How customer service affects the success of the organization?
Customer service departments are starting to play an increasingly important role in the structures of the organization. Companies are beginning to understand that even the best product won't help if they don't care for the customer properly. Why customer service is important? In short, it has a direct impact on profit and sustainable growth.
The overriding goal of customer service is to make the client happy. People want to be sure that someone cares about their needs. They need a so-called personal touch. And if they get it, they are not only willing to make the deal. With a high degree of probability, they will come back for more and recommend the company to their friends. But the role of customer service is not only limited to transaction support. It starts long before the deal is done and does not end.
Good customer service
In today's digital world, the role of customer care is changing significantly. It's not only limited to collecting orders from the client, dealing with complaints, or monitoring payments. It's becoming less technical and it is more about understanding the clients' needs at every stage of the customer journey as well as creating a better customer service experience.
What is important, good customer service means not only taking care of new customers. It makes sure that customers have support even after the deal is done in case any questions about usage arise. It's also about adapting to different clients' needs. For example, some of them need help, a piece of advice, or some additional information to make a decision. Others may know exactly what they want to buy but need some incentives like discounts or other promotions to make a deal. Your customer service team should be able to create a positive experience in all these situations.
If you want to know what is the level of customer service in your organization, try setting relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) and measuring them on a regular basis. They will provide interesting insight and guidance on how to introduce a better customer service experience. Learn more about KPIs that are most commonly used in customer service -> KPIs review in customer service
Benefits of great customer service
As we indicated at the beginning of the article, the customer service team should strive for happy customers. Doing business with happy customers leads to the success of the organization. Let's take a look at how this happens.
Good reputation
A company with good customer service has a good reputation. This means that its products are chosen more often than those of competitors with which clients have had a bad experience. But good reputation is not only related to the clients' area. It influences also relations with other stakeholders, including investors, B2B partners, and employees.
Such an approach simply builds trust. Inside the organization, employees identify with the values of the company, which directly translates into greater commitment. Outside the organization - partners are more likely to get involved in joint initiatives, and investors are more likely to allocate funds.
Brand image
Not very far from a good reputation is the brand image. Excellent customer service is perceived as a marketing channel. It's an easy and very successful way to let the world know about your company, its products, and its services. Happy customers are naturally willing to share a good experience with friends either individually or via social media. They simply create demand for your offer and attract new clients. So to summarize, by investing in good customer service, you invest in word of mouth - the most effective marketing channel. As a result, you spend less on marketing.
Loyalty
The success of an organization very much depends on the pool of loyal customers. According to data published by Invesp in the article „Customer Acquisition Vs.Retention Costs – Statistics And Trends”, still more companies focus on acquisition (44%) than retention (18%). Meanwhile, the customer retention strategy is financially more profitable. In the article, it is indicated that it costs 5 times as much to gain a new client than to retain the existing one. What is more, existing clients are 50% more likely to try new products or services and spend 31% more than new ones.
There are more advantages coming from focusing on retention. The loyal customers:
- do not even actively search for alternative products
- recommend the brand to friends and relatives
- shop more regularly
- give feedback that is crucial to the constant improvement of the offer
- are more understanding when a business is having difficulties that may affect the customer service.
What is most important, loyal customers have a direct impact on profit. According to the research done by Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company, increasing the customer retention rate by just 5% can increase profits by 25% to 95%.
Customer lifetime value
Customer lifetime value (CLV) is one of the most important metrics in the area of customer service and has a crucial impact on the bottom line of your business. In general, it tracks the customer experience and satisfaction.
CLV gives valuable information on how much revenue your business can generate from a customer during the entire relationship with the client. It's a key tool to plan sustainable growth as it looks at brand perception, product-market fit as well as the potential for recurring revenue.
Boosting CLV should be a goal for every business. And the best way to do it is to invest in customer experience.
Work environment
Customer service influences both, retention of clients and employees. If you want to create a positive customer experience, you need to invest in your staff. The customer service team needs training and special tools that will allow performing their job more effectively.
By investing in the personal development of your workers, you'll be able to retain the most talented people within the organization and create an attractive place of work. In fact, you'll be able to save money spent on recruiting and onboarding processes. What is more, the employees who are treated with respect will treat the customers in the same way.
Profit
The Pareto Principle applies also to the area of customer service. It means that your business can generate 80 percent of revenue from 20 percent of the loyal customers. What is more, 67% of customers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience.
Having above in mind, investment in customer service should be a part of the company's strategy. Customer service affects the finance area in many dimensions. It guarantees recurring income, limits the number of complaints and improves the effectiveness of an organization, generates sales. Each company that has ambitious plans to stay on a market, can't neglect the customer service area.
How to create better customer service?
So now, when we know how customer service impacts the bottom line of each business, it's good to find a way to improve customer experiences.
Priorities
The first thing to do is to prioritize customer service and create a customer relationship management program. In fact, the customer service area has to become a part of the development strategy. It is important both for the managerial staff and also for the customer service team. They will be more engaged in their duties if they realize how important their job is how much it is valued by the company's executives.
Standards
The next thing to do is to prepare employees for their job. To guarantee good customer service, there should be standards and rules on how to behave in certain cases. Of course, it's impossible to predict each situation, but during the onboarding process, the employees should be familiarized with the expectations and instructions, insights on who your customers are, and what are their needs.
Tools
The success of the customer service team very much depends on how prompt and professional it is. As the clients' expectations keep growing, it's crucial to equip employees with tools that will make their work more effective. E-mail and phone cease to be sufficient.
Progressive digitalization requires innovative tools and technologies that will allow communicating directly and solving the clients' queries quicker. That's why chatbots and systems enabling the management of dispersed knowledge within the organization are becoming more and more popular. If you want to learn how we, as BOTWISE, can help you bring your customer service to the next level read -> 5 reasons why your customer service department should use BOTWISE.