Reduce Customer Churn With Personalised Support
There’s over 7 billion people on this little Earth of ours and we’re all different. We all have different likes and dislikes, we all have different behavioural traits and no 2 people look exactly alike. Yes, that includes identical twins, they don’t look exactly alike.With everyone being different, each and every one of your customers are also different. They like your products for different reasons and they all have different levels of product knowledge. So why do many companies treat their customers as if they are all the same?
Why do they honestly believe that we will always be happy with getting the exact same as the person before us?
Yes, some of us may be jealous or sceptical if we don’t get the same rewards as our fellow consumers…but when something goes wrong with a product or service that we paid for, we want support to be personal.
We don’t want a canned response. We want to be treated like a real person.
In order to truly satisfy each and every customer, your customer service department needs to start personalising support to customers’ specific wants, needs, personality and knowledge.
We’re not talking about customers always being perfectly satisfied with your product. We’re talking about each and every customer being satisfied with the service interactions that they have. We’re talking about the customer knowing that you have done your best to satisfy THEIR needs.
Customers want to know that you are there for them - not that you’ve just pushed them through a standard script that you reel off to everyone. Customers that receive personalised support feel cared for, and leave satisfied with their customer service interaction. At The Chat Shop, our live chat agents use their personality to connect with customers and provide personalised support. They deliver a 98% customer satisfaction rating because of it, meaning that customers are happy, stay loyal and buy more products.
Imagine the scenario of a bride preparing for her wedding day. For her wedding favours (the little gifts all her guests receive) she will have a small bag of personalised chocolates at every place-setting.
The chocolates arrive a couple of days before the big day BUT she realises that someone has made a mistake on the order (white chocolate instead of milk for example, or chocolates full of nuts for guests with allergies).
Now this is of course a dreadful situation for the bride. The problem needs to be fixed quickly and with the least amount of stress possible (she’s probably already on edge with her big day fast approaching).
So when this imaginary bride contacts the customer service department of the chocolate company, do you think that she will be pleased if she has to listen to a robotic script? No. The bride is time bound and the generic returns policy won’t help her here. She needs empathy and a customer service agent that understands what they are being told.
In a situation such as this, the customer service agent should quickly act to find a solution to this unique problem. They can determine later in the interaction who will have to pay for the mistake or what improvement needs to be made in the order fulfilment process.
To ensure that the bride buys from the chocolatier again, and recommends the chocolate and business to friends and family, the customer service representative needs to solve her specific problem.
Will the company quickly remake the chocolates and send them next day delivery? This will probably solve the bride’s problem. The customer would need to confirm that this is the best solution of course.
This is a personalised solution to the bride’s specific problem.
A customer that just wants the chocolates for an event a month away from now or a casual sweet treat wouldn’t necessarily be fussed about next day delivery. Next day delivery might not an appropriate solution for them.
Each and every customer should receive this kind of personalised support, where the agent uses their personality and a real conversation to get to the root cause of the problem and find the best solution for them. This type of support makes customers happy and reduces customer churn.
You aren’t just solving problems, you are creating value and loyalty.
The bride won’t be happy that her order was wrong in the first place (if it was her fault, she might be ok) but you can bring a smile to her face with personalised support.
Your customer service agent made sure that the live chat, telephone call or social media interaction was an outstanding experience within itself, by treating the customer like an individual.
How was the customer service agent able to offer personalised support? By asking relevant questions and being empathetic, rather than following a robotic script.
The solution to a customer’s problem isn’t the only way to offer personalised support and to reduce customer churn. Your customers want to be treated like a real human being throughout their interactions with your company and they want products and services matched to their needs.
You can also reduce customer churn by offering personalised product recommendations and by providing the right information for any customers that lack product knowledge.
Personalised support can also come in the form of proactive assistance. If you predict when a customer is going to face an issue with their order, or on your website, offering a helping hand before they even ask for it can prevent a negative experience occurring. Prevent the negative experience with personalised messaging, at the right time, and you reduce customer churn.
Making experiences as personal and relevant as possible is the top of most people’s ‘improving customer experience’ to-do list. 33% of respondents in the 2015 Digital Trends survey said that they were placing highest emphasis on personalisation when looking to improve customer experience.
Why? All of your customers are different. Each customer wants to be treated like a real person and not a sales statistic.
You can start personalising support by using the customer’s name and adjusting your tone of voice to match theirs. Push personalisation to the next level by really asking the customer how you can help them and tailoring solutions to their needs.
Personalised support lies at the centre of providing an outstanding customer experience. Start providing an outstanding customer experience and your customers will never want to leave. In fact, deliver outstanding experiences and customer complaints can be turned into loyalty and brand advocates.
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miles-hobson-the-chat-shop
Miles Hobson is Content and Communications Executive at The Chat Shop. Miles produces insightful content that allows companies in an array of industries to increase their sales and make customers happy.
The Chat Shopare Real People, that deliver Real Results through Real Conversations. In-depth website analysis and highly trained agents empower them to generate qualified leads, increase conversion and create outstanding customer experiences with live chat.