The Top 10 Things All Customers Actually Want

The Top 10 Things All Customers Actually Want

The Top 10 Things Customers Want

• Knowledgeable Representatives
  • Customers want the employees who serve them to be knowledgeable and competent
  • They want to know if representatives have solved similar types of problems for other clients in the past
    • When they have, this builds confidence during the buying experience
  • It’s important for representatives to constantly improve their knowledge
  • To build lifetime customer satisfaction, provide staff with detailed knowledge or information about your company and its products and services. 
• An experience worth talking about
  • Customers love to talk
    • They want to share about their experiences, especially: 
      • What excites them 
      • What bothers them 
    • Remember: News spreads whether a customer is giving praise or venting
      • Social media turns up the volume.
        • Turns an customer’s 200 Facebook friends into a PR agency
        • Make it your company’s mission to turn those people into free promoters of your products and services
• Sincerity and trust from company representatives
  • Customers want to know if they are liked by the people serving them 
    • Customers can discern this from how representatives interact with them:
      • Do employees use their name? 
      • Do they really listen? 
      • Do their voices demonstrate sincere empathy? 
    • They also want to know if those serving them really care
      • They can discern this from a representative’s: 
        • Tone of voice
        • Questions asked
        • Helpfulness 
    • Help customers know they can trust the people serving them 
      • Customers can discern this from a representatives: 
        • Confidence
        • Follow through 
          • Remember: Try to have all phone calls and emails returned or answered in 24 hours or less
• Ease of doing business
  • 23% of customers cite ease of doing business with an organization as one of the top three most important things to them
  • Customers want simplicity  
    • Websites should be easy to navigate
    • Products should be easy to access
    • It should be easy to contact an organization
  • Customers expect companies to communicate with them on their preferred channel, be it in person, online, or on the phone
    • Consider this study by American Express:
      • Channel preference depends on the type of interaction
      • For simple inquiries, online self-serve and email are the preferred channels
      • As the inquiry gets more complex, speaking with a live agent becomes the preferred channel
        
• Follow up and touch base
  • Customers expect some follow-up efforts
  • The majority don’t find “just touching base” a nuisance 
  • Keeping in touch can deflect incoming contacts, which can: 
    • Reduce costs 
    • Boost customer satisfaction 
    • Improve revenues
  • Before increasing or beginning outbound communication, find out:
    • What customers want to hear from you
    • When they want to hear from you
    • The channel(s) they want you to use
  • Give customers the right amount of information at the right time through the channel they prefer. For example:
    • Utility customers often prefer notifications texted to them
    • B2B customers generally prefer periodic emails notifying them of scheduled maintenance or contract renewals
    • Retail and tech customers often prefer to keep an eye on social media for the latest news
• Recovery 
  • When something goes wrong, it’s a valuable opportunity to show how great your service really is
  • Customers want their problems solved quickly
  • Customers don’t want to hear: 
    • Excuses 
    • Who’s to blame 
    • Why it happened
    • Customers often judge the quality of service by the way a company recovers
    • If your company recovers well and gracefully, customers will often forgive mistakes 
      • Steps to Recover well:
      • 1. Apologize
        • Ask for forgiveness.
      • Don’t say, “I’m sorry you feel that way.” Give a real apology.
      • 2. Review
        • Review the complaint with your customer.
        • Treat the customer like a customer service consultant and let them explain: 
          • What went wrong in the customer experience 
          • What you should do to fix it
      • 3. Fix 
        • Resolve the issue and/or follow up
          • Try to make it happen within 20 minutes 
          • If the issue can’t be fixed right away, follow up within 20 minutes to check on the customer and explain the progress 
        •  Follow up after fixing things to show concern and appreciation
      • 4. Document 
        • Record how you permanently fixed the problem
        • Try to identify trends or patterns that hint at underlying causes
• Flexibility
  • It’s important to be as flexible as possible.
    • Tell customers what you can do, not what you can’t.
    • Customers look for: 
    • Responsiveness 
    • Creativity
    • Salespeople who make it easy to do business with them
    • Try to avoid using words or phrases like:
    • “That’s our procedure.”
    • “No.” 
    • “It can’t be done.”
• Maintain enthusiasm
  • Attitude is contagious
    • No one appreciates bored or unhappy customer service reps
    • Even when you have a high level of personal service, look for ways to go farther
    • Tips to provide enthusiasm
    • During customer interactions be sure to have positive:
      • Eye contact
      • Facial expressions
      • Voice tone
      • Body language 
      • Word choice 
    • Ask questions to make sure you understand the needs of the customer
    • Acknowledgement of a customer is the initial opportunity to put enthusiasm on display 
      • Customers should be able to see and hear your enthusiasm when face to face.
        • Let them see excitement in your facial expressions and eye contact.
      • Customers should be able to hear your enthusiasm over the phone.
        • Voice, tone, and inflections tell a customer if you're really interested in providing assistance. 
      • Customers should be able to hear your enthusiasm via email.
        • Use word choice and punctuation that match how you would exhibit enthusiasm if you were face to face.
• Speedy support
  • A study by Forrester Research of more than consumers found: 
    • 71% of consumers believe that valuing their time was the most important thing a company could do to provide them with good customer service.
    • In order for support agents to solve problems fast and efficiently, they need to be:
    • The right people 
    • Trained to know the product or service 
• Moments of WOW
  • What is a moment of WOW? 
    • It’s when a customer service agent to goes above and beyond the call of service to make a customer happy.
    • This could be anything from a free return to a discount.
  • Customers love to be surprised with extreme acts of kindness.
  • To provide moments of WOW, establish a company culture that promotes and encourages it.

Conclusion

Get more loyal customers by providing them with top-notch service and giving them what they want and deserve.