building a relationship with your customer

Satisfaction Secrets: Building Real Relationships with Your Customers

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February is the month of relationships – and your relationship with your customer is more important than ever.

The contact centre is a hub of relationships.

Yes, in the past we’ve discussed how your agents are the problem-solving first responders for crisis situations, but really, it’s not always that dramatic. Your agents are simply there to facilitate a smoother customer experience for the customers that reach out. To that end, anything your agents can do to decrease the effort of each transaction and increase overall customer satisfaction should be a priority.

Gathering this information is easy when your customers contact you. They’ll tell you exactly what’s wrong and what solution they want. But what about the unhappy customers that don’t reach out? According to Liveworkstudio, 96 percent of unhappy customers won’t bother to complain, and 91 percent will just leave and never buy from you again. This means that you can’t rely on your customers to let you know if you’re doing a good job. For meaningful customer satisfaction improvements, you’ll need to take matters into your own hands.

Measuring Satisfaction

Of course, no effort to improve contact centre metrics can begin without a system of measurement. Customer satisfaction is closely tied to contact centre efficiency metrics like First Contact Resolution, Bounce Rate, and Average Handle Time. However, these are only parts of a larger whole. The best way to get a complete view of how your customers feel is to reach out to them directly for service feedback:

  • Surveys: Customer surveys are an easy and fast way to get opinions on how you’re doing. These can be great ways to collect data on opinions and gather suggestions for service improvements that you may not have considered.
  • Behavior Analysis: It’s one thing for customers to praise your service with words; it’s another to show it with their actions. Your loyal customers’ purchasing behaviors can be measured against the data gathered by your Customer Relationship Management systems. This can give you some insight on other actions taken by your loyal customers to let you know how your satisfied customers behave.
  • Tracking Apps: Applications that monitor customer mood and sticking points can show you direct correlations between customer frustration and various parts of their service experience. If you notice excessive customer dissatisfaction before you agents even reach the line, for example, your hold times may be to blame.

Tips to Bring Your Satisfaction Up

Paul Greenberg, world-renown customer experience expert and author of the best-selling CRM at the Speed of Light had this to say about customer satisfaction: “If a customer likes you and continues to like you, they will do business with you. If they don’t, they won’t.”

It’s a simple as that. Improved customer satisfaction doesn’t need to be a metric-based quest filled with data and sterile calculations. Getting your customers on your side can be easier than you think:

1. Show Appreciation

It’s human nature to enjoy feeling appreciated for our actions. Going out of your way to show your customers that you value their patronage will mean a lot to them. This can be something as simple as a thank-you card or discount coupon, and is the perfect time to let customers know about loyalty programs and special services only offered to a select few.

2. Let Them Speak

Though many of us are used to brushing away those pesky “please take our survey” pop-ups and automated surveys, many of your customers will jump at the chance to have their opinion heard. Give your customers a way to provide feedback on their service experience with your centre. This is best done by requesting a few minutes of their time after a call, live webchat, or sending them a follow-up email after you hang up. Remember, you goal is to bring those unhappy non-complainers out of the woodwork to see what you’re doing wrong. Absence of feedback does not mean satisfaction.

3. Brighten Up Your Workforce

They say you can “hear” a smile over the phone. The happiness of your workforce trickles down to improve the mood of your callers. But how do you brighten up the days of your contact centre staff? As it turns out, your employees need a pat on the back just as much as your customers: data from a Workforce Mood Tracker survey showed that 86 percent of employees felt more motivated after being recognized for their efforts. Let your agents know how valuable they are, and better customer satisfaction is sure to follow.

Better Relationships

Better customer relationships and better customer satisfaction go hand in hand. Treat your customers as people instead of numbers in the system. Reach out to them, ask for their feedback, and use their insights to improve your service quality. The same goes for your agents—employees who feel valued and appreciated can be your secret weapon for better satisfaction and a stronger overall customer experience. Interested in even more strategies for tracking and improve customer service? Download our free white paper!


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