“We apologize but we are currently experiencing high call volume. Please continue to hold for the next available agent.”
It’s a pleasant day, the board room has been set up, and the necessary online documents have been prepared. As your future would-be major client who is 7,000 kilometers away from your location enters the video conference room, you experience a rush of adrenaline, but a few seconds after the introduction part, the client’s facial expression changes as he has trouble hearing you.
Your team tries to troubleshoot the problem, but your plan B and C do not work. The secretary calls the service provider and is given an assurance that the situation will be fixed as quickly as possible, but five minutes have passed, and the problem remains unsolved. To your frustration, you volunteered to call the service provider for the second time.
Getting a big client is the fruit of your and your team’s dedicated effort, and you can not afford to lose. As a business leader, you try your best to stay calm while hoping that the agent will finally give you a positive response. However, upon dialing the number, this is the response you get: “We apologize but we are currently experiencing high call volume. Please continue to hold for the next available agent.”
Now, picture that scenario and remember the frustration you felt after being deprived of what would have been an excellent form of assistance. What was your alternative strategy? Did you also decide to look for another service provider who can provide better service? The question now is, “Do you want your customers to have the same frustration and end up halting their engagement with your company right off the bat, because of bad customer service? Surely, the answer is no.
Thus, here are the five worst consequences of unsatisfactory customer service, along with corresponding effective methods on how to resolve them.
1. Bad Customer Service Damages your Brand’s Reputation
Unsatisfied customers leave negative online reviews at lightning speed. Not only that, but they also use social media to vent their bad experiences with a service or a company. Since word-of-mouth still remains to be a powerful marketing tool, a single bad review is enough to encourage a customer’s friends and family to stop availing of your products and services.
The Best Possible Solution
Practice social listening. Check reviews, comments, and posts about your brand every day. Pay careful attention to the negative ones then provide a suitable public response as quickly as possible. Acknowledge the concerns, apologize, and inform customers of the actions you are doing to solve their issues. After addressing customer issues, train your team to always provide exceptional customer service. This way, satisfied customers will express the good experience they have with your company, enabling you to gain new loyal customers and rebuild the trust of dissatisfied clients.
2. Bad Customer Service Influences your Leads
Considering that social media users’ negative reviews and posts can reach a global scale, your business’ reputation could go down in a matter of minutes. Whether customers are ranting about being put on hold for several minutes and slow response times or unprofessional agent responses, potential customers will be triggered not to buy your company’s products and/or services. Negative testaments about your service would leave potential leads to expect and assume the possibility of receiving the same bad treatment that your current customers have experienced.
The Best Possible Solution
Use CRM or Customer Relationship Management as it is a great tool for inbound lead management, social tracking, and sales tracking. Its analytical reports give you insights that help you understand your customers better. CRM also allows you to improve your products and services based on customer needs and close deals faster.
3. Bad Customer Service Decreases your Lifetime Customer Value
Do not allow poor service to prevail. Otherwise, it can result in cancellations of orders or services from existing customers. It is important to remember that the dedication and hardwork you have invested from the very beginning is also the result of having loyal customers. Thus, you have to continue serving your patrons because it is more difficult to earn the trust of new customers.
The Best Possible Solution
Set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These will include complaints, customer satisfaction scores, abandon rate of calls and chats, average resolution time, conversion rate and customer retention. All of these indicators are vital in gauging the efficiency of the assistance provided by your team. Customers also need valuable information such as informative videos, webinars, and blogs or web content.
4. Bad Customer Service Persuades your Top-Performing Employees to Resign
It is utterly frustrating for customers to receive bad service. When they call to complain, they express their dissatisfaction with the next agent who may also happen to have been giving superior customer service. When calls from unsatisfied customers continue to pile up, even the best employees reach a point of exasperation. They may also begin to create the impression that the company is spiraling down, thereby convincing themselves to leave and transfer to a different company.
The Best Possible Solution
Train and motivate your underperforming employees to perform well, and reward those who continue to show outstanding results. Set a higher customer support standard by strictly monitoring previous calls, emails, and chats. Provide constructive feedback as you review your support agents’ individual performances. Your consistent and transparent guidance will surely encourage your helpdesk employees to go the extra mile.
5. Bad Customer Service Diminishes your Total Profit
Once customers receive bad service, no matter how light it is, their good opinion of your business will change slightly. When two customers acquainted with one another experience bad service, there is a possibility that they discuss their customer experience and decide to do a certain action in response. Their actions may involve canceling subscriptions and orders or even writing bad reviews together. Worse, they can entice people they know to do the same. Before you know it, you are already losing profit.
The Best Possible Solution
Always give the best customer experience from the very start. Do not allow the fire to reach the other side of the mountain before taking the necessary steps. The little things also count. Courteous service, quick responses, and dependable assistance all add up to ensuring customers are continuously satisfied with your business’ overall performance.
Customers are the Lifeblood of your Company
The heart pumps energy that sustains life; without it, humans will be unresponsive. In the world of business, your customers are your ‘heart’. Without them, your company will slowly lose its vigor and reason for existing.
To ensure that your business thrives perpetually, we would be happy to collaborate with you! We have professional customer support agents who are well-trained and have undergone a series of pre-employment tests, interviews, and rigorous customer service training to ensure that they will not disappoint you or your valued customers. Check out our website to learn more!