True or False:
“The customer is always right.”
Not necessarily. Sometimes they are, but on those occasions where they are dead wrong, good customer service will still let them walk away feeling like winners. Customer Service often involves a high degree of diplomacy.
How much you pay attention to your customer experience directly impacts your bottom line – for better or worse. ‘Customer-centric’ companies are 60% more profitable than those that aren’t. In this digital age customers expect more from those they do business with.
These days, people can order something on their phones and see it on their doorstep the next day. Keeping up with expectations is easier if you leverage the right technology.
It is always a good time to improve your customer experience, but especially now, thanks to cloud technology because you don’t have to spend a fortune to do it. Check out some of the applications below. These apps focus on making customers and prospective customers happy.
Online Survey Apps
Customer satisfaction surveys, conducted annually (at least), is a great way to check in and take the pulse of your customers. Successful businesses take the feedback they get and use it to make their company perform better.
But it is tedious and outdated doing these surveys through a Word document attached to an email. Using an online survey application makes the process seamless for you and your customers, which makes them more likely to respond.
There are many online survey tools available on the internet - and included in Microsoft 365. These allow people to fill out surveys on any device and not have to send them back as an attachment.
When the responses come in, you are not hampered by the time-consuming task of collating the data. You simply open your form survey tool and the results fall right into place instantly.
Smart Chatbot
For most businesses, there’s a limit to the number of hours a day they can pay staff to answer questions. Depending on the industry, customer service hours are typically the same as business hours. When the staff gets busy, it may take longer to send back an answer to an inquiry.
Inserting a smart chatbot onto your business website can improve customer satisfaction. It allows people to get an answer right away. They can also get that answer any time of day or night.
‘StartupBonsai’ asserts that 68% of consumers like chatbots because they give them fast answers to questions. They can’t answer every single question because of the complexity of an issue, but they can handle quite a few of the most basic types. For example, in healthcare and banking, chatbots can answer 75-90% of questions.
Business Mobile Apps
Doesn’t it seem like everybody lives on their smartphones these days? They carry them with them everywhere they go. Mobile apps are often the preferred method of connecting with data and businesses. More connections are made via mobile devices than with desktops.
Consider creating a business mobile app. One that allows customers to connect with you to order products and services. You can use it for customer support, to initiate virtual calls and more.
Facebook Messenger Support
By default, Facebook Messenger is the second most popular iOS app of all time, mostly because it is attached to the #1 most popular app - Facebook itself. This Facebook-connected application makes it easy to communicate with friends, family, and companies.
It’s because of this that more and more businesses use Messenger to connect with prospects and provide customer support. Using an app that is so popular in this way, you make it easier for customers to reach you. The ability to get a quick answer through Messenger can boost a customer’s opinion of your company.
VoIP Phone System with Good Mobile Apps
Customers can easily get confused when they have to juggle different numbers for your staff. Should they call their sales rep at their desk line or mobile number? Using a VoIP phone system simplifies the process.
Employees can have a single number that they use when at their desks, at their home office, or anywhere. Choose a service that has a good mobile app - one that is simple for employees to use. This ensures they can easily handle customer calls using their smartphone. It also keeps them from reverting to using their personal number, which is not advisable.
This is a great tool for all aspects of any business that allows employees to use mobile or remote devices for work – whether company-owned or ‘BYOD’ (Bring Your Own Device).
Text Notification Apps
SMS (Short Message Service) is becoming the new email for many businesses. Retailers like Shoe Carnival and World Market have customers opt-in to text messaging. Customers like this for shipping notifications and to receive sale and coupon alerts.
There are several services online that you can use for this purpose. Offering text updates can significantly improve your customers’ experience. They are handy for appointment reminders, sale notices, or shipping alerts.
All-in-One CRM & Sales Platform
Choosing a good CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is crucial for any business - it can do much more than just act as a customer database. One thing that frustrates customers is a disconnect between sales and support. They may have had a conversation with a salesperson to customize an order only to find out that customer service knows nothing about it.
Find an all-in-one CRM/Sales platform to streamline the information flow. These are cloud services that offer a CRM module and a sales module, and both are connected. There is a single customer record, so all notes from the sales and customer support side are in the same place and easy to see. Both teams can view all customer interactions, avoiding the frustration customers feel that in your company, one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing.
This improves the customer experience and results in fewer dropped balls. Efficiency and productivity improve as well because everyone is on the same page.
Want Help with Customer-Facing Technology Support?
It’s easy to get lost in a sea of different cloud applications. Let us help you navigate to a better customer experience. Contact us today for a free consultation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is chatbot in simple words?
A chatbot is a software application that uses AI (Artificial Intelligence), natural-language processors, and vast word-classification processes to understand and answer questions without the intervention of a human being. Amazon’s Alexa is a form of chatbot.
What is the most popular survey tool and is very easy to use?
According to Wordstream, these are their Top 8 Online Survey Tools:
1) Google Forms
2) Survey Monkey
3) Typeform
4) Jotform
5) SoGoSurvey
6) SurveyPlanet
7) Zoho Survey
8) Crowdsignal
They provide a breakdown, highlighting the desirable features of each survey HERE.
What is VoIP?
Voice over Internet Protocol phone systems allow the user to make phone calls over the internet rather than over traditional land lines. These provide excellent, low-cost small business phone services. Finances Online provides statistics showing the wide range of savings that switching over can provide, with the bulk of customers savings between 40% to 75% over land-based phone systems like Pac Bell or AT&T.
You can always use specialized VoIP providers, but most Managed IT Services companies, like ITFirm.com, provide excellent VoIP services as well, usually through a trusted third party vendor – often at better pricing than going directly because of the volume they deal with. This is a great way to go because whatever IT support and services firm you use will take responsibility for this service as well as the network itself. This all-inclusive IT and vendor management fits right into the offerings of a trop-notch Managed Services Provider.
What is a CRM in simple terms?
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is technology for managing your company’s business relations with customers and potential customers. The best CRMs consolidate customer data from multiple input sources, such as sales and customer support. They usually contain features that enhance sales and marketing and integration with social media.
How secure is your network?
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The two best defenses are next-generation Cybersecurity to protect your data from theft, and a top-notch Managed Services Provider to ensure continued reliability and defenses against newly emerging threats.
We put our 100% Money Back Guarantee in writing, so there is no risk in trying us out. Because we do not require a ‘hard’ contract, our clients can fire us at any time with 30 days’ notice. We have to be good.
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