How to Gain and Maintain Customers
When it comes to growing a company, customers are the key to success. Not only can they increase your bottom line—which is paramount in running a successful business—but customers can also be your biggest advocates.
At Jive, we understand the importance of listening to the customer and resolving customer needs in a timely manner. In fact, a recent Forbes article, “Disrupt Your Industry with Stellar Customer Service,” recently illustrated how Jive’s “rock star” customer support has disrupted the telecommunication industry. Specifically, we’ve found that a “rock star” customer support directly leads to gaining and retaining customers.
So forget about all of those expensive marketing campaigns. Instead, achieve company growth by improving your customer support! Here are some tactics to improve your customer support.
Three tactics for success in customer support
- Shape a network of channels
In today’s day and age, providing easy access to your customer support team is essential for the success of your business. The more channels of communication you offer, the greater accessibility there is for customers to reach your company. Some people like the convenience of social media, while others like the quickness of a call. Whatever communication tool your market prefers, you should place emphasis on it and actively monitor the interactions. This is particularly important on social media, which continues to grow in popularity. ConverSocial found that answering a social media complaint can increase customer advocacy by 25 percent. The best way to prevent negative experiences is to actively address customer needs through whatever channel they use to contact you: phone, email, or social media.
- Create a positive culture
According to Aon Hewitt Survey, only 61 percent of workers feel engaged at their jobs. In order for this mentality to change—and forcustomers to receive the support they need—a company must have a positive culture. Positive culture comes through goal-setting and empowering representatives to be helpful. Goals assist individuals in avoiding complacency and also enable a company to determine where it wants to be and how to get there. In addition, training employees to be helpful and apply knowledge to resolve concerns will lead to valuable experiences for customers that can build advocacy for your company.
- Measure customer support success
Measuring customer support success starts with measuring engagement of representatives. By determining what engagement means for your team—and through gathering data—you will be able to use valuable information to improve customer support. Research shows that 70 percent of companies that provide positive customer experiences use customer feedback. As new data and feedback comes in, you must be willing to adapt your goals and vision of your support team. Correcting ineffective practices will enhance your brand, improve your service, and increase customer retention.
The Power of Customer Support
The implementation of these principles and tactics will enable your customer support team to create positive interactions for customers. These positive experiences will ultimately result in happier customers and more effective employees, leading to retention of customers and growth of your company.
For more more information on Jive’s strategy and our three tactics, read our whitepaper!