Customer service is arguably the most important thing for your business to get right. Customer Service excellence can overcome weak marketing. However, it is very hard, and costly, to replace poor customer service with even the most “outstanding” marketing. Fundamentally, if a customer experiences bad customer service from a staff member, this is much worse for your brand’s reputation and standing as a company, than if they received no customer service at all.
IMPACT OF POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE
Poor customer service can take a number of forms. And can have varied disastrous outcomes. It can come in the form of long waiting times and long response times. Or poor attention to detail. Perhaps it is unprofessional interactions and impersonal communications.
And often these days it is in the form of poor product knowledge. That is, as a lack of experience and information from employees about the organisation’s products and services. Negative customer service can have a long-term impact on an organisation.
However, this can be rectified with careful training and the management of resources.
Here are 3 Reasons How Bad Customer Service is Worse than No Customer Service, and why good customer service is important to your organisation.
1. DAMAGED REPUTATION
The reputation of your organisation and brand is vital to business growth and customer retention. And now within the era of social media and instant comments by customers online, bad customer service can lead to an instant hit on a company’s reputation. What may have taken you five years to build a good reputation, may take just one interaction over the course of a few minutes to damage that solid reputation.
Businesses are now more accountable for their actions than ever before.
Twenty years ago, if you paid for a product you weren’t satisfied with, the best you could hope for was that you would eventually receive a refund if you sent a complaint letter. You could tell a few friends about it, and perhaps they’d say to their friends, but that was about it.
Now, however, if a customer has a bad experience, they will post about it online, and if they do, their creative expression of anger can go viral and seriously damage your brand’s overall value. With the correct tailored training, your employees can learn how crucial it is to prevent incidents like this from taking place.
Additionally, they will also learn the steps to take to fix an issue where bad customer service has been delivered.
2. CONVERSIONS STOP
Poor customer service doesn’t always relate solely to current customers. A bad customer experience with a salesperson or customer service operator can also result in a strong lead turning cold in a matter of moments. This can be the result of poor communication from a team member.
Or perhaps even a complete lack of communication in the form of a follow-up call or conversation. Making sure you have a solid internal system with a CRM set up to better manage leads and calls is a good start. However, effective customer service techniques are what are crucial in keeping hot leads hot.
These skills can be taught to your staff so that they too have the techniques to deliver Customer Service Excellence.
3. YOUR BEST STAFF ARE LEAVING
Consistent bad customer service only leads one way, to low morale and failure. In every aspect of a company, consistently poor customer service experiences will eventually add up to damaging outcomes. And eventually, you will lose not just your valued customers, but also your treasured skilled staff.
When your company is going through a bad phase, your most fabulous employees have no choice but to clear the mess done by bad customer service operators. This ultimately leads to more employee pressure and stress. Having to handle consistently with problems and poor team cohesion will eventually result in your best staff members feeling pressured to the point where they take their skills somewhere they are appreciated.
Losing a good employee is never a pleasant experience, but you’re not powerless. There are steps you can take to reduce the negative impact and strengthen your team.
By communicating openly and upskilling your whole team, you’ll be able to steer your team to keep them engaged and productive. Also, do not forget that fundamentally, losing employees creates more costs! This is because of all the expenses that go into recruiting, hiring, and training new staff members.
Book your Team on their Customer Service Excellence Workshops
Contact Sparkle Training Today
Call 1300 611 288
For a Confidential Conversation with our Training Specialists
Sparkle is part of the HBB Group
When You Engage with Us You Have Complete Access
to a Range of Services to Grow Your Staff and Business