Customer service used to be one of the main things that many organisations prided themselves on.

 Since the pandemic began, we have seen customer service quality plummet; this could be for a multitude of reasons, including the introduction of remote working, furloughed employees, and organisations trying to cut costs.

Whilst there may well be reasons behind it, can we really excuse poor customer service in 2021? Especially since 46% of customers say they have higher expectations of organisations this year than last…

So how bad has customer service really got and how can you save your organisation from following in the same footsteps?

The Undeniable Value of Customer Service

An excellent customer experience can change the way people think about a company. It also helps create loyalty which can significantly drive the success of a business:

• 52% of customers that have a positive experience and therefore feel loyal to a brand, admit to going out of their way to buy from that company.

Simply put, if two organisations offer exactly the same product but one has polite, friendly, helpful staff and the other has uninterested, unknowledgeable and unapproachable staff - which organisation is likely to have more sales? The first of course! 

Customer service could be the one thing that makes customers choose your organisation over another, which is why it’s so important that we get it right.

{{ADVERT}}

What Does Exceptional Customer Service Look Like?

ZenDesk conducted a worldwide survey to pinpoint the most important aspects of a good customer service experience and found that the top 3 things that customers look for is:

• Quick solutions to their problems
• 24/7 customer support 
• A friendly agent

The best customer service is about speed, convenience and friendliness. However, at Nine Dots we recently had a customer service experience that certainly didn’t leave a good taste in our mouth...

Our Recent Shocking Customer Service Experience

A few weeks ago, on Friday 18th June 2021, the internet went off in our head office. 

After trying the typical ‘turn it off and on again’ trick and having no luck, we reached out to our internet provider’s customer service team (Virgin Media Business). We couldn’t get through to an agent so we left a message asking for a call back. After not hearing anything back over the weekend, we left another message on Monday 21st… and on Wednesday… and on Friday... 

Finally, after an entire week of failing to even give us a call back, nevermind actually resolving the issue, we received an automated message on Tuesday 29th at 7pm - it apologised for the delay and asked us to rate our customer service experience! After putting in yet another call request on Wednesday 30th June, we finally received a message from the company but all it said was “What’s the query?”. After almost 2 weeks of our internet not being fixed, the issue finally resolved itself on Thursday 1st July. 

Had another company in our building not let us use their internet, our head office would have been without internet for 8 working days, which could have had an extremely detrimental impact on our operation at Nine Dots, as with most organisations. This has caused us to spread our frustration over the matter and spread the word about just how poor the customer service has been at Virgin Media Business.

Heartwarming Real-life Example of What Customer Service Should Look Like

However, not all hope is lost. Chewy, an online pet supplies company, demonstrated their care, passion and commitment to helping their customers when one of their customers lost her dog Zoe just before Christmas and then shortly after her cat, Thor, also passed away. The customer had bought some cat food that she now no longer needed so she contacted Chewy’s customer service team via live chat to ask if she could return the unused food. Not only did the company allow her to return the unused food and give her a full refund, they also went out of their way and sent the customer a bouquet from the company with a personal note expressing their condolences. The customer really appreciated this kind gesture and took to social media to share her fantastic experience with Chewy. The post gained over 145,000 shares, painting Chewy in a great light as a customer-centric, thoughtful, and considerate company. 

How Can You Ensure That Your Organisation Provides the Best Possible Customer Experience?

Whilst customer service can be a complex area of business that is unique to each and every organisation in each and every industry, there are some common best practices that almost any organisation can adopt.

We have identified ten top tips that every customer-facing staff member should never forget and collated them into a simple PDF. You can download these Ten Top Tips by clicking here or by following the link at the bottom of this article.

---

In our next Daily Dot article, we will be looking at how customer service applies to the world of sales and the role your sales professionals play in keeping customers happy.

Until next time…