Effective businesses know that having great products and excellent marketing are just one half of the equation to becoming a successful brand, with the other half being your ability to provide good customer service and support.
The famous quote “It takes months to find a customer and seconds to lose one.” by Vince Lombardi perfectly encapsulates the impact of customer service on businesses. This is also backed up by statistics, with 61% of customers saying that they would switch to a different brand after a single bad experience.
Importance of Customer Service
This 2023, it is no longer enough for businesses to provide good quality products and services at competitive prices. This shift is due to the fact that buying a product is no longer just a transaction, it has evolved to become an experience. Which is why, customers have come to expect high quality customer service.
Customer service is vital because it is the direct connection between you and your customers. It is also important, because when done well, it has the ability to make as much positive impact on your business as a strong sales pitch or an excellent marketing strategy. If your business provides good customer service experiences, then your customers will associate that positive feeling with any of their interactions and transactions with your brand.
Benefits of Customer Service
Building stronger relationships between customers and businesses is the main goal of customer service. Healthy and long-term customer relationships made through good customer service can help companies become more productive and profitable. Companies large and small recognize its importance, with top-notch customer service providing a variety of benefits for businesses:
1. Increases Sales Conversion Rates
In today’s highly competitive business landscape, it is getting increasingly difficult for businesses to acquire and retain customers. Which is why, customer service is so important as it provides businesses with increased sales conversion rates.
A business that provides good customer service can expect a higher number of leads turning into sales. According to Glance, 78% of customers have cancelled their purchase because of poor customer experiences. As such, supplying good customer service will allow your business to avoid the loss of such a significant percentage of potential customers.
Customers prefer to do business with companies that can effectively handle calls and quickly respond to questions. They desire quick hold times, easy access to information, and different engagement opportunities. As such, if your business meets customers’ needs and preferences then they will choose you over your competitors.
2. Fosters Customer Loyalty
Excellent customer service would generate loyal customers by strengthening the relationship between the brand and the consumer. Promoting customer loyalty has many upsides for businesses. According to Salesforce Research, 91% of customers have expressed that a positive customer service experience increases the probability of them making more purchases.
Customers that are happy with the service they received are more likely to develop trust and loyalty to that business. Fostering loyalty in customers through good customer service would provide businesses with lucrative and rewarding long-term relationships.
Additionally, it would cost more for companies to acquire new customers than simply retaining existing ones. Which is why, good customer service is the foundation of any successful business. Companies can offer promotions and all sorts of other marketing tricks to bring in new customers, but without customer retention, the company would not be profitable for any extended period of time.
3. Promotes Word-of-Mouth Marketing.
Providing excellent customer service can create happy and satisfied customers, who are more likely to recommend the company to other people who could potentially become new customers. A positive word-of-mouth marketing campaign is one of the best types of publicity. This type of advertising can greatly improve your company’s profits and brand recognition, by spreading customer’s positive experiences with your brand to their friends and families.
In today’s digital age, customers can easily find online reviews or opinions about a product in social media, which influences their perception and willingness to buy that product. Which is why, customers providing positive word of mouth recommendations or online reviews can drastically improve the credibility of your business.
Word-of-mouth marketing is mutually beneficial to everyone involved. It serves as free advertisement for your business and it helps you attract new customers, while also making the customer feel good about recommending a high-quality experience and product to somebody they know.
4. Improves Brand Reputation
How your business treats your customers would also reflect on how they treat you. Your customers will remember and appreciate it if you create a respectful, informative, and helpful customer experience. This positive customer experience will promote a positive brand reputation that would greatly increase the customers’ opinion on your business.
Remaining consistent with product quality and providing good customer service can increase customer retention. Loyal customers will likely recommend your business to friends and family, leading to more customers, which leads to more positive customer service interactions. This would turn into a positive cycle of success that would greatly benefit your brand’s image and profitability.
5. Distinguishes you from your Competition.
In today’s highly competitive business landscape, consumers have a vast amount of choices for any product that they desire making it easy to switch brands. Which is why, a company’s customer service experience is the main differentiator between itself and its competitors.
If your business has a better customer service experience than your competitors, then that difference can set you apart in any market. This would give you a significant competitive edge, because customers are more likely to pick a company that provides high quality customer service over one that provides mediocre customer services, because a positive experience is one of the main factors that customers consider when making transactions. This is related to the things mentioned above about customer loyalty which in-turn results in brand trust that is vital for a company’s long-term success.
Customer loyalty and trust would mean that they would stay with your brand even if competitors offer lower prices. As such, it is vital to keep your customers satisfied so that they will keep coming back to your business instead of switching to your competition.
SSA Academy is here to assist you in enhancing your company’s customer service and ensure that you keep your customers loyal and happy. Browse our extensive list of customer service courses and find the right one the matches your exact needs and preferences!