You hear it everywhere: Good customer service is the heart of any successful business. But what does “good” really mean anyway? And, perhaps even more importantly, how do you provide authentically good customer service without breaking the bank?
Well, what you probably don’t need to do is invest in enterprise-level tools like CRM platforms, help desk ticketing software, or feedback and customer experience tracking. That’s going a bit overboard for most small businesses. Instead, small businesses should seek out easily actionable advice that they can use today.
That is exactly what this short guide provides: simple, free, or low-cost ways to improve customer experience. Implementing a few of the small changes below today can lead to significant improvements in customer experience over time.
This matters more than ever, as 90 percent of businesses, regardless of the vertical they operate in, say customer experience (CX) is now their primary focus.
What can improve customer experience?
Sure, you want to give customers a great experience, but you don’t know where to start? Just think about the last time you had to deal with an inattentive customer representative. Not fun, right? In fact, 49 percent of customers who left a brand they were loyal to in the past 12 months say it was due to poor customer experience. Even the smallest issues or misunderstandings can lead to huge frustration. So, how do you stop your customers from feeling the same way?
Start by identifying the six core aspects of how to improve customer service:
- Simplicity: The sales process should be as intuitive as possible. The fewer stumbling blocks customers have between buying your products or booking your services, the better.
- Speed: Be quick about it. Having to make a customer wait for anything, from answering a call to receiving an order, negatively affects the experience.
- Clarity: Be transparent and accurate when dealing with a customer. No one wants to have to search for information or to find out that the information provided was incomplete.
- Consistency: It should not matter who a customer speaks with at your company. Everyone needs to act professionally and be on the same page.
- Responsiveness: Ignore customers at your own peril. Always acknowledge and respond quickly to questions, problems, and concerns.
- Personalization: Recognize your customers. Even the smallest personalization you can offer your customers will significantly improve their perception of your business.
Now, the question becomes: how do you turn these six core aspects of successful customer service into practical steps you can implement?
8 practical ways to improve customer experience
Enhancing your customers’ experience doesn’t need to be difficult or expensive. In fact, keeping things simple is the key. These eight methods offer simple ideas to improve customer experience almost immediately, at little or no cost.
1. Simplify your buying process
Stop throwing up barriers to potential customers giving you their money.
Remove unnecessary steps
No one wants to spend five minutes trying to pay. By eliminating multiple checkout pages and redundant form fields from your website, you can streamline your ordering system, making it a quicker and friendlier process for your customers.
Make pricing clear
Forcing a potential customer to scroll through a long sales pitch, or worse, requiring them to provide contact information just to find out the cost, is going to put off a lot of people. Always state the real prices, shipping fees, and your return policy prominently.
2. Improve response time across all channels
Keep your customers in the loop, and never force them to ask for an update.
Set response expectations
No one likes to feel ignored. Clearly state your support hours and let customers know how quickly you usually respond to inquiries. Send an automated email response to inform customers that you received their inquiry.
Reduce backlog
Nothing is more frustrating for a customer than having to explain the same problem to more than one person. Using a structured ticket system and assigning a single person to each ticket ensures consistent service and timely responses.
3. Enhance communication clarity
Make sure your customers understand you.
Use simple language
You may think that using the latest industry jargon makes you sound like an insider, but if the person you’re speaking to doesn’t understand it, you risk making the customer feel dumb or angry. Instead, use common language and clear instructions to ensure you connect with your customers.
Proactively update customers
Many problems can be avoided simply by being proactive about changes. For example, if you are starting an ecommerce business, providing customers with shipping updates and notifying them of service changes promptly may seem like small things, but they help build trust and loyalty in your brand.
4. Personalize interactions in small ways
Everyone wants to be appreciated.
Reference past interactions
Personalizing your interactions with customers by using simple gestures makes them feel special. Whether it is asking about a previously purchased item or inquiring whether a previously provided solution worked, showing that you remember and value them builds brand loyalty.
Segment communication
When customers receive frequent irrelevant offers from a business, it’s a lot easier for them to ignore all of them. Be selective with your advertising and focus on meaningful offers, newsletters and targeted follow-ups that directly address the customer’s needs.
5. Strengthen the post-purchase experience
Customer loyalty and retention begin after the sale.
Send confirmation and onboarding messages
Don’t abandon your customers right after they hand over their money. It’s easy and effective to send a brief, personalized thank-you message that includes streamlined usage instructions and an invitation to contact you if the customer needs any further assistance. This approach costs almost nothing, but gives customers confidence that they made a smart decision going with your company.
Make returns easy
There are many reasons customers may want to return an item. It’s a bad move to punish them with a complex process or a confusing return policy. There is a chance that handling a return well now may lead to a further completed sale in the future. But if a customer has a horrible return experience, they probably will never shop with you again.
6. Collect and act on customer feedback
Listen to your customers.
Ask for feedback consistently
A gentle reminder to complete a survey or ask for a customer review can benefit both you and your customers. Feedback provides useful information on how you can improve, and a good review is great for marketing and market research efforts. At the same time, customers love being asked for their opinions, as long as you respond responsibly and properly handle customer complaints.
Look for patterns
Don’t brush off the complaints. Even if you don’t agree, receiving the same negative feedback from several customers is a huge red flag, as it suggests that something isn’t working. Identifying recurring negative feedback and addressing it will make your customers much happier.
7. Align your team around customer experience
Proper preparation and practice are essential for great customer service.
Train for tone and empathy
Customers often remember how they were treated longer than how their questions were answered. Create scripts and phrases that customer service representatives can use to communicate respectfully with customers and take clear ownership of any issues.
Create clear internal processes
When it comes to customer service, none of your employees should ever wonder, what do I do now? Define customer care responsibilities for your employees and create an escalation path that guides them on when and how to hand the customer off to another employee.
8. Audit and improve your digital experience
Your website is often the first, and sometimes the only, contact that customers have with your company.
Improve website performance
Most of your customers will interact with your company online. That means a fast, easily navigated, and frequently updated brand website is essential. Run regular checks on your site to ensure it is accessible across a variety of devices.
Remove friction points
While a slow site is frustrating, one with broken links, outdated information, or difficult-to-locate contact information will kill more sales. Scheduling regular website reviews should be part of your company’s maintenance policy.
Measuring customer experience improvement
Making changes to customer service is the easy part. Determining if those changes are working, well, that’s a little tougher. But to ensure you are heading in the right direction, you must have an objective way to measure the results of your changes.
Many businesses start by tracking the following:
- Retention rate: The percentage of customers who continue to shop with you over a specific timeframe.
- Repeat purchase rate: The frequency that current customers buy additional products or services from you within a specific timeframe
- Customer churn: The percentage of current customers who stop purchasing from you over a specific timeframe.
- Online review ratings: Looking at reviews on sites like Yelp, Google Business Profiles, and Trustpilot can reveal trends in customer satisfaction.
- Resolution time: The average length of time and the completion rate for customer complaints and inquiries.
For the most accurate and useful comparison, you need to track the above metrics both before and after you implement the changes. Doing so allows you to measure customer experience improvements over time.
Enhancing customer experience through operational discipline
Improving the customer experience is not only about how you directly interact with your customers, but also about creating a culture of consistency. Defining and adhering to systems ensures every customer receives the same high level of service, no matter who they deal with at your company.
Some processes and standards you should concentrate on include:
- Organized billing: A set billing schedule and clear payment instructions will help to reduce customer confusion and avoid future issues.
- Clear policies: Plainly spell out policies for product returns, subscription cancellations, and deliverables to set clear expectations for customers.
- Consistent branding: Consistent, professional branding across all customer-facing communications builds trust.
- Structured workflows: A well-written employee handbook with defined procedures and processes ensures reliable, timely customer service.
Although tools will never replace putting great systems in place, platforms like Tailor Brands can help with all your needs to start your business and help it grow.
Conclusion
Remember, improving the customer experience is an ongoing process. Start with small, easily implemented changes, measure the results, and then move on with bigger changes. When you focus on simplicity, speed, clarity, and consistency in all your interactions, you build trust that turns people into buyers, and buyers into repeat customers.