Regardless of your company size or industry, your customers should always be the focal point of your business. To learn how to improve all areas of a business through customer service, we asked the Twitter community to share their insights and advice. Here’s what they had to say.
Customers service KPIs must be merchandised and circulated company-wide. Too often customer service metrics are kept hidden.
– Jay Baer (@JayBaer), Convince & Convert, President
Leadership by example. Doing something concrete. Improve one area of customer service and start measuring. The best companies have customer service at their core. I worked at Apple in the post-Steve 1.0 and pre-Steve 2.0 era and customer centricity was embedded in the culture even without Steve’s presence.
– Des Cahill (@DesCahill), Oracle, Head Customer Experience Evangelist
It’s key to get buy-in from the leaders in your company. Everyone should care about delivering great customer service.
– Brian Moran (@BrianMoran), Award-winning Business Advisor
Standards for great customer service are increasingly same whether it’s B2B or B2C. Customer expectations are liquid now.
– Jay Baer (@JayBaer), Convince & Convert, President
Historically, it’s been very different. Today, not so much. We carry our consumer CX expectations into work. I love saying that CX stands for “customer expectations” and Amazon experiences influence vendor expectations.
– Des Cahill (@DesCahill), Oracle, Head Customer Experience Evangelist
Let’s remember that B lives right next door to C in the alphabet!
– Ken Gordon (@QuickMuse)
We live in an “On-Demand” world where NOW is too late, and 10 minutes ago is the standard.
– Brian Moran (@BrianMoran), Award-winning Business Advisor
Customer experience is how we make our customers feel. Customer service is how we solve customer problems.
– Jay Baer (@JayBaer), Convince & Convert, President
Customer service is interaction initiated by the customer who needs help. Customer experience is broader… All interactions with the company, product, packaging, service, retail, salesperson, website, app.
– Des Cahill (@DesCahill), Oracle, Head Customer Experience Evangelist
Customer service is a top-down term. Outdated. Customer experience, now we’re talking.
– Steve King (@TheSteveKing)
Customer experience is delivering product/services without any issues; customer service kicks in when things go wrong. Anyone handling customer service issues must be a good listener and a problem solver.
– Brian Moran (@BrianMoran), Award-winning Business Advisor
Customer service is tit for tat: I sell, you buy. Customer experience is the interaction before, during and after you buy.
– Sonia Harris (@Harrisonia)
The best ways to get better at customer service are listen harder and answer every question, in every channel, every time. 1/3 of customer complaints are never answered. Yet, no response IS a response.
– Jay Baer (@JayBaer), Convince & Convert, President
Upgrade customer service via culture, communication, people, then systems.
– Des Cahill (@DesCahill), Oracle, Head Customer Experience Evangelist
By asking customers (at least yearly) what improvements they’d like to see in the customer service they’re expecting.
– Maria Florio (@Luna12780)
Listening is important, but solving a customer service issue swiftly is the key.
– Marsha Collier (@MarshaCollier)
Social has totally changed customer expectations around response time. 40% of social complainers expect replies in 60 minutes. Most importantly, social media has made customer service a spectator sport. That changed the ROI equation A LOT.
– Jay Baer (@JayBaer), Convince & Convert, President
Social media has completely changed a company’s approach to customer service. Beware of your “weakest link.” Companies must remember “every customer has a camera and 3-5 places to post their pics.”
– Brian Moran (@BrianMoran), Award-winning Business Advisor
It’s more public. It can all be seen – the good, the bad and the ugly! And it’s there forever.
– Ed Davies (@EDaviesWork)
It’s about being where your customers are and going beyond real-time engagement to right-time engagement by listening first.
– Brian Fanzo (@ISocialFanz)
Social media improves customer service or does the opposite when companies ignore it as a means to listen and help customers.
– Maria Florio (@Luna12780)