Service With A Smile

I’m sure many of you are aware how hard it can be to gain somebody’s trust, as well as how easily and quickly that trust can be taken away. Online this principle is the exact same. Many companies thrive and find success as a result of their customer service. On the other hand, some companies severely hold themselves back in this area. But what is it exactly that separates good and bad customer service online?

Ideal Response Time

When dealing with potentially upset customers it’s typically not in your best interest to keep them waiting for very long. Especially if they are reaching out to you to solve a problem. A quick response, even if not a full solution, is pivotal in order to keep your customers engaged and more willing to return to your services in the future.

Nike is a good example of quick response time and how it can affect a company positively. Typically, people find the ideal response time to be around one hour. While there are some exceptions to this “one hour standard,” a general rule of thumb is to try and get back to your customers sooner rather than later. You would be surprised how much insight you can gain just from reaching out and helping people in a timely manner.

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”

Bill Gates

Going Above and Beyond

Sometimes it’s not enough to have good customer service, sometimes you need to have great customer service in order to stand out amongst other companies. For many companies, they have to go above and beyond to ensure the utmost customer satisfaction. This could be anything from responding to criticism in a professional manner or even just casually interacting with people mentioning their brand. A lot of people today seem to prefer a brand with a more “human” feel to it rather than a big company that is just looking to make money. The customers are what make that business possible and in return that business should be as helpful and engaging as they can be with their customers. Take Best Buy for example. Best Buy will often reach out to people even if they don’t explicitly tag them in a post.

This is what separates Best Buy from it’s competitors in terms of quality. They maintain a friendly image and even go out of their way to find and interact with people simply talking about Best Buy. Customer service doesn’t always have to be dealing with angry customers looking for a refund or replacement. Sometimes a simple interaction is all it takes to keep people around.

Suffering from Success…

In some instances, when a brand or company becomes too saturated with customers, it can be increasingly difficult to address everybody’s complaints all the time. Some companies will set up an automated response that will link you to a few helpful resources or a number you can call to directly resolve a problem. And while this may be helpful from time to time, it often leads to further frustration amongst already frustrated customers.

As you can see in the image above, FedEx responded in a very timely manner. In just a matter of 3 minutes they were able to reach out to a customer in need! Unfortunately, the response wasn’t very helpful… This is just one of the many problems automated responses can cause. It can further escalate a situation which could lead to the loss of a customer or even bad press, if said customer decides to share their negative experience publicly.

The Perfect Company Doesn’t Exi-

There are many ways you can go about handling customer service. In a perfect world customer service would consist of helpful information in a timely manner, presented in a very kind/personable fashion. And while nothing in life is perfect, when it comes to customer service, one company in particular stands out above the rest. Xbox officially holds the Guinness World Record for “Most Responsive Corporate Account.” They respond to users in a professional, yet friendly and casual way. Which leads to more trust and likeability between buyer and consumer. They respond in a fairly quick manner. And they try and respond to as many users as possible without using automated responses, despite their audience of 1.8 followers. It might take a lot of effort on your end but if you really want to keep and grow your audience, going above and beyond might just be essential in making your good company a great company.