How many clients do you lose due to poor customer service each year? 5%, 10%? Shockingly, the figures might be far higher than you realize. According to Statista, 44% of Americans stopped doing business with a company due to poor customer service in 2018 alone.
Can your business afford those numbers?
In the current economic environment, no company can afford to lose clients on such a grand scale. Fortunately, there’s a lot that you may do to staunch the flow. In this article, we’ll go over customer service tips, dos, and don’ts to ensure that your firm delivers outstanding service.
Retail Customer Service Tips
What is Retail Customer Service?
The answer to “What is retail customer service?” may differ depending on whom you ask. Ask the store manager, and they’ll say it’s only when the person interacts with the store. Speak to the call center, and they’ll suggest it’s when the client interacts with them directly.
Many firms split their definition dependent on the division handling the interaction. This attitude is convenient but hardly correct.
Retail customer service refers to any interaction the client has with your brand. It’s any time you help the client solve a problem, buy a product, or answer a question. By this definition, the service experience extends from the marketing stage throughout the whole customer life cycle.
This realization leads us to the most crucial retail customer service tip. Companies must recognize that the client doesn’t differentiate between separate divisions. Businesses must work toward creating a cohesive experience across different divisions and channels.
With that in mind, let’s move on to some other helpful retailing customer service tips
Retailing Customer Service Tips
Other retail customer service tips are easier to implement once you’re working toward a cohesive service experience.
Hire for Attitude
The ideal employee has the perfect blend of skill and attitude. When faced with a choice between the two, companies often choose the person with the best skills. The reasoning being that with the right motivation, the employee will develop the correct attitude. Make sure you find chat agents that are friendly, positive, and have a desire to help.
It’s an outdated concept. It’s difficult to change attitudes. Many of the world’s leading companies now hire based on how well the employee fits the company culture. Look for employees dedicated to customer service, and you can teach them the skills they need.
Intelligent Delegation
Retailers often adopt an all-hands-on-deck approach when it comes to customer service. With this technique, employees must deal with any client query they encounter. It makes sense on paper as clients get an instant resolution to their questions.
In practice, it leaves your staff playing catch up with their work later. Clients experience delays as a result.
Retailers are better off delegating specific roles to specific consultants. Instead of having five salespeople dealing with sales and queries, assign the service role to one or two people. By doing so, the company also has excellent control over the consistency of service the client receives.
As an extension of this principle, also consider what happens when a client calls the helpline. Is there a frantic dash to find someone who has time to answer?
If so, it’s time to consider outsourcing this function to a professional call center. Doing so has the further benefit of providing your client with one point of contact for any queries.
SupportYourApp is considered to be the premier call center solution. The company chooses agents who are passionate about delivering an excellent customer service experience. The agents then undergo rigorous training and monitoring to ensure that they provide what the firm promises.
Train Employees to Use Positive Body Language and Speech
How you deal with a query may escalate or de-escalate the issue quickly. Make sure that your employees learn to phrase their replies positively.
Compare these two phrases:
- “I see what the problem is.”
- “I see what the situation is.”
Both mean the same thing, but “situation” has more positive connotations than “problem.” Tricks like this may help to calm and reassure clients.
Encourage Active Empathy
Clients want to feel valued. One way to demonstrate that you care for them is to empathize with their situation. This technique is incredibly valuable when clients are angry.
Active empathy means putting yourself in the client’s shoes. They are perhaps wrong, but they have a right to feel the way that they do.
Don’t tell the client that they’re wrong. Instead, say something like, “That process is confusing. We’re working on simplifying it. In the meantime, may I walk you through the steps?”
Finally, when implementing these tips, ensure retail store customer service support policies are unambiguous.
Wrapping it Up With Effective Retail Store Customer Service Support Policies
Companies must actively work on creating clear support policies. By providing easy to understand guidelines, firms make it simple for employees to deliver outstanding service.
Don’t make vague statements about delivering service excellence. These concepts are subjective. One person may view excellence as answering the call within a few rings. Another might view it as being proactive.
Ensure that your service policies walk through examples of good, bad, and mediocre service experiences. State steps that employees may take to improve their service delivery. Empower them as necessary to make service improvements.
Outstanding service starts with having the right attitude. Bring it home by providing employees the tools that they need to do the job. Finish off by regularly monitoring the situation.
