How to Get Proactive Customer Service in Small Businesses

Income and cash flow are the lifeblood of small businesses. One of the top priorities for them is finding and keeping customers. Why? Because there is a direct correlation between customer satisfaction and revenue.

Satisfied customers are more likely to repeat purchases, recommend the company to friends and family, and thus gain greater upsell opportunities. In short, customers do business with people they trust. Therefore, if a small business wants to grow, it must build trust and loyalty.

Using proactive customer service as a growth strategy is even more necessary when considering its effect during fluctuating business cycles. When the economy is growing, good customer service acts as a growth accelerator. In contrast, when the economy is stagnant, good customer service improves the ability of small businesses to weather a recession. A business may not be growing, but it can survive off the customer base it has created.

Therefore, to reap the benefits that only satisfied customers can deliver, small businesses need to understand users and create the kinds of satisfying experiences that will keep them engaged. An effective contact center is essential to achieve these goals.

The call center is the designated interface between a company and its customers. It is used to create sales conversations, offer after-sales service and support, and serves as an active listening tool to detect changing consumer preferences and trends.

How To Offer Exceptional And Proactive Customer Service 

Achieving Good Customer Service Is Based On Four Criteria:

1) Efficacy

This measure determines whether a customer can satisfactorily resolve their issue on first contact. Multiple and ineffective attempts lead to customer frustration and dissatisfaction. First contact resolution (FCR) scores and quality assessments (QE) are good predictors of contact center effectiveness.

The job of providing effective customer service falls to the call center agents and they need all the help they can get. Working in a call center can be stressful. The work is highly repetitive, and agents are often asked to solve problems for which they have not been properly trained. Therefore, to provide excellent customer service, agents must first be trained.

2) Ease Of Use

This metric helps determine how easily a customer can get help. The satisfaction received from an effective service can be tarnished if the experience has been difficult or unpleasant. Basic contact management KPIs is a good starting point for measuring customer usability. These KPIs include average speed of response (ASA), abandonment rate, transfer rate, retention rate, self-service rate, and customer feedback.

But you also have to consider the recent explosion of digital channels due to changing customer expectations. These include the increased use of mobile and social networks, an intelligent omnichannel ACD (Automatic Call Distributor), live chat, Artificial Intelligence, AI bots and sentiment analysis, among others.

3) Emotion

Perhaps this is the most important measure because it reflects overall customer satisfaction. There are numerous ways in which a call center can offer a service easily and effectively, but still leave customers dissatisfied. Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and the Net Promoter Score (NPS) are good metrics to determine how satisfied customers are in their interactions with the contact center.

Customers who report high levels of satisfaction are more likely to be loyal. But how do you know what customer satisfaction is if their feelings are not measured? How can you make the necessary improvements to increase satisfaction without knowing what customers like and don’t like about your interactions?

Outdated contact centers make it difficult for business leaders to understand customer preferences because they lack basic and advanced feedback and sentiment analysis in interactions.

4) Cost Control vs. Customer Experience

Some call center leaders may prioritize cost control savings over delivering excellent customer service. However, the benefits derived from satisfied customers outweigh the savings in cost reduction.

In conclusion, customers reward companies they trust through their loyalty and referrals. These can accelerate the growth of small businesses. The call center is key to customer loyalty if proactive customer service is provided. The best way to provide effective, easy, and satisfying customer service is to make sure the contact center trains agents, offers the amenities customers demand, and measures customer satisfaction.