Sometimes you may think that customer loyalty to a product or company is driven by something positive like good service delivery or low price but that is not always the case. The presence or absence of barriers and friction during service and support encounters are actually the main determinant of customer loyalty.
Some of the customer service issues include:
- Not honoring loyalty program pledges
- Cutting a reward program without notice
- Cutting service without warning and refusing to refund the customer
You won’t be able to run a business without customers. This means that you must always ensure that you resolve customer service issues to ensure that your customers are happy with your services.
3 Customer Service Issues You Must Resolve
1. Taking too long to resolve an issue
The main issue that usually drives customers away is poor service delivery. Many businesses are usually not able to deliver quality services to their customers and as a result many customers are usually forced to seek better services elsewhere. If you normally take too long to resolve customer issues, then your customers may easily decide to look for someone who can offer them the same service better. Some of the issues that customers have in service delivery include:
- Being transferred from person to person and having to repeat the same issue every time
- Being treated rudely with suspicion
- Being left in the dark not knowing if anything has been done to resolve the issue
As business owner, you just ensure that you resolve the issue of taking too long before you resolve customer’s problems. Customers always want the best service from a particular business venture an if they miss that, then they will seek better service elsewhere.
How to go about it
- Ensure that you speak to the customer directly to find out exactly what the customer issue is.
- Recite the problem back to the customer to confirm that you have actually understood what the customer has told you.
- Ensure that you write down the customers issue that that you don’t forget important details
- Ensure that you resolve the customers issue as soon as possible and always keep in contact with him/her to him/her to update on progress.
2. Honesty
Another customer service issue that business and organizations need to resolve is honesty. Customers will only have confidence is your products/service, if they know that you are honest and sincere. Honesty means that you are actually selling products/services that are genuine and reliable. The customer always want to be sure that they will get services that are reliable. Honesty is therefore a very important customer service issue that must be resolve if the business owner wants to retain and attract new customer. Customers will only trust your product/service if:
- If you sell genuine product/service
- If you sell your products/service at prices that are acceptable
- If you don’t lie about the product to customers when explaining to them how a certain product or service will help them just because you want to increase your sales and make profits
- You are always willing to solve any situation that may arise in case of any problem
Honestly helps to instil confidence in the customer. Any bad customer experience can cause a temporally loss in confidence and when customers lose confidence in your product or service, then it will be very difficult to reestablish the trust. To maintain the trust with your customers, you must be willing to enhance your product/service to make it better and more attractive. You must also keep in contact with your customers and try to implement ideas that they prefer. Honesty and trust go together. If you are honest, then customers will trust and be more confident when using your product/service.
3. Customer relationship
Do you know that the way you communicate with your customers will determine the success of your business? Customer relationship is a very important aspect of any business and the way it is handled will determine if the business becomes successful or not. It is a very important customer service issue that must be resolved if you want your business to be successful. Customer relationship actually deals with the way you relate and communicate with your clients. If you establish a good relationship with your customers, they will not only make repeated sales but will become loyal to your product/service and will even refer more customers to you. Good customer relationship entails:
- Good communication with customers
- Doing follow ups to see how your customers are doing
- Establishing a more personalized relationship with your clients.
- Encouraging your clients to submit their honest review regarding the services that they get
According to a recent study that was conducted by Harvard University, the main cause of business failure is poor customer relationship. The study found out that more customers prefer better service than quality. They want a person who will always be there for them both in good times and in bad time.
They prefer a business that offers a more personalized approach to their issues as opposed to one that offers general services. Communication and public relation department is very important and therefore you should ensure that you hire competent staffs who know how to handle customers. If you are able to establish a good customer relationship, then you will be able to maintain and attract new customers which will in turn increase your profit margins.
In conclusion, customer service issuers can hinder your business progress if not well handled. You will not be able to know the main reason why you don’t attract and maintain customers if you don’t know how to identify customer service issues. The tips provided above are the main issues that affect most businesses and if you are able to solve them in the best way possible, then you will be attract more loyal customers and also turn other potential customers to loyal customers.
