Building great customer experience when it matters the most

We’re living in a changing world. Things we complained about a month ago – from too-busy eateries to crowded malls – seem almost like luxuries today.

Tightened social distancing measures are a necessary move to flatten the curve of virus spread, but they also undoubtedly pose challenges for businesses as they adjust to a new normal.

Amid cooling buyer sentiment, demand for most products and services has fallen, save for a few exclusions such as medical technology. When this happens, word of mouth becomes a business’s best friend, and this starts with great customer experience.

Businesses that hope to emerge on the other end of this tunnel in fighting-fit condition must be able to maintain and strengthen their relationships with their customers during this time.

For those looking to improve their approach to this, here are four tips from HubSpot to get things started.

Also Read: Customer service: is it still relevant in the age of automation?

Customer satisfaction

It may seem straightforward, but companies can forget to check with the most accurate indicators of customer experience – the customers themselves. Customer satisfaction is typically measured by asking your customers to complete a quick survey post-service, whether by clicking a thumbs up or thumbs down or answering a few questions about their experience.

This metric — which is arguably the most important — tells you how effective, helpful, and friendly your customer service team was and if your customer’s issue was fully resolved. It could also tell you whether or not they’d return with a question or concern, based on the questions you ask.

Look for positive responses, which means great customer experiences and a well-functioning customer service team. Negative responses can also help, too, as they tell you how you can improve.

Listen to what your customers are telling you. If your post-service survey doesn’t ask open-ended questions, consider following up with those who reported a negative (or thumbs down) experience and ask them for specific feedback.

Note: Many businesses include certain customer success and customer satisfaction metrics in their customer service and support scoring. These metrics may include their Net Promoter Score (NPS) or customer retention and churn rates.

All of these metrics are important for building the big picture of how customers interact with and experience your business.

Also Read: Ace the e-commerce game by mastering the art of customer experience

Average ticket count

Your average ticket count measures the average number of customer service or support tickets your team receives. You can measure these on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis … or all of the above.

While more tickets can be a confirmation that your customer service system is accessible and working, it can actually indicate customers are having frequent issues — and that your product or service may be falling short.

Look for fewer tickets, which means fewer problems for your customers.

Communicate your customer feedback to your product and marketing teams so they can understand what your customers may be dealing with or asking questions about. Depending on the number of tickets you receive, ensure you have enough representatives on your customer service team to handle the ticket volume.

It’s not just good practice, but also efficient and helpful to have commonly raised issues to address automatically, such as through a properly designed FAQ section on your website.

Average response time

Your average response time tracks how long it takes for your customer service team to respond to a conversation after opening a ticket. This metric tells you how quickly your customer service team is solving issues and getting back to customers.

Look for quick response times, which demonstrate to your customers that their issues are your priority, which can lead to positive customer satisfaction measures.

Image credit: HubSpot

Make sure your team is equipped to solve issues and answer questions. If they’re dependent on a manager or product specialist, it’ll likely take longer to get back to customers with answers and solutions.

Also Read: Ace the e-commerce game by mastering the art of customer experience

This can be frustrating for customers – HubSpot Research’s Consumer Customer Support Survey found that 90 per cent of consumers expect an immediate response from customer service representatives. Also make sure your team is handling and resolving the proper number of tickets at once — whether that’s one, five, or 10.

Overwhelmed customer service teams lead to poor customer experience and unhappy customers.

Average ticket resolution time

Your average ticket resolution time measures how long it takes your team to resolve each customer service or support ticket.

This metric tells you about the efficiency of your customer service team and, potentially, the complexity of issues from your customers.

Look for short resolution times, which means that your customers’ issues are being solved quickly — and more customers are walking away satisfied.

Also read: Looking at customer experience through the customer’s eyes

Take a look at the initial message your team sends to each customer. Make sure it asks thoughtful questions and encourages the customer to explain their problem in detail. Also, ensure your team is well-versed in your products or services so they can respond and resolve issues quickly without having to reach out to other teams for help — thus lengthening the process.

Create the best customer experience possible

The service and support we provide along with the product are often just as important as the product itself. In fact, it’s arguably a deciding factor in whether you’ll win in the market. Well-performing customer service departments lead to happy customers, and happy customers are your best marketers.

In a world of uncertainty, it’s more important than ever for consumers to know they can count on their favourite businesses. While COVID-19 forces us to put some physical distance between each other, let’s make sure we’re not disconnecting from our customers.

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