Three years back when I stepped into the business world, I was struggling with a tight budget. Although I had no idea about building customer loyalty, I saw other brands thriving with their solid customer loyalty programs.
Exploding Topics states that nearly 72% of the global audience feels loyal to at least one brand. So, as a business owner, if I am not converting my customers into loyal users, I am missing an opportunity.
How do I ensure customer loyalty towards my business, this haunting question kept me awake at night.
I mean, my business was small, budget was limited so I could not offer big monetary returns. However, there was another very important thing that came into play that I was ignoring – customer service.
For big brands, customer service was working wonders. It was not just helping them retain their old customers but also build a very strong customer ambassador program. This would eventually help in bringing more people on board.
How are big companies doing it via customer service, you might ask.
In this article, you will find the answer to your question:.
Top Companies Setting High Customer Service Standards
Let us look at some of the most talked-about companies that have built a solid customer loyalty program and put their techniques into play:
- Inclusive Customer Support
Your target audience cannot be narrowed down based on ethnicity, race, culture, or location. Companies that work on sustainability, authenticity, inclusion, and diversity end up making billions. Look at some of the biggest clothing brands and you will see people highlighting the inclusivity factor.
Since inclusivity is such a hot selling factor, experts are now building inclusive customer service as well. Big companies hire people from different religions, cultures, backgrounds, and locations to build a diverse and culturally appropriate environment.
Companies like Apple, Amazon, and Spectrum are making diversity their superpower. For instance, Spectrum serves in the US but since the Latino population is the second largest community, they offer dedicated customer service line as well as Spectrum español pagos for online bill payment for their Spanish users.
This has helped them engage a huge Spanish customer base and they are slowly becoming a dominant choice within Spanish households.
- Minimize Response Time
Customers actively seek faster responses. In this digital age when the attention span is lower than ever, you cannot expect your customers to wait for the response. A recent research concluded that more than 66% of adults prefer a company that values their time.
On the contrary, companies with longer waiting times, queue setup, and live agent redirection create frustration among the customers. To curb this situation, these companies are trying to minimize response time by leveraging AI.
Companies like Apple, Help Desk, Facebook, and Google are using AI bots, chat support, and automated message plugins. These plugins are simple and easy to use. Moreover, they are trained by using brand guidelines.
These AI Chabots not only respond to clients promptly, but they are available round the clock and always have the answers ready. On the contrary, companies relying solely on agents end up with not only increased response time but also more chances of human error.
- Self-Service
46% of the users today avoid phone calls and prefer other means of communication. This might seem just another statement but in reality, this highlights that users no longer want to rely on human connections. Instead, they want to feel empowered.
Self-service is one of the features that came from the food industry and has become popular in tech as well. Big companies like McDonald’s let the customer pick, customize, and place an order without involving any staff. Their process is simple, easy, and quick.
When it comes to tech, most companies are replicating the same formula for knowledge-based models. Resources, FAQs, blogs, and nearly everything a customer can ask for is organized and available on their website.
This empowers the user to acquire information without hitting any roadblocks. The best part of self-service is that it reduces the need to involve resources.
- Creating Omni Channel Experience
Whether you are running a small business with a limited audience or you are running a global enterprise, your customer wants to feel heard. CMSWire states that 84% of consumers want to feel heard and understood by the brand.
Since customer service is one of the simplest and easiest ways to communicate with the brand, businesses are now trying to make the communication as flawless as possible. From ensuring the availability of their brand on every possible communication channel to scrapping data, these brands are doing everything to stay connected and relevant.
Providing Omni channel experience in the current market is very important. The fun part is that it is not expensive either. Most of the communication channels are free, require no subscription charges for users or businesses, and are perfect for less stressful interactions.
- Proactive Feedback Collection
Seeking feedback has never been a priority. In fact, in the world of business and customer service, no complaint is seen as the sign of a “perfect product”. While this was an open secret, companies felt blinded as more customers chose “silent quitting”.
To make sure customers feel heard and valued, businesses are now proactively seeking feedback. Most companies send follow-up emails after a customer makes a purchase from them. Others ask customers to rate interaction with their agents.
This might seem like a simple way to seek feedback or review but it has helped companies understand the expectations of the customer. Eventually, companies use this feedback to improve products. Apple is one of the prime examples of executing customer feedback.
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Wrap Up
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Understanding customer needs, improving customer experience, and meeting customer expectations is only possible with good customer service. You can benefit from the above-mentioned examples and implement them for your business for maximum output.
