Review of typical mistakes customer support managers make

One of the most important things customers are looking for these days is not just a quality product, but also a great customer experience. People are tired of being pitched to by faceless corporate entities and are looking for brands which can connect with them on a more personal level. But, even if you have managed to sell your product or service, that doesn’t mean that you should stop providing a great experience for customers, especially when it comes to providing timely and accurate customer support.

This is where most business owners and customer service managers stumble, because even if they don’t forget about their customers’ needs, they still underestimate just how important customer support is, and rush through it. As a result, they end up losing customers which might have made several purchases in the future. If you have the thankless job of being a customer support manager, take a look at some of the most typical mistakes made by your colleagues in order not to repeat them.

1. Not Investing in Your Staff

As a manager, it is your responsibility to make sure that your employees have everything they need in order to do their job properly. We are not just talking about giving them a decent salary, but also investing in them in terms of training, as well as providing them with all the necessary tools for the job. Whether you are managing hundreds of employees, or only a small team of professionals for one of the top resume writing services, for example, you need to make sure they are all properly trained to handle all of the potential scenarios that might happen in your line of work. This means training them how to address the customers and provide the right information at the right time, while showing enthusiasm for solving the issue.

2. Failing to Make Good on Your Promises

Just about every business owner and customer service manager is guilty of this, at least at some point in their career. In fact, most managers set out with a genuine intention to provide the best possible customer service, one that is available nearly 24/7, highly efficient, and capable of handling customer requests in multiple languages. However, those promises are often made at the very beginning, when there is no shortage of enthusiasm, but out in the field, the situation is a lot more challenging. Of course you are not going to advertise that your customer service is just passable, but overpromising and under-delivering is even worse, as it will permanently alienate your customers.

3. Relying on Automation Way Too Much

Automating some of the customer service processes can help you save a great deal of money, which is important when you are just starting out, as well as time, but automating most of your customer service is the single worst thing you can do. As we have mentioned before, customers are looking for a more personal experience with brands and companies, and if you are making them solve their issues using an elaborate phone tree, they are going to be furious for a reason. Sure, some requests should be handled by an automated system, but you should still allow your customers to contact you personally and discuss their problems with a trained human being.

4. Adopting a Reactive instead of the Proactive Approach

Providing an amazing customer service should be one of your goals, but as laudable as it is, an even better goal would be to create a product or service that is so brilliant that the calls to your customer service department are not all that frequent. Of course, this is impossible to pull off in real life, but if you are trying to market a so-so product, rest assured that will come back to haunt you on the back end, meaning that will get a lot of calls from disgruntled customers. Take your time when developing your product, rely on data and analytics, and provide constant improvements. Also, you can require your employees to make a few calls a month to the customer in order to keep that connection alive and well.

5. Not Considering Your Customer’s Feelings

While that may sound pretty vague and abstract, in the end, it all comes down to how your customers feel. If they were able to order your product quickly and are satisfied with the quality, they will feel positive about the whole thing. And if you have managed to solve their problem when they have called your customer service department, well that’s just the icing on the cake. But, if they have called customer service and they had to jump through several hoops, or someone had been rude to them, it can ruin the entire experience which you have worked so hard to establish.

6. Not Following Up after the Customer Service Issue

Another ace up your sleeve you can use if you’re a customer service manager is following up with your customer after an issue has been resolved. Even if the issue has been solved successfully, following up creates an even more positive experience for the user, and allows you to circumvent some issues that might appear down the line. Also, there is a bit of psychology in it, since we all tend to remember what happened to us last. This gives you a chance to bolster your customer’s experience even further.

Conclusion

Now that you know the most common mistakes made by customer service managers, you can avoid them altogether and provide the best possible experience for your customers, and ultimately, build a better company that will be able to delight its buyers and adopt a proactive approach to doing business.

Author: Julie Petersen is a content writer and an editor. She writes her own blog AskPetersen where she shares her ideas about content writing.