Did you know 78% of consumers have abandoned a transaction or not made an intended purchase because of a poor service experience? Don’t let your business suffer due to weak customer service. With product and service information so easily accessible online, customer service can be can be a key differentiator for your business if delivered in a strategic way to add unbeatable value. Discussing what something is or how it works is the bare minimum of what a customer expects from a customer service interaction. If you want to really stand out from your competition as a premium provider, you need to provide the ‘why’ behind your product. You need to share how your offering will strengthen their business and help them solve a bigger problem. Below are two easy ways to accomplish just that:
Align with industry trends
Industry trends define the market and can help guide a business towards success. If you take the time to understand industry trends you will be able to position your product or service more effectively to your customer. Not only does this facilitate more relevant discussions, it creates a more personalized experience for the customer.
For example, if your customer is in the retail industry and your product is in the e-commerce space, consider taking some trending statistics that can motivate them to align with the current demands of the market (and ultimately your product’s offering). Share powerful stats, such as how current sales value of e-commerce retailers is $294 billion and in 2015, 200 million digital shoppers were expected to spend an average of $1,700/person. Having numbers and trends like this at your fingertips make customers feel heard and shows that your company knows their business and truly cares about their success.
Here at Achievers, one of our customers’ primary concerns is with employee engagement. The higher a business’s level of employee engagement is, the higher their workers’ productivity and retention level will be. Currently, only 31.5% of U.S. employees are engaged at work. This lack of employee engagement is a problematic trend that continues to bedevil all players in the HR space. And chances are, it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. According to the Deloitte 2016 Millennial Survey, only 24% of millennials are satisfied with learning and development opportunities at their current job. Considering the aforementioned offerings are key contributors to millennial job satisfaction and loyalty, it’s clear that employers have a problem.
Luckily, this problem can be addressed with an increased focus on employee engagement, and the key drivers that have been identified as contributing to increased engagement. So instead of focusing on this situation as a barrier, I see it as an opportunity to demonstrate Achievers’ capacity to address the issue. Discussing with prospects and clients how our platform can be used to support learning and development opportunities shows that our business gets it. Try the same and start aligning your product or service to industry trends as a straightforward way to use customer service to deliver value.
Leverage stories to get buy-in
Stories bring things to life: they make situations tangible and meaningful in a way that mere facts cannot. Getting buy-in for a product or service requires defining a distinct benefit to the consumer, and stories are an excellent way to convey this. But in order for a story to be effective in a business context, it needs to be relevant and concise. Being able to relate how existing customers have used your product or service helps a client or prospect envision how they can attain similar results. For example, Ericsson’s case study surrounding its employee recognition program highlights immediate success and ROI from Achievers’ platform. Sharing success stories can help reaffirm that your solution really works – especially if your story involves a client with similarities in business model, industry or end goals.
I recommend actively collecting and developing customer stories so they are easily accessible to share with relevant parties. From getting buy-in for a certain premium feature, to proving that your recommended approach is the right choice, an effective story can help seal the deal. It’s one thing to discuss how a sales tool can be easily implemented; it’s another to relate that a similar client who implemented the same tool saw a $17,100 increase in profits from a $2,100 investment.
Beyond this, start focusing on how to improve your overall customer service approach. Usually, it starts with your employees. According to frequent Forbes contributor Blake Morgan (and many others), happy employees equal happy customers. One of the best ways to ensure that you have happy, engaged employees is by implementing a robust recognition and rewards program. And it’s not just me who’s saying this, a report in the Harvard Business Review recently ranked Rewards & Recognition as the number one driver of employee engagement!
To learn more about how recognition and rewards can help improve engagement levels and boost employee happiness, download The Greatness Gap: The State of Employee Disengagement Report.
