How to Craft a Compelling Customer Service Strategy for your Small Business

With an open mind and the right mix of digital marketing tools, you can help your customer support department make the same powerful statement as your product or service

In a nutshell, excellent customer service can be your business’s unique, powerful weapon. But with so many digital support trends to choose from, it’s hard to know what the right kind of customer service strategy is for your small business. So, before you do anything, try to eliminate the thought of customer support being a chore and start becoming excited about the idea of keeping your customers happy.

If you want to be successful, you need to focus your energy on your customers.

Support from the community is essential in the beginning stages because these are the people who are going to spend money on your products or services. Satisfied customers will then share their experiences with their peers, which will contribute to customer retention and more loyal customers for your small business.

Developing a powerful customer service strategy

Many small business owners are trained to wear a handful of different hats. But sometimes it’s impossible to cover every department at once. Especially when it comes to customer service. So, before you employ a chatbot or any artificial resource to help you service your customers, you’ll need to hire an agent.

Your customer support helper will be the gatekeeper to your brand.

Their roles will need to be aligned with industry standards, making use of the relevant tools and communication channels to help increase customer satisfaction and experience, to effectively grow your business online or in-store.

Making use of omnichannel support for your small business

Customer service has grown in leaps and bounds from the traditional call or email approach. Today’s expectations have put business owners in a position where they’re expected to offer their customers a unique experience on their digital platform of choice. This is where omnichannel comes into play.

Customers want to be able to have seamless interactions with brands, be it with a chatbot or an actual human. This conversational approach supports channel integration, enhancing the entire experience for both employees and customers. A personalized approach will also offer your customers the opportunity to communicate with your brand in an intelligent manner beyond automated queries.

Adapting to a flexible communications approach

It might sound overwhelming at first but competing in such a competitive environment will require you to accept ongoing digital challenges and maximize the current trends and customer needs to stay ahead. If you want to keep your business on-trend and keep your customers happy, here are a few tips to consider:

Instant 24/7 support

Customer support in 2018 is about putting the customer first — before anything else.

Customers are needy and they want you to give them the attention they need, when they need it.

On-the-go customers might be looking for a particular product or service after hours. And based on the number of businesses which are offering similar services, if they don’t experience success with your business, they’ll quickly navigate to another. Tools such as Clickatell Touch can help you eliminate this risk by offering your customers immediate, real-time responses regardless of the time. Touch is a mobile-friendly tool, allowing your business to offer customers the support they need, on any platform, anytime, and anywhere.

Adopt an omnichannel approach

Customers want to be able to ask companies more complex questions than the standard “operating hours” and “specials” messages that they’re used to receiving from chatbots. Of course, there’ll always be a time when questions are too complicated to be answered by a machine and those questions will then be transferred to an agent. But before that happens, customers should be able to engage with a chatbot on a personalized, intellectual level without needing to be transferred. A powerful digital presence and customer service strategy will mean having a humanized chatbot persona that people know and can identify your company with. This will build trust and long-term success.

Embrace change

Customers’ minds and behaviors change constantly. Much like technology. So, it’s important to keep an open mind and be willing to play around with your customer service strategy.

You might have something that works this year, but probably won’t work next year. Be as flexible as possible when engaging with your customers and try to understand them better.

For example, when communicating with customers, explore new chat languages to see how they’ll react.

Focus on building relationships

Of course, the ultimate goal is to grow your customer base. But keeping your existing customers happy will set the foundation for your small business’s success. Communicate with customers regularly and make sure they’re happy with the service they’ve received. When customers feel looked after, they’ll go out of their way to make a noise about your business.

Keep customer support in-house

Many small businesses feel the need to outsource departments that they cannot provide their full attention to. In your early days, it’s critical to keep all customer-related activities in-house so that you as a business owner can oversee everything. This type of approach will inevitably set the tone for your company and show customers the experience you want to offer them. As you grow and have an established customer service strategy that works, you can outsource your tasks if need be.

Make use of valuable insights

The beauty of online operations is hearing what people are saying about your business and changing any negative feedback to satisfy your customers. Your customers are your main assets. You need to keep your customers happy, and through the right listening tools and artificial resources, you’ll be able to do just that. Any feedback will guide your business and help you to improve.

Happy customers mean business

At the end of the day, successful customer experiences can either make or break your business. The last thing you want is for poor service to affect the business you’ve poured your heart into. To avoid that and keep your customers happy, invest in a live omnichannel chat tool such as Clickatell Touch. It will help you harness the power of automation and engage with your customers whenever and wherever they want to. With the ability to unify response teams across inbound channels for consistent, on-demand customer service delivery, it’ll help you increase sales, streamline support, and reduce costs.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this story, please give us a ‘clap’ or leave a comment with your thoughts. You can also follow our publication by tapping the follow button below 👇