When it comes to customer service, unfortunately many challenges for businesses remain the same year after year. That’s despite the fact many organizations spend a lot of money and devote very limited resources to somehow improve service to their consumers.
Look, for instance, at the time customers, using a phone, remain on hold waiting for service. Three quarters of the customers who were studied and who started to make a purchase via the phone were put on hold. Is that really the best way to encourage customers to make a purchase? Especially this time of the year, with the winter holidays fast approaching, time is something that consumers do not have in abundance. They don’t want to sacrifice it – waiting for some representative to get to their call.
Also, when it comes to online information – it often is not there or is insufficient. Some 56 percent of customers said they abandoned making a purchase or left a website because there was insufficient information there, the study said. There often is a lot of information crammed on a website – but not the basic content the consumer needs in order to decide whether to make a purchase. Not a smart way to increase sales.
And 71 percent of customers who get a fast response from a business brand on a social media channel will be more likely to recommend that brand to their online community, according to the study. That’s an impressively high number, which can be used effectively by a business looking to improve branding, reputation and sales.
In addition, Flavio Martins, vice president of Customer Support at DigiCert, said the study of more than 8,000 consumers, showed that 74 percent of customers use at least three channels when they interact with customer service. It was also reported how customer service contact channels are increasing. Also, customer use of channels is increasing, too.
When it comes to a business developing a customer service strategy, it should meet the needs of customers and provide the quality of service customers expect to see in the various channels, Martins said.
“Unfortunately, too many organizations haven’t caught the vision of the type of relationships that they could develop with customers if they were more active in connecting and communicating with customers on social media channels,” Martins added in a statement. “These channels aren’t just for customer service inquiries, but are relationship development tools changing the nature of how customer service is done.”
When consumers try to build relationships with businesses, they can’t be discarded by businesses who fail to understand the importance of meeting basic customer needs. The marketplace is simply too competitive – and the consumer will move over to another organization which understands consumers’ needs much better.