Businesses are learning the hard way that customer is still the king. Or rather, they are being forced to re-learn the ABCs of running a successful business. The cost of bad customer service is zooming from uncomfortable to stinging- according to a study by NewVoiceMedia; another 13 Billion Dollars were lost due to bad customer support experiences, bringing the total annual estimated loss from $62 billion to a staggering $75 Billion within just 2 years.
The way things are moving it won’t be a surprise if the figure whizzes to a 100 Billion USD before the next decade begins!
What’s the big takeaway from this desolate situation? One, customers refuse to be taken for granted. Two, they are willing; sometimes even eager, to jump to a competitor on the first whiff of a better customer support experience. Three, the fierce competition in every industry means the customers are spoilt for choices, and finally, you’ve a golden opportunity to bring your customers and those of your competitors to your fold by making some minor and a few major changes.
The opportunity is there to see but are you prepared to embrace change?
This post holds no importance if you’re happy with your position. But if you’re desperate to change your company’s fortunes, do not miss the remaining part.
It’s easy to define bad customer service but how do a business ensure it provides consistently great customer service? For me, it all begins from the top- from the C-suite. The leadership alone can make certain it sets the right example that percolates down to the lowest level of the organization.
To say it more explicitly; the company culture is what separates the great from good. Every organization that is renowned for providing unswerving customer support is defined by a culture of empathy, empowerment and trust.
Empathy in understanding the other person’s point of view;
Empowerment to resolve every complaint at the lowest level itself;
And Trust that the customers and employees are acting genuinely and not trying to con the company.
Amazon is an excellent example of an organization that consistently delivers incredible customer support. And if you analyze even casually; you’ll notice they tick all the 3 critical elements to almost perfection. They are not even remotely close to 100% but the competition is so woefully behind that Amazon seems like the God of Customer support!
Amazon has built a desirable culture of customer support. It’s not just another department for them but the reason for their existence. No wonder they are the topmost company in the universe.
How can you emulate Amazon in delivering ‘that’ level of customer support?
Frankly, it asks for losing your purse strings. It is one of those things that don’t happen by chance but need to be worked on, diligently, and consistently. The sad and often logically true part is that small and medium companies are seldom in a position to spend big on customer support initiatives, even though I’ve noticed many of them interested in upgrading their customer services.
What alternate do we have then?
Outsourcing inbound customer support services…
While outsourcing has been around for more than 2 decades now, the past few years have seen them make a resurgent return by tailoring their services and training their customer support executives with razor sharp tech and solutions to bring them at par with global practices.
Outsourcing your customer support can help your company majorly on saving costs of hiring a full-fledged department. If you look at the ancillary costs of reduced labor, reduced investment in infrastructure, and access to industry experts in delivering top-notch customer services, these mammoth savings can be anywhere in the range of 50%-80%.
Their focus on recruiting the right people, and training them carefully results in a dedicated workforce that is able to empathize with a customer and offer instant solutions that influences the customer and blocks his path of turning back on a business.
For a business owner or a C-suite manager, the greatest advantage comes in the form of extra time and resources to focus on their core competency and look at ways to grow their businesses.
Inbound Communications companies like Open Mind Services Limited continue to assist their clients in delivering impressive customer support and building a vital competitive advantage for more than 15 years now.
Fixing bad customer service is not that challenging if you’ve access to a team of dedicated trained customer support executives led by industry experts who are keen to learn and impart ground-breaking practices and technology.
Make your move to grow your business today.