Customer facing businesses are feeling the wrath of souring consumer sentiment and spending pullbacks. Returning inflation in major markets combined with general global economic pressures are driving businesses to explore ways to maximize each customer opportunity as overall traffic slows. Small and medium sized businesses can look at customer service processes and policies as well as monitor customer experiences to identify opportunities to capitalize on each interaction. Improving and delivering exceptional experiences is the core driver in customer loyalty and repeat customers become a critical revenue stream during economic slowdowns. A recent survey of consumers from Forbes indicated that 97% of respondents said that customer experience was critical to brand loyalty while 74% said they would purchase from a brand based on experience alone. As spending slows, customer facing businesses will need to evaluate their own delivery of customer service to increase that critical brand loyalty and drive repeat purchases.
Different Services for Different Businesses
Customer facing businesses have different ways to engage their customers and deliver customer service. The business model and type of product or service would determine the best way to handle the client end of the business. Core customer interaction types are:
- In person engagement
- Telephone interactions
- Chat, email, SMS and other other virtual methods
In person engagement has always been the mainstay of customer service but constant innovation in technology means electronic means of communication are viable and should be part of any customer service strategy. Many in-person and online customers turn to the brand’s social media presence for service and businesses should understand how engagement works in that realm, as well as monitor and manage interactions from the public.
Defining the Customer Service Culture
Planning and strategy are key parts to any customer service campaign and defining the brand’s customer service culture is the foundation to delivering top shelf experiences. Creating resources, deploying training and communicating policies that address the brand’s customer service goals are core methods in defining the business’s customer service culture. Consistent messaging from leadership is critical in maintaining a strong culture of customer service within the business. Measuring customer service is an essential step in implementing a successful strategy and sharing metrics and feedback with frontline teams is necessary to highlight how important customer service is to the business. Leadership can maximize individual potential by recognizing customer service wins and praising frontline staff that delivered the experience. Customer service from the management perspective revolves around strategizing and executing quality interactions and engagements on a consistent basis. By focusing on each opportunity, frontline teams can apply advanced customer service skills to maximize that particular engagement.
Upskilling the Frontline Team
Businesses that depend on customer service for revenue equally depend on their frontline teams to deliver that service. Frontline team performance is influenced by 2 major factors:
- Skill set
- Motivation
Developing skills through experience can allow frontline team members to hone their customer interaction skills. Mini-trainings and huddles are fast paced methods to deliver new skills and can efficiently be used to deploy advanced customer handling skills. Upskilling in customer interaction skills, communication abilities and organizational habits will yield positive results almost immediately as workers can apply their new skills immediately. Identifying wins and opportunities from recent customer interactions will create further upskilling opportunities as frontline workers quickly adjust and pivot. Sharing customer feedback and reviews, both positive and negative, can highlight customer concerns and identify training opportunities for the frontline team.
The Bottom Line
Businesses that rely on customer interactions to generate revenue are facing challenges as traffic and transactions begin to slow down. Consumer sentiment is negative in the face of economic instability and they are pulling back as recent spending data suggests. Small and medium sized businesses must focus attention on delivering the best possible customer service with each interaction, maximizing every opportunity and engagement. Identifying the types of customer service that are appropriate for the business and improving process and skills can elevate customer experiences and drive brand loyalty and repeat purchasers. With the potential for reduced customer counts, word of mouth marketing and brand reputation becomes that much more critical for creating revenue opportunities. Using advanced and pro-active customer skills can also increase the value of individual transactions, further maximizing the opportunity.