How to add value to your customer service

In order to gain the trust and loyalty of customers, adding value is of utmost importance. Although businesses often talk about adding value, do they really understand what this means?

Adding value to customer service is a critical aspect for every business, as it can help them create a strong connection with their target audience. Once you’ve established a healthy relationship with your customer, you can acquire and retain even more customers, increase your brand awareness and outsmart your competitors. The question is, how do you offer greater value to your customers in the first place?

Personalisation

Every customer wants to feel special. They want brands to notice them, particularly if they’ve been a customer of their business for a long time. Today, customers expect a high-quality customer interaction that’s personalised and which goes beyond general marketing messages or mere problem-solving information.

A recent study suggested that 63% of consumers are interested in personalised brand experiences. They gravitate towards companies that offer meaningful and authentic conversations and brands they can interact with. Personalising your content can create a stronger bond with your customers; you can also use their data to send targeted messages at a later date, e.g. email campaigns.

Continuous support

Understanding your customers’ needs is the perfect way to add value to your customer service. Without a complete view of the customer, it’s difficult to determine the effectiveness or quality of your service. Offering customers multiple channels upon which they can voice their concerns can be highly effective. This will also help you analyse the overall customer experience you offer.

Special terms, offers and discounts

Special offers and discounts are always welcome. Such gifts and demonstrations of gratitude are good ways to develop relationships with your customers. Offering a loyalty card gives you yet another opportunity to capture customer data, which you can use to best effect. Offer something free on their birthday, free delivery, or an extra 10% in an out-of-season sale, for example. Assign a personal manager to their account to show they’re being looked after as loyal customers.

Think about it from a customer’s perspective

Though discount coupons are effective, not everything comes down to money. If a customer has a bad experience relating to your product or service, placating them with money could actually be insulting. If something does go wrong with your offering, acknowledge their complaint, offer a sincere apology and sound explanation, and ask them what they would like you to do to compensate for their poor experience. Most of the time, people only need to feel they’re being listened to when they have a complaint.

Encourage feedback, be prepared to adapt

Last but not least, encourage feedback from your customers. They can provide valuable insight into your product, services, the way you operate and how you treat your customers. Asking for feedback allows you to improvement any areas that may be lacking. This will not only encourage retention but also elevate the reputation of your business, which will, in turn, attract new customers.