Customers’ satisfaction with a brand no longer depends on the quality of its products or services but also on the attention they receive before, during and after making their purchases. Therefore, it is essential to implement customer service techniques that generate pleasant experiences and help make decisions.
Have you ever heard that customer experience is often almost as relevant as price in determining a purchase? Remember the last time you asked for information about something? What experience did you have? Did you get an answer quickly? Was it easy to ask for it? Did you get the answer you expected? If the situation went wrong, you were sure to have bad taste in your mouth, but if everything went well, you remember the moment with a smile.
The same goes for your consumers when they ask about the attention they received in your business. If you want to avoid running into lousy feedback that affects your performance, devise a plan as soon as possible and start implementing good customer service practices.
Importance of good customer service
Convincing anyone about the importance of good customer service is unnecessary. But it is worth emphasizing some points because the client is an asset.
- Quality customer service should be a goal for everyone involved in a company, from a greeting with empathy to follow-up by email or comments on social networks.
- Ensuring that you recognize the value of the “brand” from the first contact is essential. In this way, the client will evaluate the satisfaction produced by the interaction to accept the product or service that meets their need finally.
Today, providing excellent care is no longer an option.
It is a fundamental part of business strategy. It serves to achieve goals such as the following:
- Earn recommendations with other potential customers.
- Build customer loyalty and increase sales.
- Scale and position yourself in the market or a new niche.
- Gain preference among the target audience.
- And, of course, close more and better sales every day.
Three customer service techniques
Whether you have a physical or virtual business, take nothing for granted and improve how you communicate with people who visit your business. The customer support techniques like the HEARD technique that help you take control of this are:
1. FAB
For its acronym in English Features, Advantages and benefits, it is an ideal technique to give customer service during the sale. Here, the commercial team is responsible for relating a product’s or service’s benefits to consumers’ needs.
Whether people know what you sell, be evident that other brands sell something similar to what you offer or know absolutely nothing about your offer. Your salespeople can apply it to highlight its added value. Thus, whenever they approach, they will get a complete explanation.
2. HEARD
This technique helps follow up on customers who are angry or have a complaint because all they want is to feel heard and supported.
the HEARD technique an acronym consisting of:
- Hear: Pay attention to what the customer says.
- Empathize: Be understanding of the situation.
- Apologiesze: I sincerely apologize and acknowledge your failure.
- Resolve: Find a solution as soon as possible.
- Diagnose: Analyzes what caused the problem to avoid it in the future.
3. Interrogation
It is strategic to take advantage of certain types of questions because asking them makes it possible to obtain valuable information and cope with the situation successfully. The ones you can put into practice are:
- Closed: they are short and punctual to confirm with a “no” or “yes” what is asked.
- Open: they seek extensive and detailed information to understand the context well.
- Oriented: they serve to direct the conversation towards a particular goal.
- Clarification: they are concrete and valuable so that both parties (business and consumer) are aligned with what is being proposed.
- Approval: its purpose is to provide solutions, considering the situation.
