Besides taking excellent care of your employees, providing superior customer service at all times is the key to success in an ever-competitive marketplace.
No matter what industry you are in, if you go above and beyond to deliver an awesome CX, you’ll have no trouble outperforming your competitors.
With that in mind, what are the biggest customer service mistakes you should avoid making in 2023?
Post Contents
- 1 1. Not Completely Understanding Your Customers’ Needs
- 2 2. Making It Practically Impossible For Customers To Find The Answers They Need
- 3 3. Sticking To Rigid Policies And Approaches
- 4 4. Not Engaging With Your Customers On Social Media
- 5 5. Failing To Respond To Reviews (The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly)
- 6 Conclusion: Like It Or Not, The Customer Is Always Right
1. Not Completely Understanding Your Customers’ Needs
There really is no excuse to not understand your customers and their needs. This is marketing 101.
If you want to keep your customers sweet and have the best possible chance at establishing loyalty and keeping them coming back for more, you need to understand, anticipate, and meet your customers’ needs at every step in the CX.
If you are frequently finding that your customers are unsatisfied with the way they are engaged with, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board and figure out where you are going wrong.
Also, you must learn from these mistakes. If you keep getting the same feedback you must take the appropriate action to ensure that it never happens again – or as infrequently as possible at the very least.
2. Making It Practically Impossible For Customers To Find The Answers They Need
Is there anything more frustrating than not being able to get a straight answer from a company?
If you would prefer to have as few customers calling you up with trivial questions, then you must provide them with an extensive FAQ section.
Not only is this common courtesy, but it can also bolster your SEO as well, so it’s a win-win.
Identify your customers’ most frequently asked questions and then provide clear and concise answers on your website – and make sure every user can easily find the info they need.
3. Sticking To Rigid Policies And Approaches
While it is true that certain policies must remain unbending, there are times when a little flexibility can go a long way to securing a customer’s loyalty.
After all, rules are made to be broken, right?
Every customer experience must be personalized and if that means bending a rule or changing your typical approach from time to time then we say do it.
Sure, you don’t want to be seen as “playing favourites”, but in some cases compromising with a customer can be the difference between a negative review and a loyal life-long customer.
Be flexible.
4. Not Engaging With Your Customers On Social Media
Yes, responding to every single comment you receive on social media is difficult.
As your audience grows it can even become practically impossible to do so with any real meaning without relying on AI – which saps all of life out of every interaction.
Every customer you have who actively shows support on social media can be turned into a super fan.
These potential brand ambassadors can be a huge asset to your business if you treat them well.
In any case, you should endeavour to respond to as much social interaction as possible. It is social media after all…
5. Failing To Respond To Reviews (The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly)
When people take the time to leave a review about your business you should take the time to thank them.
Even if that review isn’t especially positive, you can turn it into a learning experience and perhaps bring a disgruntled customer back into the fray.
Not only is responding to customer feedback the courteous thing to do, but it sends positive signals to Google as well.
It demonstrates that you are active and that you care about what your audience has to say – which will encourage more people to leave their feedback in turn.
You don’t get 500+ five-star reviews on Google like this SEO company in the Gold Coast, without taking the time to respond to positive feedback (and delivering a superior CX, of course).
Yes, occasionally you will receive an unjust 1-star review over something very trivial, however, if you respond to such reviews professionally and are seen to be trying to make things right, it shows your other prospective customers that you are dedicated to quality customer care.
Besides, most people can spot a “Karen” a mile off – so don’t stress about shutting them down or making them feel small.
Instead, respond and take the high road, thank them for their feedback, and do whatever you can to alleviate their distress.
Conclusion: Like It Or Not, The Customer Is Always Right
Even when the customer is so blatantly in the wrong…the customer is always right.
In any case, the more time and effort you put into improving the overall customer experience, the less frequently you will have to deal with customer complaints.
Don’t give your customers an excuse to waste your time with trivial gripes.
