No matter how excellent your product or sales service is, subpar customer service will prevent you from retaining or attracting the right customers. Business growth will become a constant struggle against the tons of competitors you may already have.
Many brands have worked on customer service in the past few years, but client expectations are still not being met perfectly. A survey showed that 50% of customers noticed no improvement or difference, while 23% said customer service had worsened.
If you are trying to understand the importance of customer service and how you can differentiate between customer service expectations and reality, you are in the right spot. However, if you are looking for call agents for your business, then CMS is the best choice. In this guide, we will look at customer service and why it is important for brands/businesses, and customers.
Table of Contents
What Is Customer Service?
Customer service is the support a brand or business offers to its customers. This service is provided both before and after sales of the products or services a business offers. Excellent customer service is key to customer retention and business growth. Modern customer support goes beyond traditional call agents and telephone support. It is available via the web, SMS, social media, and email.
Some companies even offer self-service support, so customers can get answers to their queries anytime during the day. Customer service is part of the promise a brand makes to its customers regarding excellent quality.
Why Is Customer Service Important?
Customer service is crucial as it enables customer loyalty and makes an employee’s job easier. It allows businesses to grow and expand to retain talent, foster brand trust, and recover advertising/customer acquisition costs.
Reasons Why Great Customer Service Is Crucial for Customers
1. Enables Customer Satisfaction
Customers will reach out to a brand’s customer team usually when they have a query or an issue that needs to be resolved. The customer can leave annoyed or satisfied based on how quick a customer service team is and how well customer service reps handle the requests.
Customers often leave disappointed, and nearly 46% of consumers find customer service frustrating. Only a positive experience can leave buyers happy while a bad experience can greatly tarnish the brand’s image.
2. Fulfills Customer Expectations
Consumers do not just hope for excellent customer support; they expect it as a necessity. Nearly 65% of buyers expect more from customer service reps today compared to buyers three to five years ago.
Failure to provide superior CX (Customer Experience) means buyers may be thrown off. They might buy a similar product elsewhere for more money just because the other brand offered excellent customer support. Around 75% of buyers have confirmed this.
3. Channels a Smooth Experience
All consumers hope that their queries will be answered quickly and their issues will be resolved in no time. 89% of buyers consider the speed of query resolution and response the two most crucial components of excellent customer service regardless of the type of service involved.
Traditional customer support methods are inefficient as consumers do not want to be put on hold and do not wish to fill out a form or explain their problems to a robot using live chat. Instead, they hope to communicate with someone who can resolve the problem immediately and respond promptly.
- 60% of customers are frustrated when their problem is not resolved on the first contact.
- Nearly 50% of buyers are left annoyed when they are forced to explain the problem multiple times to various agents.
- 84% of consumers are left irritated when agents lack information to provide when presented with an issue.
Basic friction points like the above can cause customers to drop off and stop interacting with the brand completely.
Reasons Why Great Customer Service Is Crucial For A Business
1. Leverage Over Competitors
Product quality and price are not the only two things brands can compete on; excellent service is also one of them. Many individuals have confirmed that they shop from a particular brand because of superior customer support.
61% of buyers said they would switch to a competitor brand even if they faced one bad customer experience. Three-quarters of customers claimed they were ready to stop purchasing from a brand after two bad experiences. The worst part is that there is no chance that these customers will return even if you do improve customer support later on.
2. Greater Revenue
Seven out of 10 shopping experiences rely on how customers feel about brand treatment. Strong consumer relationships can make a huge difference between a successful sale and driving the buyer to a competitor. Customer support allows buyers to feel confident in making a purchase. 68% of customers will spend more on products and services if a brand offers great customer service.
Good customer service must be personalized. 70% of buyers expect customer service reps to work together so they do not have to explain themselves repeatedly. This can be enabled through collaboration software and allows the brand to cross-sell and upsell to maximize profits. Businesses that work hard to provide good customer service grow profits by 4% to 8% more than competitors. The opposite can also happen, as bad service can lead to a loss in revenue.
3. Increased Customer Retention
Customer service plays a pivotal role in any customer retention strategy. Most will stop shopping with a brand that does not make them feel valued. Poor customer service can ruin customer lifetime value completely. Keeping existing customers is five to 25 times more affordable than running ad campaigns and plans to attract new ones. The better the support a brand offers its customers, the more easily it will adapt to new products or services.
Customer retention growth of only 5% can boost revenue by 25%. Old customers spend 300% more on a brand than new ones. They are also key to brand awareness and are crucial for bringing in new buyers through referrals and word-of-mouth advertising.
4. Boosts Brand Resilience
The United States BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) reports that 20% of small businesses shut down within a year, 50% close down in around five years, and 70% fail by 10 years. There may be several reasons for this failure, but poor customer service is one of the top ones.
Buyers who do not feel heard or cannot enjoy the right customer service will quickly choose to shop from a competitor instead. On the other hand, consumers will stay with a company even if mistakes occasionally occur if the customer service is high quality. 80% of customers are willing to forgive a brand based on excellent customer service, while only one in every five people will forgive a brand with horrible customer support.
5. Builds a Strong Reputation
Customer service representatives are a brand’s link to its customers. Due to this, they can make or break a brand’s reputation. More than 93% of buyers have confirmed that they look at online reviews like those on Trustpilot or social media before making a purchase.
A poor customer service experience can lead to a negative review which can deter several individuals from buying from your brand. 94% of consumers have confirmed that a bad review online caused them to steer clear of a business. The good news is that this also works in reverse. One out of two people chooses to shop with a brand owing to its reputation. A strong reputation can also attract prospective employees, investors, and partners.
6. Channels Feedback Collection
The most overlooked benefit of good customer support is enabling a brand to make the right decisions. Customer service representatives have direct access to customers, which enables them to collect feedback regarding future products, service development, UX, product features, improvement plans, and even the customer support experience itself. These insights allow a brand to understand its customer base and type fully. They can consider suggestions to enable brand loyalty, as customers will feel their feedback is valued and appreciated.
Endnote
If you wish to achieve guaranteed business success and hope to maximize revenue, excellent customer service is the way to go. Not only does it benefit the business greatly, but it also helps establish brand credibility, awareness, and customer loyalty, which are key to ruling the market for several years.
