he explores your store... finally, he found the product he wanted to buy.

Yet there is some information he needs to clarify.

So he tried to contact your customer service. Unfortunately, no one replied. So he waited a few more minutes.

And guess what?

Zero. Zilch. Nada.

The visitor will forget about you and will never return. Because when people ask questions, they expect prompt replies from the business.

Did you know that 69% of buyers judge the customer service quality based on the business’s response time?

Make sure you promptly respond to your customers to give them a good impression of your service.

Let's move on to the next reason.

2. Page Responsiveness Badge

Typically replies within a day...

Very responsive...

You often see these on various Facebook business pages.

This is what you call a page responsiveness badge!

It shows the average time a business takes to respond to people on messenger (as shown below).

This badge works as a speed indicator of customer service. On some business pages, Facebook displays the badge ‘Very Responsive’ in green. It tempts the customers to send messages to the business, as it’ll reply quickly.

And that's what you want, right? You want them to reach out to you.

So how do you get the 'Very Responsive' badge?

Facebook displays the ‘Very Responsive’ badge to pages that reply to 90% of the messages in under 15 minutes.

You can see your page’s responsiveness level on admin control. If your responsiveness rate is low, it means you need to work on it.

Quickly respond to customers to gain a responsiveness badge for your page.

Moving on to the next.

3. New Communication Channels

When companies contact customers via email and phone, things were simple for them.

But that’s not the case today!

Social networking sites and messaging apps have changed the communication game. These apps have conditioned people to get instant replies from businesses.

Have a look at the customer service response time statistics. These statistics are from the findings of the responses of 1000 customers.

Twitter - 64% of people expect an answer within 60 minutes on Twitter.
Facebook - 85% of customers expect a reply within 6 hours on Facebook.
Email - 77% of customers wait at most for 6 hours if they’ve emailed.

We're done with the three reasons your customer service needs to be faster. Let's proceed to the next one.

4. Keeps Customers Satisfied

How would you feel if you received the wrong order?

You'll probably pick up your phone to send a message to the company on social media and WhatsApp. Or you might even write an email, right?

What if the company doesn’t respond?

Or even worse, don’t see your message?

I am sure you’d feel angry and frustrated. You might even decide not to buy anything from that brand again.

Why?

Because nobody likes to wait, especially when they need prompt responses. That's what your customers want as well. They want you to respond to them soon after they send a message.

When you do this, you'll keep your customers satisfied. It also stops them from writing a negative review.

And what you want is to...

5. Gain Positive Reviews

Customer reviews play an important role in attracting prospects. It also increases sales and builds the trust of prospects.

Did you know that 89% of customers read online reviews before buying something online?

So, do you think people will buy from you if there are negative responses from customers about your lazy customer service?

And to make matters worse, 97% of people read how a business responds to negative comments.

How unprofessional would it be if businesses didn't respond to negative reviews?

So, make sure you always respond to your customers, even when they’re angry with you!

You can try these strategies to make your customers happier:

7 Strategies To Increase Customer Satisfaction

1. Offer Self-Service

Do you want customers to solve minor issues on their own?

If yes, provide them with self-service features on your website. Such as video tutorials and FAQs to answer his queries related to business and products.

If the customer finds his answers on your website, he won’t bug you with his endless messages, emails, and calls.

So, if you haven’t set up a FAQ page on your website, do it RIGHT NOW!

Also, if you sell electronic goods or goods that need special care, make a video or picture tutorial for it.

Your customers will love you for providing all the answers to their general queries in one place. It will save time for both your customers and yours.

But, if your customer is time-sensitive or has a major issue, make sure you have high-quality agents to assist them.

Let's talk more about it.

2. Have High-Quality Customer Service Agents

When customers have time-sensitive problems or payment issues, they need expert help.

And they expect the business to help them at any hour of the day. So, you need to have high-quality customer service agents available on your website.

By high-quality customer service agents, we don’t mean an average salesperson, NO.

You need to assign someone who knows more than the basics of the product and sales. Your customer service team members should be professional, skilled, and quick to respond.

They should be available on different channels to cater to the needs of your customers.

Let's discuss that next...

3. Provide Multi-Channel Support

Customers dislike repeating themselves many times on different channels.

For instance, the customer connects with you via live chat and explains his problem. The live chat agent asks him to send a message on messenger. The customer does it as directed. He then receives a message to write an email about the problem.

Imagine how irritated the customer would feel to roll like a ball on different channels?

Hence, a business should adopt an Omnichannel strategy. It will create connected and consistent customer support on all the channels.

So, how can you provide smooth customer service across different channels?

It’s simple, here’s how:

Suppose a customer sends a message on Facebook Messenger. The issue that the customer discussed is time-consuming. So, your agent can ask for the customer’s number or email to reply to him.

It would prevent the customer from repeating himself many times to get a solution to his problem.

Next on the list is...

4. Keep An Eye On Customer Reviews

Emails and messages aren’t the only places where customers share how they feel.

Thanks to social networking sites, groups, and forums...

A customer can share his views about a business on many platforms across the internet. So, monitor what customers say about you. Both the good and the bad.

Make sure you set up the alerts to get notified when people talk about you. When you look at their reviews, you can understand the flaws in your business structure and work on it.

So if a customer has posted a negative review about your brand, you can approach him. Listen to his issues and offer a solution to him.

Similarly, when people leave reviews on your website, don’t overlook them. Respond to every comment. It makes the customer feel heard by the business.

Plus, we already talked about how powerful the reviews are for driving sales.

Want to earn more positive reviews?

Then approach the customer before he approaches you.

5. Offer Proactive Customer Service

Why wait for your customers to talk to you?

You can start the conversation and ask them if they have any concerns or queries.

For example, if a customer visits your website, you can message him via live chat and offer your help.

It will encourage the customer to talk to you and share his questions.

Likewise, if you have dispatched the order, don’t wait for the customer to ask about it. Send him a message and inform him about the order dispatch and the expected delivery time.

If a customer’s membership is expiring and needs renewal, remind him before he asks for it.

Also, ask the customer about product quality, shipment, etc., once he receives his order.

When you receive replies from customers, acknowledge them at your earliest.

Don’t keep them waiting. Make sure you...

6. Reduce The Waiting Time

I am sure it isn’t a pleasant experience to wait for hours to get a reply from a business.

And imagine a person sending you a message because he wanted to buy your product. If he doesn’t get the reply, he’ll forget about you and your product.

Late replies can sometimes cause a loss of sales. Thus, be quick to respond to your customers. Answer all his questions in detail, and then watch him convert into your customer even if he is angry at the business.

You can also...

7. Provide Extra Benefits

We are afraid of angry customers.

Angry customers lose their temper in emails, calls, and messages. And won’t stop complaining about you in different groups and forums.

How do you calm down angry customers?

You do it by apologizing, helping, and offering them extra benefits.

Yup, that’s right!

Give a freebie or a discount to your customers. And they’ll forgive you for your mistakes.

The best part? The customers would come again to you in the future. He’ll also talk about the extra benefits that you gave him. It’ll trigger word-of-mouth marketing, which can attract new prospects.