20 Customer Service Tips to Deliver Exceptional Experience 

When people treat you well, you will always remember the experience. This applies to every kind of human interaction, including business-to-customer relationships. To ensure customer loyalty, you must prioritize your client’s satisfaction by delivering an excellent and delightful experience. 

A 2018 study revealed that 66 percent of respondents in the US look for exceptional customer service when choosing a brand. This means having a good reputation or reasonable prices does not guarantee that people will patronize you. Instead, they will buy from your brand if you genuinely focus on serving them. 

In other words, you need to improve the customer service delivery of your brand to make your business undeniable for your consumers.

In this article, we’ll explore 20 actionable customer service tips you can adopt today to give your consumers the best they deserve. Let’s get started.

20 Tips to Improve Your Customer Service  

This is a comprehensive list of customer support tips that will improve your efforts to satisfy your clients:  

1. Thoroughly Know Your Products/Services

Understanding the products and services you provide is the first step to meeting your customers’ needs. People can tell when someone deeply understands a product they’re trying to sell. As a business owner, you probably don’t have any trouble understanding your product.

However, you must ensure that your customer service team members understand the product better than you. That way, they’ll be more competent, confident, and efficient in providing value to clients. Besides, customers will feel the natural connection between your team and the products.

2. Be an Active Listener

Active listening is not simply hearing what your customer says. More than that, it involves paying close attention and connecting with them to help them resolve the challenges they have with your brand. Listening to your clients actively makes them feel valued, further fueling their loyalty.

3. Be Empathetic

One of the best practices in customer service is to show that you feel what your customers are feeling. Showing empathy tells your clients that they can trust your brand to respond compassionately to them. They see you understand their pain and frustration from their perspective, which makes them feel at home with your brand.

4. Train Your Customer Service Team

You must ensure that your employees can provide the support your customers need. You should have a plan to take them through basic skills like product knowledge, crisis management, and interpersonal communication skills for customer service. 

Your business can only grow if you keep your customers happy. As such, you must be sure that your team is equipped with vital customer retention strategies like offering rewards or discounts, sending engaging emails to customers, etc.

5. Follow Up on Your Customers

Let’s say you go to a restaurant to have your favorite Spanish dish, and the waiter stops by to ask if you’re enjoying your meal. You’ll likely feel valued by the gesture. 

That is the purpose of following up with your customers, for them to feel valued. If they had a good experience with your business, thank them for their patronage. If they had a negative experience, you can tell them you’ll fix the problem to improve their experience.

6. Don’t Use Negative or Offensive Language

Always avoid negative language when speaking with your customers. Even if you’re delivering negative information, keep an optimistic tone. Sometimes, your clients might be angry, but you should maintain your cool and calm them down as you resolve their complaints.

For example, instead of saying, “Our customer personnel are unavailable now,” say, “We’ll be with you in the next few minutes.” 

7. Identify and Address Clients’ Concerns

After listening to a client’s complaint, you should be able to point out their issues. If you can solve the problem, tell your clients to give you some time. If you have to escalate the issue, inform your customers accordingly.

8. Automate Your Customer Support

Automating some of your tasks increases your productivity. Using tools like chatbots can quickly help you handle repetitive customer service tasks. Also, chatbots can do the job on behalf of your team if they are unavailable.

9. Be Patient and Positive

As you try to satisfy your customers, you must maintain a patient demeanor to understand and resolve their issues correctly. Even when dealing with demanding customers, do not take their actions personally. You also have to maintain a culture of respect as customers rant or take their time to explain their challenges.

10. Be Personal and Friendly

When your customers get to interact with you or a customer representative, you want to make sure you are conversational and personal to them. Personalized customer service makes your clients feel at ease because they can speak with someone behind your brand. 

So, of course, you’d most likely have preset answers to some of their queries. However, you shouldn’t sound rigid. Put in the work to sound as natural as possible to your clients. 

11. Provide 24/7 Omnichannel Support 

One of the golden tips for excellent customer service in today’s world is to have omnichannel customer support. You can include support channels like email, live chat, or social media to help build customer loyalty. Ensure you identify and adopt the channels that work well for your brand.

Related Post: What is Omnichannel Customer Service and How to Optimize

12. Track Your Customer Care Metrics

You can track your customer service metrics and data using tools like Mandala AI. Our platform helps you identify recurring issues, track the average resolution time, and monitor customer satisfaction with the brand. With a holistic view of your performance, you’ll know how to improve your service.

13. Ask for Feedback

Asking customers for honest opinions makes them feel valued. After every interaction with your customers, invite them to give feedback on your service. That way, you’ll know the aspects you need to work on. 

You should teach your customer relations team to always respond to positive and negative feedback, as it proves to your customers that everyone’s opinion counts.

14. Stay Consistent

It is essential to have a consistent and predictable response to every one of your customers, irrespective of their actions or reactions. Also, you must maintain your brand voice while interacting with clients. 

For example, if your company is creative and casual, it’s expected that you keep your tone a little informal when speaking with your users.

15. Go the Extra Mile

Your customers will be loyal to you if they see that you exceed their demands. Whenever you get their feedback, act on it to improve your products and services. Also, give them a little extra, and they’ll trust you better.

16. Communicate Clearly

Clear communication tells your users that you understand the problem you are trying to help them solve. 

It does not help to ghost your clients or hide relevant information from your clients. Keep them posted on what exactly you’re doing.

If you need some time to take actions that may affect the quality of your services to them, explain why you have to put them on hold and how long it would last.

17. Be Prompt

In addressing your customers’ concerns, let them know you value their time by responding promptly. A shorter response time leaves your customers more satisfied. 

A survey revealed that 17 percent of clients between the ages of 16-24 believe that quick response drastically improved their customer experience. You can leverage tools like Mandala AI for omnichannel support to reduce your response time.

18. Use Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software

A CRM platform makes managing all your customer service engagements easier. Mandala AI is a CRM software that can help you simplify and streamline your customer service operations. Also, you can keep track of every team member’s input to increase customer care productivity.

19. Use the CARP Approach

CARP is the acronym for Controlling the situation, Acknowledging the dilemma, Refocusing the conversation, and Problem-solving.

When you use this approach, you let your clients know that you recognize and understand their pain. You also calm them down and work with them to address their concerns.

20. Keep Improving

Seek continuous improvement in your brand’s customer service. Put in the work to understand the latest trend in handling customers and make the necessary adjustments. A good practice is to review your performance as often as possible so you can keep getting better.

Mastering Your Customer Service

Your customer service team is most likely the first direct contact your customers will have with your brand. As such, you want to ensure you deliver an exceptional service they will never forget. 

When you prioritize your customers’ interests, answer them promptly, actively listen to their concerns, and maintain a positive attitude while attending to them, you’ll make them more loyal to you than ever.

Tools like Mandala AI will put you ahead in handling your customers by helping you track and automate your customer care efforts. Get started today with our reliable support software to consistently meet and exceed your customers’ expectations!