The best advertising is the positive opinion of a satisfied customer. It seems a trivial, almost obvious concept, yet we often forget that customer satisfaction is an element that must be taken care of not only during the transaction, but also after they have made the purchase.
Customers, today more than ever, want to be able to count on a good Customer Care system, they cannot and must never feel neglected.
By Customer Care we mean a set of services aimed at customer assistance: from on-site help desks where you can receive advice, to call centers to contact to dispel doubts and get support in troubleshooting, up to all online tools such as forums chat in which the customer can enter their questions while waiting for a response from the company.
In summary, Customer Care follows the path of the consumer from when he begins to consider the company's products and services, until after the purchase. In this way, the human and support component becomes an integral part of the brand identity and the customer experience.
Yet it seems that, in fact, many have not yet put these golden rules into practice.
How many of us have at least one traumatic experience with some switchboard operator who is not particularly knowledgeable on the subject, and not even on the language of the country from which it is called? Not to mention the pre-recorded messages, which seem to offer all the support services except the one we need at that moment. And if after a long odyssey of waiting and inserted codes the line falls, frustration spreads.
In this regard, a research on Linkedin revealed that, if the customer is contacted by an operator who speaks a little fluent Italian, he tends to respond in the following ways:
• 46%, mindful of the tendency to offer poor service, do not respond a priori to call centers;
• 32% put down as soon as they hear about;
• 6% ask for information related to privacy;
• While only 17% of respondents do not give importance to the fact that the employee does not speak the language well.
Boasting poor customer service is the perfect business card for a company that wants to ruin, or at least tarnish, its reputation.
It is no longer enough to create functional products, well packaged and in line with your brand; if the consumer, potential or actual, has a negative perception of customer management, it will give rise to a potentially harmful word of mouth.
So, what are the guidelines to follow to offer a Customer Care that meets the needs of consumers?
- The word to people: we still need human contact, empathy, individuals capable of understanding our frustrations; therefore, whenever possible, make available qualified, kind, cordial employees who are able to express themselves in a clear and simple way;
- Enhance internal resources: in order to employ qualified personnel, the latter must be ensured a good level of continuous training. Consequently, it is good to invest in those who deal with Customer Care, making sure that they feel motivated and satisfied with their work first; underpaid and exploited staff will, knowingly or not, pour out their bad mood on customers;
- Take advantage of technology: more and more people are opting for chatboxes and instant messages rather than phone calls; therefore, offering online customer care services is an effective solution to meet the needs of users. Here too, it is better to employ, as far as possible, individuals in flesh and blood. Where this is not possible, it is advisable to use artificial intelligence to create interfaces that are as personalized as possible (not the classic automatic misleading answers).
The goal of marketing is not only to attract customers, but also to retain them, obtain a positioning in people's minds. To do this, you need to have a good reputation, which is also built through small gestures and care.
To find out how to take care of your customers and retain them, rely on E-Business Consulting, a Digital Marketing company active since 2003. Contact us for a free, no-obligation quote.
