When businesses create a plan to brand themselves, they often focus just on front-end marketing. But for branding to be effective, it must be carried through from initial contact through every aspect of customer touch in order to be effective.
- Customer service is a part of branding as well. The way that customers are treated should be consistent with your brand. Every company makes mistakes or have customers with complaints or concerns, it’s how you address them that’s important.
- Attract and retain customers. Building a solid service reputation can allow you to bring in customers who prioritize service and retain those who have gotten a positive experience.
- Respond quickly. Customers expect a rapid response. Even if it’s just to acknowledge that there is a problem and you’re working on it, respond to customers immediately.
- Provide personal attention. Auto-response emails are not enough. Every customer who expresses a concern must have a method to easily reach a live person.
- Identify new areas for development. Paying attention to customer calls can reveal areas that need improvement and even new markets that you can tap. Treat every customer service contact as a learning experience.
- Match metrics to your brand. Don’t demand call volumes that will require your service reps to rush through calls if your reputation is one of high-end service. Each customer should feel that your customer service representative will work with them until an acceptable outcome is achieved.
- Allow autonomy. Give customer service representatives a degree of latitude when responding to customer requests. Employees are more engaged when they can make front-line decisions. Customers can tell when they are talking to someone who is coming up with thoughtful solutions rather than reading a script.
- Bad experiences go viral. With the proliferation of social media, unhappy customers are no longer complaining to the neighbor over the back fence, they are sharing their dissatisfaction with hundreds or thousands of people via Twitter, Facebook and blogs. Timely handling of customer concerns is crucial to preventing a minor issue from spinning completely out of control.
Great customer service begins with great employees. Global Personnel can help find talented people for oil and gas companies throughout West Texas. Whether you are looking for temporary, temp-to-hire or direct hire personnel, we can provide skilled, reliable people when you need them. Contact our experienced team of recruiters today for more information!