What does exceeding customer expectations mean in 2018?

customer service
By Danielle Rodriguez, Director, Sales Strategy and Operations, VIGA

Responding to a customer’s complaint within the hour; issuing a full and hassle-free refund after a genuine problem; responding to any query within 24 hours.

These are no longer targets to aim for but a company manifesto necessity. If you’re not doing these, you can be sure one of your competitors will be.

The digital age has and continues to usher in more communication opportunities: more ways for companies to keep in touch with their customers but, vitally, more ways for their customers to contact them. Often in a public forum. All bases need to be not just covered but mastered.

If your transactions are business to business, that doesn’t mean your service standards should be diluted. Here are six ways to ensure you’re not only meeting but exceeding customer expectations.

Map out your customer touch points

Each touch point is a single interaction a visitor or customer has with your company. These interactions can be anything from a visit to your website, a live chat session, the condition and appeal of something they receive, a follow-up email correspondence, or even a single Tweet. Map out every single touch point a visitor or customer could possibly have with you and your brand and see it as an opportunity to meet, exceed or fail customer expectations.

Aim high

Exceeding customer expectations is the quality of NOT settling for the mediocre. Organisations that exceed customer expectations consistently deliver more than is expected of them and find a way to wow their customers time and again. Start with setting customer service objectives; work back from the end goal of high satisfaction to the means of getting there.

Target over-delivery

Over-delivering is one of the best strategic moves you can make as a business owner as it creates customers that share their experience, potentially spend more and purchase more frequently. Excellent customer service can also be a big competitive advantage. It ensures that you stand out from the crowd, especially when your industry is saturated.

Customer-first culture

Technology has only heightened the customer’s need for immediacy. Customers now expect an immediate service which allows them to speak to a member of your team at any given time for help and advice. If your business lacks this, you may end up with some dissatisfied and frustrated customers.

Making sure the phones are always manned, emails are answered within a certain time period and that social media pages, such as LinkedIn, are consistently monitored will create an office culture that ensures that the customer is at the forefront of every mind of the team. Putting customers first won’t only make them satisfied and happy with your service but, will keep them coming back.

Always create relationships

Each customer needs to feel valued, appreciated and well-known by your business. Each interaction you have with a customer, each touchpoint, has the potential to either make or break your customer’s expectations.

GDPR has heightened the need for transparency. Ensure that your customer knows clearly what the data you have on them is being used for and keep them regularly up to date with what your business is doing. You probably sit on a mine of information, albeit recently cleansed by GDPR. Use this to add value to customer interactions.

Maintain high standards

This is a job that needs to be done both internally and externally. For employees, it’s giving them the motivation to continue to enjoy and do their jobs to their fullest which, in turn, will mean that they will be performing at their best for customers.

For clients, it’s keeping in touch with them and fully understanding their evolving and developing needs and objectives. Customer feedback is a great way of keeping track on how your business’s customer service element is performing and it will allow you to keep your finger on the pulse and make any necessary changes quickly and efficiently. If you’ve truly done a great job, you’ll likely see some of the fruits of your labor in the form of increased positive customer contact including mentions on social media.

Great customer service is not an add on or a nice to have, it’s something that should be ingrained within your business.

About the author

Danielle Rodriguez is Director, Sales Strategy and Operations at data collection agency, Viga.

She has held senior sales positions in a range of industries throughout her career, building teams and generating growth.

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