Be Polite, Be Efficient: The Ultimate Customer Service Mantra

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We’ve all heard it before: “The customer is always right.” It’s one of the biggest business cliches out there, but it’s also one of the truest and reliable expressions to go by, especially in today’s competitive market.

A recent study showed that, according to more than 70% of consumers, a positive customer experience is key to establishing brand loyalty, and there are a number of other statistics that show the value of improving the customer’s experience.

So at Gladly, we think a simple mantra can help companies hone in on their customer support missions and goals. One of the mantras we think can shape the way service heroes connect with their customers is pretty simple: “Be polite, be efficient.” While this isn’t necessarily the most polite sentiment, it is efficient.

And utilizing this mantra with your customer service team is a great reminder to your representatives and can be enormously beneficial to your overall goals.

Be Polite – how manners can be the key to success

Of course, we all know how to be polite: say please and thank you, hold doors open for strangers, and stay off the phone when in the middle of a face-to-face interaction. When it comes to customer service, however, there are a few key points that every customer service team needs to be underscoring that go beyond these common practices.

•  Show up – When you’ve scheduled a call or call back to a customer, when you have an appointment lined up, or when you say you’ll get back to a customer via email or text message, you’ve got to show up and be true to your word. There’s a very simple way to lose a customer for life and that’s by not being punctual.
• Showing respect: Once you’ve connected with your customers, it’s important to show respect, especially in the way you address them. Do they go Mr., Mrs., Ms., or another title or pronoun? Would they prefer to be called Alex, for example, as opposed to Alexander? Establishing these points early on by asking the best way to address customers will set a tone that demonstrates respect and attentiveness.
• Apologize with sincerity – Unfortunately, issues come up: delivery-related issues, product and service issues, and customer satisfaction issues that are hard to predict. It’s a part of customer service, and it means that service heroes need to be ready to show sincerity and empathy when customers are unhappy or dissatisfied. Most importantly, they need to be ready to give a sincere apology for any inconveniences a customer may be experiencing.

[Read More: Customer Service Tone]

Be efficient – How being fast and being right is where to aim your efforts

Nobody likes long waits, and the most annoying thing a customer can experience is to be on hold for several minutes and extended lengths of time. At the same time, however, nobody likes dealing with errors, mistakes, and carelessness as a result of rushing a process.

The answer to this is in identifying ways to work in a smarter, more efficient manner.

[Read More: Reduce High Call Volume]

With advanced customer service solutions, service agents and heroes will have the opportunity to review a customer’s profile, purchase history, and conversation logs prior to the point of contact. This means that customer service agents can utilize those resources prior to a conversation in order to anticipate the nature of a call and skip some of those initial steps of the conversation.

When there are issues that need to be handled in a procedural manner, make sure to not go “off-script” and make sure the solution process is within protocol and not retroactively going against the best interest of the business.

Representatives should also review the products and services of their company so they’ll be ready to answer questions without wasting any downtime. The more that customer service heroes are prepared to answer customer questions, the more smoothly and quickly their interactions with customers will be.

Be polite, be efficient is how Gladly does it

Gladly is all about placing the customer at the center of the customer service experience. Gladly’s state-of-the-art customer service software will provide customer service heroes with the tools to eliminate tedious tasks, reduce transfers between agents, and close conversations with fewer exchanges.

Gladly’s easy to access purchase history and communication logs, across all channels of communication (phone, email, chat, text, etc.), will allow your customer service agents to know what a customer needs before they’ve said “hello.” Additionally, customers will automatically get routed to the appropriate agent based on their previous calls and orders.

At Gladly, we try to give agents the tools they need to connect and understand their customers on a human level. Personalize the way you do customer service and see a demo of gladly today.