I already talked about the importance of customers and providing an excellent customer service in my
previous article, but it's something that can't be emphasised enough. Retaining your customers – and making sure they feel appreciated and get the support and user experience they expected – is key to continued success and standing out from your competition.
If you look at customer feedback in general, you'll notice that most customer complaints are usually related to the service you provide them. But what are some of the most common reasons for poor customer service and how can you avoid them?
1) Not hiring the right people
Generally speaking, the quality of the customer service you provide largely depends on the quality of the people you hire. After all, your customer service team interacts directly with the customers. Companies that don't perform well in customer service usually don't take enough time and effort into their recruitment process and selecting the right employees for the job.
To avoid making this mistake, screen all your potential candidates carefully and make sure they possess the right skills and attitude to handle customers in diverse situations. Although it may take some time initially, it definitely pays off in the long run.
The
Provide Support blog has some brilliant tips on what you need to pay attention to and who the ideal candidates would be for customer service positions.
2) Lack of training
Not training your employees is possibly the most common reason for poor customer service. As I mentioned earlier, your customer service representatives interact directly with your customers. If you don't provide them sufficient amount of training, they're going to make mistakes and that will affect your overall customer experience.
To avoid this, make sure to dedicate enough time and resources to keeping your employees' skills sharp. They need to possess all the necessary information about your company's products, goals, and targets, as well as have the necessary skills to help your customers in every possible situations.
3) Lack of belief in the product or the company
Another problem that may lead to poor customer service is when, for whatever reason, your employees simply aren't able to connect with the company or believe in the product they are trying to sell. This can be due to a number of different reasons, but usually the blame lies either with the product or the company structure.
Unfortunately, many companies respond to situations like this by ignoring the problem and continuing as they are, which only makes things worse. Instead, you should be completely honest and try to understand the root cause of the problem. Talk to your employees about why they no longer believe in the product, and if they have any suggestions, you should implement them.
4) Lack of respect for the customer
Needless to say, customers should always be treated with respect, without exceptions. The problem is that, after a long day of work, customer service advisors can sometimes slip and become distracted. If they're not paying attention to the client, however, they might perceive this as disrespect, so it's crucial that you keep this to a minimum.
One way to avoid this is to allow your employees to have occasional breaks. Not only will this allow them to focus and recharge their batteries, but it will make them more productive and motivated in the long run.
5) Lack of empathy
After working in the same job for a long period of time, most people can become indifferent to their customers – which is completely natural. However, if a new employee
lacks empathy from the beginning, that can lead to more serious problems down the line.
In these cases, you can either send these new employees on a
customer service training course, or remove them from their position. As for employees who have been working for the company for a long time, you can greatly improve their performance by providing the right incentives, and allowing them to take regular breaks to refresh and refocus.
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