10 Strategies to Excel in Digital Customer Service
Everyone is familiar with customer service, and, as a business owner, you strive to provide the highest level of customer service to anyone who interacts with your business. However, with so many industries moving to purely online experiences, we must think differently about customer service. Customers now use social media, search engines, a company’s website, and other digital platforms to share their experiences or look for the experience of others. Therefore, effective digital customer service is essential to running a business and your overall digital marketing strategy. So here are some digital customer service tips to help you provide the best possible experience for your customers online.
1. Start with a happy team
Customers can tell pretty quickly if the employee they’re interacting with is not happy to be there, even digitally. When your team believes they have a purpose at your company, are valuable to the team, and are passionate about your brand, that will lead to more positive customer interaction. Your customers will note how well they’re treated and the employee’s positive attitude, which will significantly impact their customer experience.
2. Pay attention to how your customers are responding
Take an inventory of how your customers share their reviews, reach out with questions, or react to your product/service. This could show you where to spend more time for increased digital customer service. For example, do you receive a lot of direct messages on Instagram? Are customers leaving reviews on Yelp? Maybe they’re commenting on their experience with your product on your Facebook posts? Wherever you see a lot of customer interaction in the digital space is where you should dedicate more time to ensure, customers feel heard and seen.
3. Respond to reviews quickly
Nowadays, customers put a lot of weight into reviews. From your company’s website to social media to search engines, there are many opportunities for customers to share their reviews. An essential part of solid digital customer service is responding to every review, good or bad. There are strategies to effectively respond to positive and negative reviews that help the customer feel heard and maintain a positive brand perception.
4. Make every customer interaction intentional
Customers will feel special if they feel like your team is talking to them personally. We can all tell when a message from a company is a canned response, which can be a turn-off for customers. Instead, make your customer service messages personal to your customer and their situation. Let your customers know through your interactions that you care about their unique experience or problem, not just the sale.
5. Use consistent messaging and digital experience
Your customers will probably interact with several different people on your team throughout their customer journey. To make their experience more streamlined and enjoyable, ensure there’s consistent messaging, and the overall digital experience is consistent too. We don’t mean to use copy and pasted responses because, as we mentioned above, customers want a unique reply. However, there should be a consistent strategy of personal, optimistic, and customer-focused messaging for everyone interacting with potential customers.
6. Test out your customer’s digital experience
A great way to improve digital customer service is to go through the customer’s journey yourself. This means visiting your website as a consumer, signing up for email newsletters, viewing social media pages, leaving reviews, etc. You’ll be able to see any holes in the process that could frustrate customers along the way. You could also find ways to improve your customer’s online experience!
7. Correct and consistent business listings
If customers want to visit, email, or call you, can they find where to get in touch? We’ve discussed before the importance of local business listings, which play a major role in your company’s digital customer service. Ensure your business listings (phone, address, email, website, hours of operation) are correct and consistent across all platforms.
8. Always be honest
Customers want a stellar product or service, but more importantly, they value honesty and integrity. Being honest all the time goes a long way for customers. So, don’t be afraid to say you don’t have the answer (but will find it) or if you dropped the ball with an order. Often, customers are very understanding and will value your company more.
9. Interact beyond responding to reviews
While responding to customer reviews is critical, so is interacting with customers in other digital ways. The best example of this is engaging with customers on social media. This could look like responding to comments on your YouTube videos, thanking them for sharing your Instagram story, or commenting on a tagged Facebook post.
10. Ensure your website performs well
Finally, your business website is a significant part of your customer’s online experience. Customers will quickly click off if it’s slow to load, fails to load, or is difficult to navigate. A website designed and developed with the customer experience in mind will lead to long-term success for customer service and your business!
Digital customer service is another opportunity to interact with customers and potential customers. Making your messaging intentional with a team ready to serve will go a long way with a customer’s loyalty and brand perception. If you need to overhaul your company’s digital presence or marketing strategy, Suite Edge is here to help. We are a digital marketing company with passionate team members providing marketing technology and services to make YOUR business famous. Contact Suite Edge today to learn more about our services.
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