Four Common Customer Service Mistakes That Businesses Make & How You Can Avoid Them

Chika Ebuzor

Customer service is the process of assisting and supporting customers before, during, and after they make a purchase or use a product or service. It involves helping customers with inquiries, problems, and complaints related to the product or service in question.

It is an essential aspect of any business, as it can significantly impact a customer's overall experience and satisfaction with a company.

In today's competitive marketplace, providing excellent customer service can help your business stand out from its competitors and can also foster loyalty and retention among your customers.

On the other hand, poor customer service can result in negative reviews, a drop in sales, and damage to your company's reputation.

Therefore, it is paramount that you prioritise customer service and strive to provide the best possible experience for your customers.

Mistakes happen!

Even businesses that have the best intentions and strive to provide excellent customer service can make mistakes.

These mistakes vary from minor oversights to more significant issues, and they can occur at any stage of the customer journey. For example, a customer service representative may not fully listen to or understand a customer's needs, leading to a resolution that does not adequately address the customer's concern.

Also, If a business has a slow response time to customer inquiries or complaints, this can cause frustration and a negative experience for the customer.

Mistakes are a normal occurrence in any business, but it is important for companies to recognise and address them in order to reduce their impact and improve the customer experience.

In today's post, we will explore common mistakes that businesses make and provide strategies for avoiding them in order to enhance the customer experience.

The common mistakes that businesses make in customer service are:

1. Failing to listen to and understand the customer's needs

One common mistake that businesses make in customer service is failing to listen to and understand a customer's needs.

When a customer reaches out to your customer service team with a concern or problem, they expect to have their needs fully listened to and understood in order to receive a satisfactory resolution.

However, if a customer service representative does not fully listen to and understand the customer's needs, it can lead to frustration.

A common reason why businesses fail to fully listen to and understand their customers' needs is that they are not actively listening. This can occur when a business is not fully paying attention to the customer, is not engaging with the customer, or is not seeking to understand the customer's perspective.

Active listening involves fully engaging with the customer, paying attention to what they are saying, and showing empathy and understanding.

Another aspect of effectively listening to and understanding a customer's needs is asking clarifying questions and repeating back their concerns to confirm that they have been fully understood.

This helps to ensure that the business is accurately grasping the customer's perspective and needs, and can help to avoid misunderstandings or miscommunications.

Some helpful tips;

• Focus your attention on the customer: Put away any distractions and focus solely on the conversation at hand. Eliminating distractions and giving the customer your undivided attention, shows them that you are committed to helping them and that their needs are a priority.
• Pay attention to verbal and nonverbal cues: Pay attention to your customer's tone of voice, body language, and choice of words. These cues can provide valuable information about how the customer is feeling and what they are trying to communicate.
• Ask clarifying questions: If you are unsure about something a customer has said, ask for more information or clarification. This will help you to fully understand the customer's needs and ensure that you are providing an appropriate response.
• Repeat back the customer's concerns: Summarise your customer's concerns in your own words. This involves restating the customer's concerns in a way that accurately reflects their perspective and needs.

2. Not responding promptly to customer inquiries or complaints

Customers generally expect timely responses to their questions and concerns, and a slow response can make the customer feel like his/her concern is not important.

By responding to customer inquiries and issues in a timely manner, your business can demonstrate its commitment to customer satisfaction and work to resolve issues effectively.

That is why your team has to put strategies in place to manage and respond to customer inquiries and complaints in a timely manner.

Some negative effects that a slow response can have on customer satisfaction;

• It can create a sense of frustration and impatience in the customer, who may feel that their issue is not being treated with the necessary level of priority.
• It can lead to a loss of trust in the business, as the customer may begin to doubt the company's ability to effectively handle their needs.
• It can lead to a decrease in customer loyalty, as the customer may begin to consider alternative options if they feel that their concerns are not being adequately addressed.

In order to prevent negative consequences, you should implement strategies for efficiently managing and responding to customer inquiries and complaints.

Here are some strategies that can be effective:

• Set clear response time goals: To ensure timely responses to customer inquiries and complaints, it is important to establish clear goals for response times and make sure that your team is aware of these goals.
• Utilise automated responses: Set up automated responses that acknowledge receipt of a customer's message and provide information on when a more detailed response can be expected. This can help to keep customers informed and reduce frustration while they wait for a more detailed response.
• Monitor and track response times: Using tools to monitor and track response times can help you identify areas where you may be falling behind and take steps to improve. By keeping track of response times, you can also work to meet your set goals for customer satisfaction and identify any bottlenecks or other issues that may be causing delays in responding to customer inquiries and complaints.
• Prioritise urgent inquiries and complaints: Make sure that your team knows how to identify and prioritise the customer's inquiries and complaints. This can involve setting clear guidelines for determining the level of urgency of an issue and ensuring that team members have the training and resources they need to handle urgent issues effectively.

3. Not having a knowledgeable or helpful customer service team

To ensure a positive customer experience, it is important for the customer service team to be both knowledgeable and helpful.

Customers expect to be able to receive accurate and helpful information and assistance when they have questions or concerns, and a team that is knowledgeable and helpful can help to ensure that these needs are met.

Having a team that is well-trained and able to provide helpful and accurate information can improve your customer's experience and satisfaction.

It is important to continuously work on improving the skills and resources of your customer service team in order to provide the best possible experience for customers.

Tips on how to ensure that your customer service team is knowledgeable and helpful:

• Provide thorough training: Make sure that customer service team members receive comprehensive training on company policies, procedures, and products or services. This will help them to assist customers and provide accurate information.
• Keep team members up-to-date: Ensure that customer service team members have access to the most current information about company policies, procedures, and products or services.
• Empower team members to make decisions: Empowering customer service team members with the authority to make decisions and find creative solutions to customer issues can enable them to go above and beyond to assist customers and provide a positive experience.
• Offer additional resources: To enable customer service team members to better assist customers and provide a positive experience, it can be helpful to provide them with access to additional resources such as training materials or reference guides.

4. Not following up with customers after an issue has been resolved

Part of good customer service involves following up with customers after an issue has been resolved to confirm that the issue was adequately addressed and that the customer is satisfied with the resolution.

Following up with customers can provide you with an opportunity to identify any potential areas for improvement in the customer experience.

Ensure that you prioritise follow-up and have a clear strategy for reaching out to customers and soliciting feedback.

Effective follow-up strategies:

• Reach out via phone or email: Contacting customers via phone or email allows you to personally check in on their experience and ask for feedback. This can be done a few days after the issue has been resolved to allow the customer time to experience the resolution.
• Solicit feedback: Asking for feedback from customers will help you understand their perspective and identify areas for improvement. This can be done through surveys, questionnaires, or through open-ended questions during a follow-up call or email.
• Offer additional assistance: If a customer is still experiencing issues or has other concerns, make sure to offer further assistance and support. This can help to build trust and loyalty with the customer.

Providing excellent customer service is crucial for businesses of all sizes and industries. It can impact a customer's overall experience and satisfaction with a company and can significantly impact a business's reputation and bottom line.

By Chika Ebuzor

Author | Leadership & Business Management Trainer | Digital Media Content Strategist | Data Science Fellow at Utiva.io

January 06, 2023