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6 Ways to Upgrade Your Customer Service

Business Tips
customer service coronavirus workspaces

Lauren Smith Creative & Brand Manager

1st February 2021

5 min. read

Providing a great product is just one part of what it takes to run a successful business – the service you offer is integrated into every step of your customer’s experience, dictating how they feel about your business.

Think of your business as if it were a hotel – is your aim to offer a budget or a 5-star experience?

Hub Australia has worked to provide high-quality customer experiences for our members, with dedicated staff working to streamline processes, create seamless experiences, and greet every member with a smile each morning.

The 6 keys to great customer service

Great customer service requires effort, consideration, training, and a joint effort from everyone in the business to commit to creating a consistent and high-quality experience for every touchpoint of your customer journey.

1. Get your team onboard

It’s important to have high standards for every person operating in your business, not just those in front-facing roles. Reinforce these throughout recruitment, induction, and your internal everyday culture until they become entwined with what your brand offers and represents.

2. Provide processes

Equipping your team with examples (real or hypothetical) and ideal responses can help them feel confident to tackle situations that may arise, and be sure of the correct response from a brand perspective.

By updating these processes regularly, you are creating a library for your team to refer to as they need, empowering them to self-educate and feel confident about the businesses tone-of-voice, procedures, and requirements.

3. Do research into your current customer service

Talk to your team and networks about their own experiences on both sides of customer service and interactions, and define what makes those instances stand out.

Take careful note of each interaction and transaction you have and create an image of what an ideal customer experience would be and how to achieve it in your own business. It may be worth investing in market research or asking an external organisation to assist in this project.

4. Anticipate your customer’s needs

A transactional experience is relatively straight-forward: someone asks for something you provide, and then pays for the product or service.

The next level involves anticipating what the customer wants in an experience on top of what they require, and taking steps to offer it to them – whether it’s refilling water as waitstaff at a restaurant or letting your retail customer know of discounts available to them, in their shoes you’d likely appreciate the extra effort.

5. Empower your employees

Make sure your team is able to solve issues with their own initiative and assets – if you have a lengthy approval chain required to solve a customer’s issue, it creates a poor experience for everyone involved.

Whether it’s empowering them to offer a discount, create custom agreements, or something as simple as offering a free drink, it can help transform the customer experience and help your team feel like they can take actions on their own.

6. Make customer service your #1 priority

Make sure your business doesn’t focus on customer service for a short period as part of a project or campaign – it needs to be engrained into your company’s DNA.

Revisit your values and processes regularly to ensure everything you do is in pursuit of your goal: happy customers who have enjoyable experiences.

Read more: 6 Top Marketing Tips for Your Business