Customer service determines the fate of the company. But what exactly is customer service?
We can say, customer service meets your customer's needs. Your business can have a lot of product/service lines. However, if your customer has expectations of your brand, it is your responsibility to meet them.
Good service helps you satisfy your target audience, spread a positive word about your business, and improve customer acquisition and retention. But with personalized customer service, you can reap all these benefits.
Before that, let us understand the main difference between customer service and customer service personalization?
Read on to find out.
# What is Customer Service Personalization? |
According to a study, 80% of customers are more likely to purchase if brands offer a personalized experience.
We understand this by example. Think about running a shoe store chain. Your customer has left your store to buy a pair of sports shoes. In particular, he wants to give his friend yellow shoes. But you can't find shoes of this color in your brand.
Simply informing the customer that this scenario is unavailable is called customer service. Accepting it as a special order, understanding the customer's needs, and customizing the shoes to the desired specifications is called customer service personalization.
Providing pre-defined services to a customer is simply a service. However, tailoring offers to the customer's needs and giving them wishes is personalized customer service.
With this understanding, let's now see why personalized customer service is important to businesses.
# Enables Faster Delivery of Services |
To personalize your service, you need to gather vital customer knowledge like preferences, interests, and inconveniences. This information allows you to provide services to customers faster.
Consider, for example, a typical call center environment. Typically, these customer kiosks are integrated with customer relationship management tools such as CRM systems. This database contains personal data, including name, contact details, transaction history, and, where possible, transcripts of interactions.
When your returning customer contacts your kiosk, your representative will have access to all the details on one page. This helps agents fully understand their concerns and preferences, eliminating the need to ask for information unnecessarily. So you can provide personalized services quickly.
# Helps to Serve Regular Customers |
Who wouldn't love to be pampered with services they have longed for forever? Loyal customers are the result of personal services. If you meet the customer's needs after understanding what they want, it will attract him more.
The benefits of personalized customer service are not limited to this. Yes, your loyal customers will become your strongest advocates and spread a positive word about your brand. It improves outreach, helps you expand your customer base.
# Allows You to Meet Customer Expectations |
Meeting customer expectations is not an added advantage for companies in the current market landscape. Instead, it has become a prerequisite for surviving the tough competition.
So having information about customer behavior, such as their likes, preferences, and people purchases fully support your expectations. For example, if your customer is browsing sports equipment, there may be a simple suggestion of accessories that can be paired with it.
Also, providing information about where a customer stopped browsing during the last session can help them continue where they left off. That way, they don't have to start all over again, saving them a lot of time.
# Facilitates Continuous Improvement |
Providing personalized customer service is not just about collecting and using customer information. This includes a deeper understanding of this information, consolidation, and derivation of intuitive knowledge.
For example, if you have most of the information about a customer's browsing history, transcripts of conversations, and personal purchases, you'll need to start categorizing and consolidating that data. You can then use analytical tools to gain intuitive knowledge of this data. You can add interactive graphics to make this data more visual.
This information will help your agents better understand customer issues. This allows them to understand and resolve customer issues proactively. If this process is ongoing, your competencies will improve over time.
# Supports own channel services |
When you say personalized customer service, it means contacting customers as easily as possible, and vice versa. Therefore, you must constantly provide services through channels.
For example, if your customer browses your store offers before making an in-app purchase, you should ensure that this experience provides the same satisfaction.
You should ensure that all of your communication channels are synchronized for your customers. In this way, personalized customer services cover the way for efficient own channel services.
# Conclusion |
Personalized customer service has become a new norm. It has become mandatory for companies to understand the needs of customers and then provide services accordingly. This approach delights customers and helps you effectively control communication, enabling continuous growth and enabling your brand to gain a competitive edge.