There are many mistakes that a company can make when it comes to customer service. It is even worse in the days of social media. Your mistake will be known by the entire world in a few minutes. If you want to ensure your customers happy, here are some common mistakes you should try your best to avoid.

Being Out of Contact

In this world of instant gratification, customers want things now. They want immediate results so if a customer is looking for answers, they need to be able to get in touch. If they can’t get in touch with you with their complaint, they will get angry very quickly.

Fortunately, there are several channels available to you nowadays. It would be better if you provide multiple ways to contact you. For example, a business should have a 03 phone number in the UK while also having an e-mail address and an instant messenger account. If your only contact method is an e-mail, you can expect that channel to flood with messages. It is much better to have additional ways to contact you so that you will be able to handle them all.

Keeping Them Waiting

While it is nice to have all the various ways to contact you out there, you still need to respond quickly. If you keep them on hold for a long time, you can expect an irate customer waiting for your customer service representative. You want to ensure that your people pick up that phone or message as soon as possible. There are several ways of handling it.

If your in-house team can’t handle the volume of customer messages and calls, you may want to outsource your customer service. You can at least assure that there are more people able to respond. Another potential option is to use automated responses. This is great to weed out those who are asking common questions that you already have a set answer for. Now, the only people who get to talk to your CS team would be those with complex problems.

Ignoring Customer Feedback

Don’t think that customer service begins and ends with your hotline. There are other venues for customer service. One that you should take note of is the review sites. Most companies ignore the various online reviews of their product. But that is also a form of customer feedback and you should not be ignoring it. In a way, reviews are an honest evaluation of your work. They detail customer experiences that you should be able to fix in the future.

For example, if you run a restaurant and you get a bad review, you should look into the complaints and whether they are legitimate. If they are true, then you should take action. Besides listening to a customer, your changes will be sure to make any future experience at your restaurant a better one.

Not Giving What the Customers Want

When customers call your customer service team, they usually want something. It can either be simple information or something else. Your goal here is to satisfy your customers and to do that you have to give them what they want. This may not always be ideal but if the customer wants it, then you should give in.

For example, if your customer decides to stop their subscription service or return their product, you should inform them on how to do it. This is what they want and you should deliver it to them. Denying it or lying to them will only create bad feelings. But be as honest as possible and give them realistic expectations.

Staying Reactive

Many businesses assume that customer service only happens when the customer complains. They then keep their products and services at a mediocre level, only changing them when they hear a complaint. True customer service is more proactive with your company continually improving your product or service. This heads off any potential problem before it becomes an actual complaint.

Not Showing Regret

Your people need to show sympathy and regret to the customer. You have to prove to the customer that they are important to your company. An apology for the inconvenience can go a long way to proving that and can help ease the tension a bit.

Customer service is an important part of any company. Its main job is to keep customers happy and to resolve any problems. When you do it right, you can be sure that you will have a customer coming back to your business.