Keeping your fingers on the pulse of your customer service efforts and how your clients perceive their experiences with you is crucial to your success as a business.
Being able to read people is a valuable skill that not everyone has. This skill usually requires certain inputs, such as body language, tone, or if you are really lucky, some people will simply come out and tell you how they feel. When you are a growing business, you need to be able to get input that tells you how your customers feel about your brand and the products or services you provide. Without that feedback, you won’t be armed with the information you need to make changes when they are necessary, which could mean the difference between staying in business or not.
Not convinced? Let’s take a quick look at the numbers: 68 percent of customers will spend more money with a business that gives them a good customer service experience. On the other hand, 96 percent of customers who think you have failed them will never tell you why.
Ok, so a business needs feedback from their customers. But how? Below we have listed a few methods you can use to find out if your customers are having a good experience.
Getting Feedback Means Getting Help
“Take Our Quick Survey.”
How about simply asking your customer how they feel? More than half of customers will elect to take a customer experience survey. However, the voluntary survey has drawbacks and caveats. It needs to be short. The vast majority (83 percent) of those who will take a survey won’t complete it if it takes too long. Also, customers with negative feelings tend to be more likely to take a survey.
Fortunately, the proven adage that a customer is about twice as likely to talk about a negative experience than a positive one can work to your advantage here. Negative survey responses are extremely useful in allowing you to catch the most glaring issues, and adjust to create positive experiences in the future.
Call Monitoring.
Customer surveys are a useful tool, but what about the 45 percent of customers who won’t take one? Try call monitoring. We all have likely heard this message before a call begins, “This conversation may be recorded for quality assurance purposes.” There is a reason for that: it allows a business to go back and hear how their calls went first hand.
This provides the opportunity to gather a general sampling of how your customers feel while on the phone. Often, even if a caller has their needs met, they could give clues that they might be frustrated or upset. If the call is about remedying an issue, ask yourself if the customer sounds more relaxed and friendlier at the end of the call than at the beginning? If the call is routine, does the customer respond to pleasantries or remain distant? People tend to give away their mood, which can indicate their satisfaction level. Listening for subtle clues, like responsiveness and tone, can tell you a lot about the general mood of your customers while they’re interacting with you.
It’s all about the data.
Two key metrics you can look at to tell if your customers are having good experiences with your company are 1) customer retention and 2) first call resolutions. Let’s look at both.
You can slice and dice your customer retention metrics and look at repeat customers, average customer lifespan, customer churn rate, and more. Find industry standards for your business and compare to see how you are doing. Once you’ve got a benchmark, work to improve your key customer retention scores. The better your scores are, the more satisfied your customers will likely be.
First call resolution is an important metric in the customer service department. When your customers call in with an issue, the sooner you can resolve it, the better. If a customer has to wait hours, days, or even weeks for their concern to get sorted out, then you can be pretty sure they aren’t thrilled. The same goes for if they have to call you multiple times about the same issue. However, if you are able to get everything taken care of for them the first time they call, then they will be very satisfied. So keep an eye on your first call resolution rates to also get a feel for whether or not your customers are having good experiences with your company.
Three out of four customers will stay longer with a business based on good customer experience alone. Know your metrics, know your customer.
Combine and Conquer
There is no one perfect way to know exactly what your callers are thinking and feeling. But by combining data analysis, customer surveys and call monitoring, you can get a fairly accurate grade on your performance. Using these methods will give you the feedback you need to study up, making sure you not only pass the customer service test but graduate with honors.
Want a tutor? Throughout our years of experience helping businesses large and small improve their customer service, we have become experts on the subject. Our customized call center solutions are designed to improve your customer experience and do great things for your overall bottom line.
More posts you might want to check out:
Are You Listening To Your Customers?
Accuracy in All Things Will Greatly Improve The Customer Experience
3 Critical Things to Master For Effective Phone Conversations with Your Customers