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4 Secrets to deliver great Customer Service

Every company and brand works hard to do their best– focusing on increasing their sales, winning customer loyalty and, of course, delivering a great service and experience. However sometimes they can't accomplish all these three things at the same time. It may be because they’re just focusing on only one area or because the employees don't take real care of the customer.

According to the 2012 Global Customer Service Barometer, a third of people believe that businesses are paying less attention to providing good customer service. On top of that, only 7% of those polled say that customer service experiences they have with companies exceed their expectations.

It seems that there’s something companies are missing out on. And, as we know, one of the best ways to get on the right path to offering an outstanding real experience is to monitor employee interaction with customer and, of course, ask for feedback. Here you have 4 ways to do just that:

1. Personal Observation: It´s important for you to pay attention to your employees’ interactions with customers. No matter if you are in a store or an office. Listening to conversations can be very important. Pay special special attention to what your employees are saying to customers.

2. Ask for Feedback: When you have the chance to talk face-to-face to your customers, look them in the eye, and simply ask “How are you doing?” This method is proven to increase customer communication by 30%.

3. Break Down Barriers: The best way to obtain feedback is asking for it. You are most likely to get the same amount of compliments as complaints; therefore, you can celebrate great services and start correcting problems.

4. Provide Contact Information: If you provide access to information like a manager’s cell phone number or email address, you are sending a message they are there to help, and demonstrating to your staff that great service is a top priority.

These tips will surely help you in your customer service strategy– read them and make an effort to spread the word in your company so that the team’s efforts will bring rewards (both in sales and customer loyalty).

Give us your feedback via Twitter (@sessionflow) on how these secrets can increase your sales and customer loyalty. Have you tried any of them yet?

3 Customer Services Tips from Marissa Meyer

This week we want to share some secrets and tips that Marissa Meyer gave in November at a SalesForce conference about Customer Service and its massive importance. Meyer is Yahoo’s new CEO– prior to this, she was the first female engineer to work at Google. Pretty awesome!

In the conference, Meyer discussed her passion of overseeing the design and experience of Yahoo's products and organization. And throughout the conversation, she shared several crucial lessons with the audience about what it means to truly serve the customer.

1. Believe in the Value of the Customer's Voice: "It's not all about making the product pretty and functioning. It's about finding what the customer needs and creating something where they will be successful." Since taking over as CEO at Yahoo last year, Mayer has not kept her ears shut when listening to the customer - most notably on Twitter. In the past few months, she has been known to share news about the company and respond to customer service complaints. She has traveled the world with product managers to learn about her customers and to see how she can create products that wil be used by the entire world. In the words of Meyer, "creating a product that can be used by the entire world is a daunting task." No doubt!

2. Serve the Customer By Going Mobile: “We don't think of ourselves as design first, we think of ourselves as mobile first." Ever since arriving on the scene as the head of Yahoo, Meyer has always believed that mobile is the "wave" of the future and that it os critical to the survival of the company. With over 400 million mobile users around the world, there is no doubt that her efforts have paid off in several dividends. Although people may scrutinize that moving to mobile was purely a strategic maneuver to catch up with the masses, this was a decision made to serve the customer. In fact, anybody that builds a product or provides a service with an optimization for mobile is serving the customer. It has been predicted that by 2014, the number of mobile devices will exceed the human population. Mobile is the next wave of the future and all forms of business should consider how they can create a personalized, mobile experience for the customer.

3. Be a User of Your Product to Truly Serve the Customer: "It's all about the user. You have to be a user of the product to really be able to serve the customer." One can never truly understand the needs of the customer or sympathize with the problems they may have unless they are a true user of their product. "It's not about making the product pretty and functioning. It's about finding what the customer needs and creating something where they will be successful." In order to understand what the customer needs and grasp how they can be successful, you need to be a user and have a true passion for your product. By doing so, you will know the customer in a whole new way - just as Mayer has in her role as CEO.

E-commerce around the holidays, 7 tips for sales success

Holiday season is in full swing and as time goes e-commerce expectations continue to grow. Just like brick and mortars, it's absolutely essential for these businesses to be prepared for this time of the year. It can be stressful and tricky but it’s all about giving your customer a great and well-rounded service.

What are the best ways to achieve awesome customer service during the holidays? We did a little research and found some tips we want to share with you so you can include them in your overall strategy.

1. Take a look at last year: Often, online retailers worry more about what’s coming than what has happened before, but looking back can be very beneficial to your business. So, take a look at what sold last Christmas. Is there anything similar in stock this year? You should even consider looking at what the top Google searches were last year using the Google Keyword Tool and Google Trends to give you some ideas as to what you may need to promote this time around.

2. Wind up your resources: If you’re expecting to be busy, never let your customer service slip. It’s time to think about getting an extra pair of hands or bolstering customer service training to prepare everyone for the onslaught. This will pay dividends when you’re working to capacity and need a well oiled machine to keep things moving well.

3. At Christmas, anything’s possible: During the holiday season, you’ll find new customers coming to you – who may only buy from you once a year, so bear this in mind when you’re considering service expectations. If some of your customers are regulars, then they’re used to the way things work. A new customer may be less patient and, in fact, doesn’t potentially have a clue how good you are. So, remember to instil confidence and offer guarantees on delivery etc.

4. Check your site: This may seem obvious but there are many people who forget to do this. Go through the checkout process on your website to ensure that the checkout and the shopping cart are all working correctly and that there are no problems. Hopefully your website will be busy and therefore if there’s an issue you don’t know about, you could end up losing sales. Co-browsing can be very helpful here.

5. Social Media can work for you: Once you’ve decided on what promotions you will be running, then make sure you use all your arsenal to tell people about it. Facebook, Twitter and your blog should be places you use to tell people what’s going on. Social Media is excellent if you have products that ‘sell out’ quickly.

6. Help your shoppers buy: We all have different approaches to the way in which we shop. You might like to add things like price options for buyers (gifts by price) or gifts for him / her. This will make navigation much easier for people and they’re more likely to stay on your site if you make searching a breeze.

7. Get your extra stock in now : As you’re looking at selling more (hopefully) then you will want to make sure you’ve got the stock to sustain those orders. Popular lines should be purchased at double the quantity at least but don’t forget things like packaging, tape, wrapping and labels. Might sound funny, but if you suddenly run out with a week left before Christmas your customers will not be willing to wait!

Lets us know via Twitter (@sessionflow) if these tips have worked for you or tell us if you have some new ones to share with all of us!

10 Customer service stats you'll be surprised about

According a Zendesk report, customer service is the number one reason clients trust in a company. Though a surprising 92% of companies reported a decline in customer satisfaction, with consumers most disappointed by inconsistent service. Here you'll find 10 game-changing customer service stats that we think make the case for this very important issue.

1. Nearly a third of consumers believe that businesses are now paying less attention to providing good customer service. (Echo 2012 Global Customer Service Barometer)

2. 42% of service agents are unable to efficiently resolve customer issues due to disconnected systems, archaic user interfaces, and multiple applications. (Forrester)

3. 45% of US consumers will abandon an online transaction if their questions or concerns are not addressed quickly. (Forrester)

4. 26% of consumers have experienced being transferred from agent to agent without any resolution of their problem. (2012 Global Customer Service Barometer)

5. 81% of companies motivate employees to treat customers fairly, and 65% provide effective tools and training to gain trust with their customers. (Peppers and Rogers Group)

6. 70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated. (McKinsey)

7. 55% of consumers would pay more for a better customer experience. (Defaqto Research)

8. 83% of consumers require some degree of customer support while making an online purchase. (eConsultancy)

9. 17% of consumers would recommend a brand that provides a slow but effective solution. (Nielsen-McKinsey)

10. It takes 12 positive customer experiences to make up for one negative experience. (Parature)

Our tools provide cutting-edge technology to ensure that your customers’ needs are always met. What other kinds of resources do you use to keep your clients happy? Let us know via Twitter (@sessionflow)

4 Things you can learn from Disney´s Customer Service

Disneyland is one of the greatest places on earth. The whole experience is full of happiness and excitement and, on July 17th 2013, the place where all dreams come true celebrated its 58th anniversary. With the help of this article, we share with you four awesome customer services lessons from Walt Disney himself.

1. "You don’t build it for yourself. You know what the people want and you build it for them." It's all about to learning who your clients are and understanding what they want and what they expect from you. If you pay attention and listen to your customers this can be an easy job and you´ll be available to offer a better service. Just be sure you're evaluating your setting or process from the customer´s perspective.

2. "Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends." The first impression has to be all, there's' never a second chance to make one again. And in this topic Disney´s cast members are taught to anticipate the needs of the park's guests. Giving them directions, taking family photo, signing autographs, etc. The most common question asked at Disneyland: "What time is the 3pm parade?" What guests are really asking is what time the parade goes by that particular spot. You have to understand the question from the customer's perspective

3. "Do your best work – then try to trump it." Every business or brand should set up a structure to know their customer's expectations, and after that work hard to exceed them by paying close attention to every single detail of your products and services.

4. "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." Turn your words into actions! Go out and implement! Ask for feedback, measure and then make adjustments.

These are just a sample of what you can do in order to improve your customer service and satisfaction. If you are willing to learn more about the key processes and best practices that have made Disney a household name around the world, check out the book Be Our Guest.

5 Customer Service tips you need to know

There are so many posts just like this one on the web– but how many of them actually provide real value for your business? Tips like “be polite” is indeed good advice, but it’s also something fairly obvious when dealing with customers. Many tips lack data and case studies to provide further insight.

Doing a spin around Help Scout’s blog, we came across this post with some tips. Along with Help Scout, we’ll look at proven advice on how to improve your customer service that you might not have expected to hear.

Utilize the Element of Surprise: According to psychologist Norbert Schwartz, when it comes to creating reciprocity, the effect isn’t dependent on cost. He found that as little as a dime could make a difference, showing that it really is the thought that counts! The secret ingredient is surprise: An act of kindness leaves a bigger impact when it is unexpected. Look for opportunities—whether out of the blue or automated—to surprise customers with a follow-up freebie or some sort of treat that is otherwise unmentioned on your site.

Give Credence to Complaints: Although nobody likes dealing with customer complaints, a variety of data shows that between 70 to 90 percent of customers are willing to do business with you again if you can successfully resolve their issue the first time around.  If you are receiving the same complaint repeatedly, be sure to make note of it. It’s likely a more prevalent problem than you realize, since, on average, only 4 percent of dissatisfied customers ever speak up.

Slow Things Down: From consumer research to psychology studies, the importance of not rushing your service has been clearly argued on this blog. Customers have explicitly said that they care about service quality and the competence of the staff far more than the speed of the service. This was clearly evidenced when customers were polled on why they stay loyal to a brand and why they leave a brand. To be sure, speed is still important, but it falls well behind service quality in terms of why customers stayed with a business and why they would leave. 

Invest in Great Service : Creating a customer-centric culture is of foundational importance for building a business that customers love.  If you plan on out-supporting the competition, plan on investing heavily in the team, tools and tactics to deliver. In the same way you invest in rock stars for your product and marketing teams, make sure your happiness heroes want to win as much as you do, and then invest in them! 

Create Smarter Systems: A flood of feedback from customers does you no good (even if it’s all praise) if you don’t have a system in place to manage it.  Do all of your employees know (and have access to) old feature requests? Do they know where and how to place feature suggestions? Does the team know what’s being worked on and what has been passed on?  Make sure they do, and you’ll find they will be much better suited for assisting customers and won’t be tied down to a cumbersome feedback filing process. 

Let us know vía Twitter (@sessionflow) if you’ve ever used these tactics to improve your customer service– how have they benefited you in the long run? We look forward to hearing from you!

10 ways to win to your customer’s heart

Personal and business relationships have many differences. But they also hold similarities– especially when you look at success stories in either of the two, like a long marriage or a forever loyal client. Being able to nurture a relationship in just the right way is the key to achieving a healthy bond, both in business and in your personal life.

With help from Salesforce’s Desk, we’re sharing 10 tips to live by in order to win your customer’s heart:

Treat them right: not as a number, and respond to them in a genuine way. They'll be delightful. Happy customers tend to share their experience with at least 4 or 6 other people.

Don’t come on too strong: respect other people’s space and they'll likely be more drawn to you. 58% of customers who had a rude customer service experience will share this experience with their friends.

Be a good listener: hear them out, show that you care. 60% of consumers will pay more for better service and experiences.

Blow their mind away, even after you seal the deal: The number one reason for losing customers is dissatisfaction with customer service.

Treat them like a valued partner: ask for their feedback shows your clients that their opinion matters. Don't be afraid of the truth it can help you provide a better service. On Facebook 35% of consumer expect a response after “liking” a business.

Build their trust and alert them to any change that could possibly impact the relationship. It take 12 good sevices experiences to make up for just one negative experience.

Be open with mistakes, stepping out and apologizing will show that you care. Customer churn, 68% of the time, is caused by feeling poorly treated.

Call and respond when you say you will. 12% of customers will leave if it takes more than two or more calls to solve a problem.

Recognize your responsibility in any outcome. 39% of customer end their relationship with a business that provides a bad customer service.

Be kind and grateful can improve the quality of your relationship and keep them wanting for more. 3 out of 4 customers say they have spent more time with a company because of a history of positives experiences.

Lets us know via Twitter (@sessionflow) how do you build a long term relationship with your customers. Have you tried any of these tips. Do you have any good ones you want to share?

Your eCommerce Site Needs Co-Browsing Technology, this is Why

Consumers are spending increasingly more time shopping online which means that any transaction they want to make online needs to be easily completed, or at least it should be if the eCommerce business wants to drive revenue. Create an easy-to-use and responsive online purchasing experience is just the first step– adding co-browsing technology will take it to the next level.

With the holiday shopping season just around the corner, it’s a perfect time for those who provide eCommerce shopping experiences to consider their current technology options. Given that eCommerce continues to increase in popularity among all demographics, this year’s online shopping season is bound to be significant. For those organizations who want to capture the growing opportunity from online shoppers, improving the experience should be the first priority.

According to a recent Business2Community report, online sales are slowly taking over total retail sales. In other words, save money on the storefront and invest resources in the online experience. If it’s not mobile, and if customer support agents can’t help the customer directly, the organization will be hard pressed to cash in on the potential revenue in the market. With co-browsing technology like SessionFlow or Live LOOK, agents on the other end of the line see exactly what the user sees and are better poised to help close the sale.

This approach to customer care is in line with the changes taking place in the way companies are selling. They have to meet consumers where they are, which is in the mobile and online environments. Consumers prefer to do their shopping online because they can often get items for less, it’s a considerable time saver and it satisfies the need for immediate gratification. These demands are very real among the consumer base and those eCommerce companies able to recognize them and proactively market in this way will dominate the industry.

The same is true for the mobile experience. Many eCommerce sites may be taking the market by storm with their online experience, but if they don’t offer the same quality experience in their mobile app through responsive design, they’re in trouble. Consumers want “easy-to-use” and don’t want to be restricted to a particular device. Likewise, if they have trouble on a site, they demand personalized help to find what they need. Those companies able to deliver on all of these initiatives will be the brands we’ll see for the long-haul.

Let us know via Twitter (@sessionflow) if you are thinking of adding cobrowsing technology to your eCommerce site, and share with other readers how you’ve been able to make shopping online easier for your customers.

A Simple Story of Mind-Blowing Customer Service

Maile Keone, is an entrepreneur, writer and traveler. She loves working in the vacation rental industry helping people stay in cool places and create dream vacations. And in this post from the Huffington Post, she shares with all of us a life-altering customer service experience– she describes a trip to Las Vegas where she stayed in the Cosmopolitan Hotel.

My best friend organizes a conference every year and I often tag along. The event typically falls over my birthday weekend, and we try to celebrate between conference sessions and my lounging at the pool of whatever swanky hotel she's selected. On the second morning of the conference, I had made my way through the breakfast buffet piling food items on my plate, including a container of yogurt. I sat down to eat my bacon and eggs while chatting up my table mates, then I picked up the yogurt and glanced around for a spoon. The silverware that was rolled into my napkin had a knife and fork, but no spoon.

Because I'm engulfed in a fairly vigorous conversation about the conference with one of my table mates, I look around for a few seconds and decide I don't want to interrupt the conversation by getting up to grab a spoon. As I reach for my fork to eat my yogurt, a spoon magically appears over my left shoulder. I am stunned and turn around to a man smiling, holding out a spoon. Almost speechless, I get up and ask his name. Miguel. Then I ask Miguel how he knew I needed a spoon. He says simply "Because you didn't have one."

There were 300 people in a breakfast area with a bunch of banquet servers and it was pure chaos. And out of this chaos Miguel noticed I needed a spoon? Then he brought me one? Yup, MIND-BLOWING. Later that day asked my friend to arrange an interview with Drew, the Banquet Manager so I could dive deeper into this craziness.

As Drew and I sat down, I started in on my prepared a list of questions: How did this happen? How do you train people? How do you reinforce it? His responses included all the things you would expect: great hiring, rigorous training, a good working environment. His core answer, however, was that they "empower employees to think outside the box to create stories worth telling." Stories worth telling. I love stories and mine was certainly worth telling so much so that by the time I sat down with Drew I'd told it a few times and am now writing about it.

Drew shared with me that the Cosmopolitan believes in unscripted customer service and letting employees do what they need to do in order to do a good job. They encourage employees to service guests in original ways and they have very few rules as to how their employees accomplish that goal. A spoon certainly counts. So a big shout-out to Miguel Casillas, the banquet server who blew my mind.

This is an amazing example of one of the principles of great customer service- being aware. By simply being aware, Miguel stunned Maile into speechlessness. As an additional note, later that night when she and her friend returned to their suite, there were 12 beautiful cupcakes with a Happy Birthday message and card. Drew Bachhuber sent them after finding out it was her birthday, and was another example of how the hotel empowers their employees to treat guests.

Tell us via Twitter (@sessionflow) what you think of these kind of excellent services. Do you have any outstanding encounters like this? Do you go that extra mile in order to give a real experience of service?

Seven Customer Service lessons from Richard Branson

It’s rare to find a leader who elevates the employee and customer experience to such a degree that other brands benchmark against his or her company. Carmine Gallo, a contributor from Forbes had the chance to spend a day with one such leader, an entrepreneur and billionaire who has built a brand considered the gold standard in customer service - Virgin Group founded by Sir Richard Branson.

He joined Branson on Virgin America’s first flight from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and spent time with him on the ground. The experience gave him an up-close view of how Branson interacts with employees– his leadership philosophy in action. The first thing Carmine learned is that Branson lives and breathes customer service. Here are the seven lessons Branson lives by:

1. Be visible. Branson says, “A good leader doesn’t get stuck behind a desk.” Branson is always on the move, meeting employees, talking to cabin crews, and soliciting feedback from passengers. He’s constantly asking for their opinions and he keeps a notebook of the ideas and the feedback he’s received.

2. Express a passionate commitment to serving the customer. Customer service starts at the top, and it certainly does in the case of Virgin America. Both Branson and Virgin America CEO David Cush believe that a superior customer experience is the key ingredient to success in a competitive global economy, regardless of what business you’re in.

3. Your company’s employees are its greatest asset. According to Branson, the features and amenities Virgin America offers such as mood lighting, leather seats, newer planes and seat back entertainment systems are all part of the package, and while the package might entice customers to give the product a try, the quality of the interaction they have with Virgin’s employees encourages them to return.

4. Hire people who have the Virgin attitude. Virgin America is very selective, hiring only about 1 out of 100 people who apply. Those who make the cut are competent, friendly, and committed to providing customers with a superior level of service. Finding the right people is 90% of the battle.

5. Empower your employees to solve problems and to make every experience great. Once you hire the right people and give them the best training, let them use their imagination and creativity to solve problems. Empowerment is a very important concept at Virgin America. Team members are not only empowered to satisfy customers, they are publicly rewarded when they do. Branson says it’s important to lavish praise on people and Branson goes out of his way to recognize even the smallest efforts.

6. Engage in social media with a genuine voice. Branson sends out his own Tweets; he doesn’t delegate his Twitter account (@RichardBranson). Virgin America itself has three full-time social media employees who respond to nearly every customer comment and question on Twitter, whether it's positive or negative, and they do so 24x7. Virgin America doesn’t use social media simply to pitch marketing messages– there are real people behind those Twitter posts who engage their customers with fun, genuine, and helpful conversations.

7. Have fun. Don’t take yourself too seriously. As part of its recruiting process Virgin America looks for people who are smart, capable, enthusiastic, and who have a sense of humor. Their boss shares all those qualities, especially the sense of humor. Branson is known for stunts, of course, and you don’t have to propel off buildings or wear silly outfits to have fun. It works for Branson because it’s an authentic part of his personality.

Let us know via Twitter (@sessionflow) which of the seven lessons is most applicable to your company, and which one you most like to see an a customer service leader.

5 Effective Customer Service Strategies for E-commerce Websites

For an ecommerce website it’s essential to develop a customer service strategy to retain customers, maintain their loyalty and improve their experience. Many companies interact with customers through email, newsletter, social media and even SMS. Most of those are good ways to reach out but sometimes they’re not as effective as actual conversations or real time attention, which provide a more personal approach in doing business.

From Business 2 Community, we learn 5 ways to set a customer service strategy for your ecommerce website.

1. Answer phone calls: Conversing through a telephone is one of the best ways to communicate with customers since they feel the assurance of talking to a human being rather than to a machine. Customers feel secure if they hear someone receive their queries and knowing that there’s something that can be done. Besides telephone, co-browsing is a really effective tool when some information can be better explained over online chat, which can be an opportunity for the business to offer other products or guide them through the purchase process.

2. Keep the website updated: The website is part of the customer experience, and maintaining it is part of good customer service. Contact details should be visible and updated so that consumers will be easily able to contact the business. This section is necessary for e-commerce websites, as it has the potential to increase conversion by making it easier for shoppers to look for the information they need before making a purchase.

3. Send Emails: Don’t just rely on email to send mass-produced greeting cards during holidays. Rather, go for a more personal approach by creating a custom email for your clients. If you have to send a confirmation email for them for their purchases, go by their first names and email them their order details. Along with this, you may send them messages inviting them to try a new product– just don’t push it too hard or too often, no one likes spam!

4. Respond Quickly: Companies receive countless calls and emails every day and there will be times you won’t be able to get back to all queries on time. A week-late response to an urgent call or email defeats the purpose of customer service. The business should consider providing live chat support to prioritize immediate concerns that need quick assistance.

5. Never underestimate the power of Social Media: Many customers use Twitter and Facebook to discuss their dissatisfaction (and joy!) over the business’ customer service, while blogs are becoming a venue for product reviews. These may be indirect interactions with the company but they certainly affect its image and credibility.

Effective customer service always puts the needs of the customers in mind. And by constantly improving this particular aspect of your ecommerce site, your business will then increase its chances of acquiring new customers and gaining loyal ones. Let us in our Twitter account (@sessionflow) your thoughts on this.

Building customer loyalty, a Zappos.com history

The big advantage that small businesses have over their super-sized competitors when it comes to building customer loyalty is the ability to have more one-on-one interactions with customers. Many of them put the personal service first and a big thing its how they know their customer. However these businesses still need to prove that they can provide a great experience to attract customer and keep them coming back.

One of the many ways to this is by taking the time to personally thank customers- preferably right after they make a purchase or have a good experience. A good example of a company that does this well is Zappos.com. As many of you might know, Zappos is a big company, they successfully use the “small and personal” approach to boost customer retention.

Zappos.com Delivers the Personal Touch

And this is how they do it; Jane recently called the Zappos.com customer service line about a pair of “pop-top” mittens that she wanted and asked a few things before to make the purchase, she had such a great customer experience with her rep, Kristina, that the call culminated with her saying, “I love Zappos.com!” So, what did Kristina do afterward? While most companies would mark this order up as a “win” and move on, Kristina – probably because she was trained to do so by Zappos.com – took the time to send a hand-written thank you card. The outer envelope was personally addressed. Kristina also wrote a nice message based on a specific comment that Jane made while they were on the phone. Talk about reinforcing the customer’s sense of loyalty to Zappos. The inside of the card not only referenced her order number – which is helpful she needs it in the future – but also referenced Jane´s conversation with Kristina.

What small businesses can learn from Zappos.com

What Kristina did wasn’t a random act of kindness. Zappos.com recognized an opportunity to quickly reinforce great customer experiences. Kristina’s sales manager trained her on how and when to do this. Zappos.com probably gives all of their representatives a stack of cards and the discretion over when to send them. Any type of businesses can easily do something similar and improve their own customer loyalty. It just takes a little planning and some ongoing organization to improve customer service. Here are five steps towards becoming a customer service superstar:

Determine who in your business should be involved. Is it just the owner, or are there other employees who are critical for building customer relationships?

Communicate the idea and consult your staff about a process that they feel works for them. It’s critical that your staff is willing to execute the program on a regular basis. To help with their willingness to execute on the program, make sure it is simple for them to get their notes out to their customers.

Determine the program parameters. How many customers per week do you want to thank? How many of those customers should each employee personally thank? What type of communication do you want to send (i.e. thank you card, postcard or email)?

Monitor customer experiences and choose who gets a “thank you”. Make sure that you give your customers a reminder of how to find your business online, in case they want to post something nice on your Facebook page or tweet about your nice gesture.

Measure the impact that your personal thank you notes have on your customer relationships. Do customers rave about your kind notes? Are they coming back to buy more often? Are they bringing friends? Are they finding your Facebook page and sharing their love of your business with their friends? Are they saying nice things on Twitter? These are all metrics that point toward growing customer loyalty.

Lets us know via Twitter (@sessionflow) how you handle the customer satisfaction and what is your strategy on build the customer loyalty.

Real-time customer support for big-time client satisfaction

On a daily basis, e-commerce companies have to deal with the issue that about 60% of shopping carts are abandoned by clients before a purchase is made. This can generally be attributed to technical issues that customers face during the buying process. Many companies haven’t yet detected this problem and, consequently, they lose hundreds of customers who can't successfully complete a purchase process.

Imagine a potential customer is browsing your website and would like to buy one of your products or contract one of your services. But they aren’t sure how, or they need quick clarification. In this critical moment, your customer service team will be able to methodically guide them through the process using our special co-browsing technology, SessionFlow. With this tool, you can show them exactly where on the page to purchase, or where to find more information– before they leave the site, frustrated and confused.

Co-browsing technology is ideal for companies in various different industries. But most importantly, it’s an outstanding tool for any company seeking to improve their customer service set in order to increase customer loyalty and satisfaction.

According to Forrester Research, co-browsing systems are more highly rated in terms of customer satisfaction (78%), compared to a phone call (74%), online chat (69%), e-mail (54%) and question forms (47%). It shouldn’t be a surpise that, among the benefits of this technology you’ll find:

Parallel Browsing: Co-browse in real-time with your customers. It’ll be love at first click.

Easy Setup: Customize your support schedule and keep a log of each session.

Retain Customers: Great experiences lead to loyalty. Swoon your clients with SessionFlow.

Increase Sales: The digital customer service lifecycle gets complete with co-browsing.

Share with us via Twitter (@sessionflow) any experiences you have using these new technologies as part of your customer service plan, and let us know if they have (or haven’t!) worked for your company!

5 ways to drastically improve your company’s customer service

An outstanding customer service strategy can help your business grow and succeed in many ways, independent of the economic climate or latest technology craze. In this post we’ll investigate, with the help of Forbes, how companies can achieve the ultimate goal of improving their sales by offering top-notch customer service.

Sunday Steinkirchner, the owner of B & B Rare Books shares in this Forbes article the top “5 Ways to improve your Customer Service”:

1. Let Customers Get to Know You – If you’re running your business from an unknown (or internet-only) location, it makes you more anonymous. This is common nowadays, but adding a “face” or an address to your business could help assure customers that you won’t disappear overnight. You don’t have to rent office space if you don’t really need it; just be upfront about where you operate from and consider ways of contacting customers aside from email. A little personal information can go a long way, and could minimize concerns of accessibility, trust, or safety.

2) Be Available – If a customer can’t get hold of you when they need to, you could lose them forever. With the new companies, we get the owner on the phone every time, and they’re there day or night if a catastrophe happens. In our own business, we value face-to-face interaction with customers, which is often a rarity these days. Whether it’s traveling across the country for trade shows or taking time for a quick coffee or Skype session, our strongest relationships are with the customers we know personally and keep in contact with regularly. A way to easily be available is with a co-browsing, or Click-to-Call service like those we offer at SessionFlow!

3) Special or VIP Services – Are there special discounts or services you can offer that your competitors don’t? Can you offer something special for existing customers only? Could your services be considered “luxury”? Offering special treatment to your customers will help them to feel taken care of, and it’s also something they might be willing to pay more for. There are so many “bait and switch” offers and promotions “for new customers only”– reward the customers that have been with you the longest.

4) Offer Knowledge – Building strong relationships with our customers is great, but we also get to offer and trade knowledge with them. When we’re speaking with customers, we spend the majority of time talking about the merchandise itself, trends in the market, and the customer’s own collecting habits. Afterward, we negotiate a deal. A customer can even know more than you do on a particular topic! Take advantage of this opportunity to learn more.

Trade shows are another great way you can offer knowledge to your customers. Organize seminars with expert speakers to draw potential customers interested in your product or services.

5) Offer Community – Bringing face-to-face interactions, special services, and knowledge together could help you to create a unique community for your customers. This could be an interactive part of your website, a weekly or monthly webinar, or an open house at your physical location. Better yet, organize with similar or local businesses to set up an event, street fair, or convention that could draw a large crowd.

Let us know via Twitter (@sessionflow) which of these tips best fit your company’s customer service strategy; has it been effective? Do you have other ways to improve your sales while improving your customer service? We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

Customer services is a experience– make the best of it!

Customer service is all about experiences that either allow us to win or lose clients, to build brand loyalty or weaken it. Don Gallegos, a customer service expert who worked his way up in the supermarket industry, recently wrote a book entitled, “Win the Customer, Not the Argument” which provides many first-hand tips that will help foster outstanding experiences for customers.

Great customer service means navigating through potential problems of doing business while delivering an exceptional experience. Businesses can avoid poor customer experience by creating a customer-focused corporate culture where they share great customer service quotes, stories, examples, and skill training with the people who are most frequently in touch with clients.

Providing these kinds of success stories to a team is highly worthwhile, but one should also ensure that the team has a strong knowledge of what outstanding customer service actually means, including:

Respond, and respond quickly to emails and online chats. Give customers the attention they need in order to quickly resolve the problem.

When a customer is frustrated over chat or a co-browser, sometimes it helps to give them a call.

Technologies like co-browsing are really helpful when a customer needs guidance, even more so when they are trying to complete a purchase process.

According to Win the Costumer, winning customer loyalty centers on the idea that your customers are not just the customers from the moment they walk in the door to your business or visit your website, etc. It’ll take fantastically great customer service to maintain their loyalty. They are the customer 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Great customer service is the greatest answer your customers can give to a competitor trying to steal them away– and these are some ways to achieve that:

People don’t know great customer service until it happens to them. When they receive good service they think, “Wow!” and make the choice to switch to the new service provider.

The customer isn’t always right, but they are ALWAYS the customer.

Don’t take the easy way out and say NO, find a way to say YES.

Don’t hide behind a policy, do what’s right.

Bad customer service doesn’t have to be the standard, but we have to make it our mission to deliver great customer service that creates an exceptional customer experience.

Let us know via Twitter (@sessionflow) what things you do in order to deliver the best experience to your customer. Are they effective?

The pros and cons of ecommerce

Ecommerce is everywhere and, each day, there more online sales and transactions that are ideal for customers and for new businesses trying to get off the ground. Like nearly everything, ecommerce has its advantages and disadvantages and in this article we look into why online sales and business can be either outstanding or tricky.

Some of the advantages of ecommerce enumerated in the previously mentioned article include:

Overcome geographical limitations: If you have a physical store, you are limited by the geographical area that you can service. With an ecommerce website, the whole world is your playground. Additionally, ecommerce on mobile devices has dissolved almost every remaining limitation of geography.

Locate the product rapidly: It is no longer about pushing a shopping cart to the correct aisle, or scouting various stores for the desired product. On an ecommerce website, customers can click through intuitive navigation or use a search box to immediately narrow down their wish-list. Some websites retain customer preferences and previous shopping lists in order to facilitate repeat purchases. Here, you can also obtain real-time assistance as if you were in the brick and mortar store with technologies like co-browsing, live chat, and click-to-call.

Eliminate travel time and cost: It’s not unusual for customers to travel long distances to reach their preferred physical store. Ecommerce allows them to visit the same store virtually, with just a few mouse clicks.

Provide abundant information: There are limitations to the amount of information that can be displayed in a physical store. It is difficult to equip employees to respond to customers who require information across various product lines. Ecommerce websites, on the other hand, provide readily accessible information to customers which does costs much less to create or maintain. Customer reviews are also popular here where previous buyers can opine regarding their either positive or negative experience with the item.

As we mentioned, there are some things that makes ecommerce a potentially negative experience, in particular for those who seek out and are highly accustomed to human interaction in a sales setting. Here are some things to think about when creating an ecommerce site:

E-commerce doesn’t always allow you to experience the product before purchase: You can’t touch the fabric of the garment you want to buy or walk around with a pair of shoes you’re eyeing. You cannot "test" the perfume that you think might smell nice. In some specific cases as those mentioned, customers want to and sometimes require an experience with the product before finalizing the purchase.

Security: When making an online purchase, a credit card and mailing address are required. In many cases, ecommerce websites are able to harvest other information about your online behavior and preferences which could lead to credit card fraud, or worse, identity theft.

Anyone can set up an ecommerce website: Today, it’s possible to set up a basic ecommerce store in under 10 minutes. If anyone can do this, how do you know that the store you are purchasing from is genuine? The lower barriers to entry might be a great attraction to the aspiring ecommerce entrepreneur but, for the buyer, reliability can be an issue. This could lead customers to restrict their online purchases to only the most well known ecommerce websites.

Ecommerce delays immediate usage: Unless you’re order a pizza online, ecommerce websites generally take longer to get the physical goods into your hands. Even with express shipping, the earliest you get goods is the following day. Here, an exception is digital goods like ebooks or music files– in this case, ecommerce is actually faster than purchasing goods from a physical store.

We’re interested in hearing your opinion– what are your likes and dislikes about ecommerce? What great or lousy experiences have you had ordering products or services online? Let us know via Twitter (@sessionflow)!

Using new technologies to improve customer service

Customer service has been evolving heavily recently, mostly due to the internet and, in particular, the rise of the many socials networks and new technologies in this field. Not long ago, companies and clients communicated with each other almost exclusively through basic systems like call centers. For the customer, this meant long hold times on the phone, limited efficiency, and a possible lack of coordination between departments, among other issues.

As companies become increasingly aware of these technological evolutions, it’s essential that they that the appropriate steps to care for customers across various networks and communicational channels. The Telecoming Group, a telecommunications company based in Spain, enumerates two important tips to improve your relationship with your customer in today’s current customer service landscape.

1. Uses new technology and apply it to services offered by your company: At this point, you have many choices (one of which is co-browsing!) that help your clients solve their problems. It’s important to find the right mix of technological customer service tools, social media, and traditional channels that will best improve your customers’ satisfaction. Use a mix of Twitter, click-to-call, and email? Great! How about co-browsing, Facebook, and call center? Awesome as well. Eventually, these tools will help augment your sales by allowing your customers’ questions and problems to be quickly resolved through a channel where they feel most comfortable.

2. Be there for your customer in real-time: Customers expect to be able to communicate instantaneously with someone from your company when they are having issues, which is especially crucial at the time of a sale online. In this case, co-browsing is extremely effective because an agent will be able to help a client in real-time, guiding them seamlessly through your website to a point of purchase, help section, or where to find further specifications. Your clients’ satisfaction level will increase as will their loyalty to your brand.

Properly using today’s most current digital customer service tools will significantly help differentiate your company from your competition. Let us know via Twitter (@sessionflow) how your company’s customer service technologies have evolved in the recent years and what kind of communication channel mix you use for the perfect fit!

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