10 Simple Ways to Improve Customer Service Performance in 2022

Improve your CS performance and achieve meaningful results

Today, we’re going to look at some of the strategies you can use to improve your customer service performance in 2022 and achieve meaningful results.

Taking care of your customers is one of the most important things you can do as a business owner. No matter what industry you’re in, providing an excellent customer experience and customer service is the only way to ensure that you stand out from the competition, generate long-term revenue, and remain successful.

The good news is that investing in upgrading your customer service strategy for 2022 could really pay off. Some statistics even say that you can increase your revenue by 20% just by improving certain aspects of customer service. The bad news is that figuring out how and where to start working on your customer service strategy is often easier said than done.

Let’s transform your customer service performance journey with our 10 simple suggestions.

1.    Dive into your Data

How can you transform your employees into a team of customer-obsessed experts if you don’t know what your customers want in the first place? A great customer experience starts with truly understanding your audience, and that means diving a little deeper into your data.

You should have a variety of data sources, such as information from your customer relationship management (CRM) tools, your service desk, and any feedback or reviews you’ve received from your customers. You can also use surveys, phone calls, and customer conversations to learn what specific needs your customers might’ve.

2.    Talk to Your Audience

Since getting to know your customers is one of the best ways to ensure that you can provide exceptional service, it makes sense to spend some time talking to your customers. By regularly asking your audience for feedback and acting on the information they give you, you can build a better image for your brand based on respect for your target customer.

When asking your audience for feedback, be sure to respond to all the information you gather, both positive and negative. While you may not feel comfortable reviewing bad reviews at first, it will give you insight into what you need to do to improve your team’s performance.

3.    Work on Empathy

Today’s customers don’t just want good prices and great products. Experts increasingly emphasize that “empathy” is an indispensable part of good service. Your customers want to know that you understand their problems, their feelings, and their expectations. With this in mind, you need to learn to show more emotion in your service strategy.

A great way to improve your empathy is to incorporate tools into your service strategy. That will allow you to gather information about your customers’ feelings. Artificial intelligence tools and chatbots can even perform real-time sentiment analysis to help you.

4.    Track Team Performance

Collecting data to improve your customer service strategy isn’t just about gathering information from your CRM software. You also need a way to track key metrics and KPIs about your team’s performance. Depending on your team’s core competencies, you might track the following, for example:

• Customer satisfaction scores
• Negative response rate
• First contact resolution
• Reopening rate (for service tickets)
• Average resolution time
• Employee engagement

Discuss with your teams which metrics you’ll be tracking and give them the opportunity to track their own performance as well. This can help keep your employees motivated, especially if you add gamification elements into the mix.

5.    Set Goals for Everyone

Speaking of “gamification,” setting goals for your employees to achieve and rewarding them for doing so is a great way to keep all employees focused on keeping your customers happy. You should have specific “team goals” that everyone in a group can work towards, as this encourages collaboration and teamwork.

At the same time, it’s worth setting individual goals for your users. It might even be an option to let your employees set their own individual goals. You can ask your teams to set goals based on the KPIs they know they need to improve.

6.    Set Standards for Good Service

Need help keeping your team on track? Establish a quality assurance framework for your team members to follow. With a framework like this, you can make sure your employees know exactly what you expect of them when it comes to the type of service you want them to provide. You can even hand out checklists that your employees can keep track of.

Not only can you give your employees the right guidelines, but you can also help them meet your expectations through constant feedback. Regular feedback is important so that your team members don’t lose sight of what they need to do.

7.    Try Some Coaching

As customer experience requirements continue to evolve, it’s no wonder many customer service representatives struggle to keep up with the latest trends. One of the best ways to ensure they feel supported in their pursuit of service excellence is to implement a coaching strategy.

You can gather information from recorded conversations between your employees and customers to guide your coaching and provide actionable advice for improvement. There are even tools that allow management to intervene in the conversation and whisper advice to customer service representatives as needed while they’re in the middle of the conversation. This can help reduce the risk of customer turnover.

8.    Start Streamlining Processes

A more agile, optimized team can handle customer requests faster, deliver support faster, and engage your audience like never before. Think about what manual processes you can improve and automate with simple software. For example, you could use software to automate the creation of reports based on the information you collect from your teams every day.

You could also consider automation to route customers seeking service to the right person as quickly as possible. Automated routing systems that can assess who is available on your team or who is most likely to have the skills needed to solve a problem can save you a lot of time and effort.

9.    Make Sure You’re Multi-channel

To deliver world-class customer service in today’s complex landscape, you need to ensure you’re available to answer customer questions through any channel. Implementing an omnichannel contact center environment is a good first step here. You need to carefully analyze your target audience and figure out which channels they use first so you know which ones to implement.

Remember that one of the most important channels you can offer now for service is self-service. Allowing users to solve their problems themselves with automated troubleshooting and chatbots can save your customers time and empower your team.

10.    Use the Right Technology

To deliver excellent customer service in today’s ever-evolving ecosystem, you need to be ready to digitally transform a variety of processes in your workplace. You need access to everything from automation tools to contact center software that your employees can access from anywhere in the world. This second solution is becoming increasingly important in the age of hybrid work.

Make sure you’re accessing the right technology to not only support your team but also keep track of key customer experience strategies. For example, if you invest in a rewards program to motivate and inspire your team, you can use technology to track which of your team members are getting the best results.

Make a Meaningful Change to Customer Service

As expectations for service quality continue to evolve, companies must ensure they’re taking the right steps to impress the target audience. While there’s no magic formula for attracting loyal customers, the steps above will help you improve your service strategy by focusing on the things that matter most to your customers.

If you’re looking for help updating customer service performance, contact Bulb Tech today to learn how we can take your CX to the next level.