We all know how frustrating it is to deal with bad customer service. You call a company because you need help, and instead of feeling relieved, you end up feeling angry and frustrated. Bad customer service can ruin your day – or even your week. But is there an example of a good customer service experience in retail? What does that look like?

At its best, good customer service is responsive, helpful, and friendly. The representative listens to your problem and works with you to find a solution. They make the process as easy as possible for you and they follow through on their promises. As a result, you feel valued  as a customer and are more likely to continue doing business with the company in the future. Here is an example of a good customer service experience to help you learn from them.
 

What is good customer service?

Customer service is all about building a relationship with your clients.

This can mean you have a rapid response time to service requests, always respond to customer feedback (positive or negative), have self-service help documents readily available, and an easy process for getting in touch with support.

In addition to those mentioned above, let’s look at the six most important qualities of a good customer service department.

1. How to Automate Your Help Desk

Time is money, and customers are always looking to save time. 66% of consumers say the most important service a business can provide is valuing their precious time.

Your team’s focus on efficiency and the development of a streamlined workflow is key to providing excellent customer service. The adoption of a help desk tool can automate various service tasks, making your team’s job easier and allowing them to provide faster solutions to customers.

2. Customer Feedback Collection and Analysis

Customer service needs vary depending on the type of business, meaning what is good customer service for one business may not be good customer service for another.

The best way to improve your customer service is by collecting feedback from your customers. This is the best way to identify their specific needs and come up with solutions.

The best way to find out what your customers want and need is to ask them directly through interviews and questionnaires. This way, you can get specific and actionable feedback that you can use to improve your business.

The tools will help your customer support team find new opportunities to improve your products and the customer experience.

3. Customer Self-Service

If your customers are looking for solutions to service problems, encourage them to use self-service resources provided by your business. A knowledge base is a common and useful self-service resource that can help customers find answers to their questions. These are websites or applications that contain a collection of categorized articles and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) pages. These pages supply customers with solutions to common user roadblocks.

Self-service tools are a valuable asset when it comes to providing high-quality customer service. By giving customers the ability to solve problems on their own, you can free up your support team to focus on more complex issues.

4. Omni-Channel Support

Your customers should be able to contact you easily, regardless of what channel they use.

Your team should be equipped to handle customer service requests through any medium, including phone, email, social media, live chat, and more. This way, you can provide an omnichannel experience that is convenient and stress-free for your customers.

By providing an omni-channel customer experience, you make it easier for your customers to reach you, which can make for a more positive interaction.

5 Ways to Improve Customer Service

Emotional intelligence is a critical skill for customer service representatives. By being able to read and react to the emotions of customers, they are better equipped to diffuse difficult situations. This can help prevent potential churn, which can cost businesses $35 or more.

Some customers can be extremely frustrating to deal with, but the best customer service teams know how to calm them down and prevent them from churning. Churned customers are customers who leave your business, and it costs businesses $35 billion every year.

6. Creative Problem Solving Strategies

In the end, great customer service is about solving your customers’ problems and helping them achieve what they want.

In many cases, this requires agents to be creative and come up with solutions to customer issues that fall outside of normal company protocol.

Example of a Good Customer Service Experience: The Best Customer Service Companies

There’s a big difference between talking about good customer service in theory and seeing it put into practice by real-world companies. Here are some businesses that go the extra mile to ensure their customers are happy

1. Amazon

2. Apple

3. Google

4. Facebook

5. Microsoft

6. Twitter

7. Salesforce

8. Adobe

9. Oracle

10. Zendesk

10 Ways to Deliver Great Customer Service

Here are 10 of the best ways to deliver excellent customer service.
 

1. Know your product

As a customer service rep, you are the expert on your product. Customers depend on you to help them solve their issues. In order to do so, you need to have an in-depth knowledge of the product.

Having a deep understanding of your product is key to providing good customer service.

It’s vital that you truly believe in what you’re selling and can explain its features and benefits clearly. You’ll also need to demonstrate how it will benefit the customer. And of course, you’ll also need to deal with any issues that arise.

Your goal is to ensure that your customers are satisfied with their purchase and feel like they have gotten true value for their money. You should be available to answer any questions they may have about the product and help them get the most out of it.

Aim to learn everything there is to know about your product so you can give timely recommendations to customers on how to use new features and services.

2. Maintain a positive attitude

A positive attitude is essential for providing excellent customer service.

“The best customer service reps know that the right attitude and mindset can change a negative experience into a positive one,” according to VP of operations and customer support at digicert, inc.

Since the majority of your interactions with customers are not face to face, it’s important to be polite, and use a positive tone.

It can be easy to miss tone in emails or chat, so keep your message concise and to the point.

The absence of many nonverbal cues like facial expressions and body movements can make interpreting someone’s emotions difficult.

If you want to come across as warm and friendly, don’t hesitate to use emojis in your messages. If a conversation starts to feel tense, pick up the phone instead of continuing to communicate online.

3. Creatively problem-solve

Bad customer service is one of the main reasons why people churn.  Customer support reps, should be prepared to solve problems for  customers. There will always be problems that need to be solved, so make it a central part of your role.

Don’t be afraid to impress your customers as you work to solve their problems.

If you want to create customers who are fully committed to you and your product, don’t just fix the issue and move on. Instead, go the extra mile by creatively meeting their needs in unique ways. This will wow them and show that you care about solving their problem in the best way possible.

4. Respond quickly

Customers value their time, so it’s important to resolve their questions as quickly as possible. This is especially important for minor problems that can be resolved in a short amount of time.

Small issues should be solved as soon as possible.

Despite that, good customer service always triumphs over quickness.

Customers understand that more complex queries may take longer to resolve. They are aware that there is a difference between the response time and the speed of which their problem is fixed. They are okay with this, as they do not want their issue to be put on hold.

Your customers don’t want to be stuck in a ticket line, but they will wait as long as necessary to get their issues resolved. You should, too.

It’s important to get to your customers as soon as possible, but it’s important to make sure their issue is solved before you close out their ticket or hang up the phone.

5. Personalize your service

40% of customers want a more personalized experience. By providing a personalized customer experience, you can improve customer loyalty.

They feel frustrated when they aren’t treated as an individual, receiving a generic reply, or being passed along like a football.

Customers want to feel like they’re dealing with people, not companies. That’s why many companies will send their customers birthday gifts to show that they care.

Knowing your customer’s name, birthday, interests, and hobbies can help you make a personal connection. Making them smile or chuckle shows that you care.

6. Help customers help themselves

Customers are often in a hurry to resolve their issues themselves, so they prefer being able to solve their problem without talking to anyone.

Most customers prefer to handle issues themselves before contacting a customer service rep.

71% of consumers want to be able to resolve most service issues with a company on their own.

Self-service is a great way to keep customers happy. Help Scout’s Beacon puts help content right where customers need it, so they can find answers without leaving the page. This makes it more convenient and cost-effective for everyone involved.

If you can’t find the answer to the question, help is just a few clicks away with real people.

7. Focus support on the customer

Your customers are the most important part of your business model and you should act accordingly. Putting your customers’ needs before your own will lead to success.

It’s time to take a different approach to customer service, one that focuses on the customer as a human being. This means getting to know your customers and making sure they feel valued. It also means being authentic in your interactions with them.

Make them feel like they’re talking to a person, not a robot.

It’s definitely worth it!

8. Actively listen

Listening to customer feedback is important in order to improve the customer experience. By looking back over data and listening in real-time, businesses can show their customers that they are being heard. This active listening can result in happier customers overall.

Listening to your customers is one of the best ways to ensure that you are solving their real problems. By actively listening, you can show your customers that you care about their concerns and that you are committed to resolving them. This will result in happier, more satisfied customers.

It’s important to listen carefully to your customers, but try not to assume you know what they want to say.

When you’re on the phone with a customer or chatting online, make sure you demonstrate your listening abilities by using words like “It sounds to me like …” or “Do you mean that … ?” or “Can you repeat that?”

” Make sure you listen to what the other person is saying and repeat it back to them to show you understand.

When listening to a customer, it’s important to be conscious of their personality so you can tailor the conversation to fit their unique needs.

9. Keep your word

If you make a promise, it is common sense customer service to follow through. Don’t disappoint your customers by breaking your word.

Keeping promises is about respecting and trusting others.

If you have committed to a certain level of service, it is important to maintain that standard. This will ensure customer satisfaction and continued business. If you have promised to develop a certain feature in your software, it is important to deliver on that timeline. This way, your customers will know that they can rely on you to follow through on your commitments.

If you make a mistake, or fail to deliver on your promise, make sure you compensate your customer in some way. Offer them a discount or free gift to make up for your mistake. If their order arrives late, replace it and reimburse them. By doing this, you will show customers that you value and care about their happiness.

In the short term, you’ll lose some money, but in the long-term, you’ll have a loyal customer.

Customers are not grateful when you deliver more than you promised, but they feel angry if you break a promise. It’s better to under-promise and over-deliver.

It’s always best to under-promise and over-deliver, that way you can be sure to never break this important social contract.

10. Be proactively helpful

Doing more than what’s required of you is incredibly important when providing great customer service. This is when you have ticked all the boxes but still want to do more.

Anticipating your customers’ needs means being proactive instead of reactive. It means offering solutions before customers even know they have a problem. It also means being aware of what your customers actually need, not what they say they need.

So if a customer asks for one thing but really needs another, you have to be able to read between the lines and give them what they really need.

It’s your job to be proactive and help them out when they need it.

When customers feel appreciated, they are likely to continue doing business with you.

If you treat customers well, they will return the favor by buying from you.

Giving customers small gifts or rare promo codes is a surefire way to show them your appreciation.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for an example of a good customer service experience, look no further than the companies on our list. They are all responsive, helpful, and friendly, making sure that their customers have the best possible experiences. So if you’re ever in need of assistance, remember to give them a call – you’ll be glad you did!