3 Customer Service Errors That Frustrate Customers — And What To Do About Them
There have always been consequences to delivering poor customer service, but at least in the old days the damage was limited to losing one customer and maybe any friends and family members they decided to tell about their poor experience.
In the modern age? The power of bad reviews means that poor customer service really can cause lasting damage to a brand. After all, customers will be less likely to buy from a brand if there’s a chance that they’ll regret the decision if something goes wrong.
Great customer service isn’t just about resolving issues. It’s about making the customer’s experience as smooth as possible from beginning to end. No one wants to spend their time talking to companies — and as such, companies should be mindful of adding additional burdens to the experience.
In this post, we’ll run through some common customer services that annoy customers, as well as offer some handy tips to avoid them.
Poorly Accessible Contact Information
The first thing a customer will do when they have an issue is look up how to get in touch with your company. Is that process simple for the customer, or challenging? All too often, companies bury their contact information in difficult-to-access sections of their website, which immediately gets things off to a poor start. You can’t stop customers from reaching out to you, so you may as well make it as easy as possible for them to do so.
On your website, have your ‘contact us’ button in an easily located section towards the top of your website. Not only will this make it easier for your customers, but it’ll also show them that you’re not trying to avoid hearing from them!
Slow Response Times
The ability to quickly ask a question is only half of the equation; to the customer, receiving a response to that question is what counts the most. While complex queries may take a little bit of time to resolve, more straightforward questions should be answered virtually immediately. Using an AI bot to answer questions via Telegram and Slack, putting together comprehensive FAQ sections on your website, and having enough live customer service agents can all ensure that the vast majority of questions are handled as quickly as possible. If, for whatever reason, you can’t resolve an issue straight away, then reach out to the customer with a message along the lines of “we’re on it.”
Lack of Ownership
Even the best-run companies make mistakes from time to time, and even if you haven’t made an obvious error, sometimes the customer will still feel aggrieved.
The simple act of taking ownership of the customer’s poor experience can go a long way toward keeping them on board. Admitting any mistakes you’ve made, offering a genuine apology, and all-around working to make sure that they’re happier when they hang up the phone than when they picked it up will leave them with a favorable view of your business — and just like that, you might just have retained a customer you’d have otherwise lost.
