Customer is King or Queen as the old adage says, hence it is important for service providers to actually make their customers feel like royals. The best way to do this is to transform your customer service department in such a way that your customers can relate to it. In other words you should personalize your customer service with the use of high end technology.
Table of Contents
Overview of the 10 easy ways to provide personalized customer service
More and more companies are using artificial intelligence in order to provide the customers a better and more personalized experience. Let us look at some methods by which you can provide personalized service to your customers.
Know your customer
The first thing that you need to do is to know your customers, and it is a good practice to learn about their special days and send them a personalized email or even wish them during the holidays.
Gathering information – This can be done by sending customer service messages with the help of automated systems. In the year 2022 the percentage of companies doing this was 2%, but it is expected to rise to 30% by 2025 (according to Brian Burke, VP of research in Gartner).
Creating customer profiles – As mentioned you need to collect important information about your customers. And this information is not just about their anniversaries or birthdays, but also their professional details. The AI powered systems of today can be taught with the help of machine learning to collect information about the customer and create a profile on them.
Using customer information to tailored interactions – Customer information can be used to send tailored text messages or emails, seeing such personalized interaction the customers are bound to feel special and that is what customer support today is all about.
Use customized greetings
Gone are the days when companies used to send generic messages on special days. Instead, now AI powered automated systems include some important detail about the customer. For instance, if you know that the customer has been promoted at work, then you can also include a word of congrats.
Personalized greeting messages – Have you collected information about the new pet that your customer has adopted? If yes then you can add a word of appreciation for the customer’s love for animals.
Using customer name in communication – This is the most important step in personalizing your customer support messages or mails sent to your customer. Being addressed by their name will make the customer feel that you actually know who you are and you can relate the complaint or query to them. The best part is that you can use a automated system to do this.
Example of personalized greeting – Let us suppose that the customer has just had a baby and you are an insurance company. The message can go like this – “Hello Mr. Smith, congratulations on the lovely new addition to your family. We take this opportunity to introduce you to the special educational insurance plan that will help you to educate little Michael to go a long way and get higher education in one of the best universities.”
Personalize communication
According to a study conducted by McKinsey at present only 40% of personalized messages feel personal. This is why machine learning is being used to make the automated systems more sensitive to the mental requirements of the customers.
Using customers’ preferred communication method – as mentioned you should consult with the customer, how they should be connected with. If the customer does not like receiving phone calls then you should ask whether you can leave a voice mail for them. Or send a text message or email according to their preference.
Tailoring messages according to customer’s history and preferences – According to another study conducted by McKinsey, it has been observed that at least in the USA, 66% customers show appreciation when they receive well-tailored personalized messages. These messages can be tailored with their specific personal and professional information.
Examples of personalized communication – A mobile network carrier company can send a message or call the customer who has just got a promotion. “Hello Mr. Jonathan, congratulations on your promotion, and we take this opportunity to present you an affordable plan which gives you 4GB data per month along with un limited calling. You have been our customer for the last 4 years and this offer is in appreciation for your consistent support”.
Providing proactive support
It has become necessary for companies to be proactive in their activities. You should be able to provide the customer what they require before they tell you what it is.
Anticipating customer’s needs – A good method of customer support is not just about resolving the customer’s problems when they complain. Instead you should be able to anticipate what problem that they are likely to face.
Offering solutions before customers ask – With the customer’s data and their relation with your company, you should be able to provide a solution to their problem even before they ask you.
Examples of proactive support – If you are a telecom company and revamping your systems, which may cause disruption of services. Then you should ideally conduct this kind of revamping during lax hours. At the same time provide this information to the customer beforehand and also suggest to them to wrap up their communication for 30 minutes (ideally the shortest time possible).
Show empathy
When a customer is facing a problem due to some mistake on your part or otherwise, the least that a customer will expect is empathy from you.
Understanding customer’s perspective – What appears a small problem to you may be a major disaster for the customer. For instance, a customer is in the middle of a trans-national conference call and you are the carrier, who suddenly faces an outage. It can destroy the customer’s chance of bagging a deal.
Showing genuine concern for the customer’s issues – Sometimes when a customer is facing a problem it becomes necessary for them to talk to a human instead of a machine. Hence you should educate your AI powered system to put such distress calls through to a human agent who will be able to express genuine concern for the problem faced by the customer and try to resolve the problem by communicating with the concerned people who will be able to help the customer.
Examples of empathetic interactions – suppose you are a mobile network carrier and there is a situation as we discussed above. In this situation you may not be able to do anything immediately, but the least you can do is provide an ear to the complaint of the customer. If possible you should also try to compensate in some way if the situation permits.
Follow up
This is most important if the customer had complained to you and you provided a solution. Once you have done your bit, you should communicate your appreciation for their patience and ensure that they are satisfied with the services provided by you.
Checking with the customer after an interaction – It is advisable to connect with the customer with their preferred mode of communication, whether they are satisfied with the solution that you provided. Even if you have resolved their problem a customer will feel appreciated when they receive a follow up message from you.
Following up on unresolved issues – If the issue that the customer conveyed has not been resolved for whatever reason, you need to ensure that you remain in touch with the customer in order to show them your empathy for the problem they are facing. If possible you should compensate for the delay in resolving their problem.
Examples of effective follow-up technique – Customer support is not just about resolving the customer’s first question and moving on. Instead you should. You need to ensure that the customer is genuinely happy with the solution. For instance, you own a restaurant and you have just served food to a guest. Once the guest has had the time to gauge the food and see if there are any problems with it, your waiter or maître de should proactively follow up and ask the guest if everything is alright.
Give recognition
This will win you more loyal customers than many other customer support techniques.
Acknowledge customer loyalty – If your service or product has been a good experience for a customer, and they want to do more business with you, then you should definitely thank the customer for their loyalty. The customer will be happy with the fact that you provided them recognition.
Providing rewards and incentives – Providing rewards is one of the best way to win customer appreciation and loyalty. However, you should make sure that you are providing the right type of rewards which suit the customer’s lifestyle and preferences. The best incentive is to provide free services for a limited period or a gift which they will be able to use and appreciate.
Examples of ways to give recognition – There are many ways to extend your recognition of your customer. One of these is to provide them with a personalized mail or some other method of communication which proves to them that you care about the business that they give you.
Use Technology
In the last couple of decades technology has advanced in an unbelievable way. Things that were earlier the parts of Sci-Fi movies have become reality today. Artificial intelligence is one such technology and most companies are using this technology to enhance customer experience.
Utilizing conversational AI chatbots and customer relationship management software – All of us have come across chatbots on many company websites. These chatbots are empowered with machine learning which ensures that they don’t just pull out information from a supplied data base, but also create a data base of their own. When combined with a good CRM software, good chatbots work wonders to provide the customers with a personalized interaction. Of course, the customers usually realize that they are talking to a machine, but the chatbots can be designed to be interesting and knowledgeable about the customer’s tastes and preferences.
Use automation to personalize interactions – Apart from using AI powered chatbots, you can also use small things like customer facing calendars to book appointments, use the social media to provide the customers a social listening and brand monitoring platforms. This latter activity can also be automated with the help of machine learning empowered software and other technology.
Examples of technology to that can be used for personalization – If you really want to give your customers a personalized message to thank them and show your appreciation, then it is a good idea to use modern technology. These include automated email and SMS messages along with automated IVR run phone calls, unless the customer has specified that they don’t want phone calls. Ask the customer about the best way to contact them and use this information along with modern technology like AI powered chatbots which simulate human conversation. There are other technologies that use AI to provide the best experience to your customer.
Continuously improve
When asked which was his best film yet a famous film director said that ‘his best is yet to come’. This simply means that there is no limit to improvement and this is especially true in the competition driven market of today.
Measuring the effectiveness of personalized customer service – One of the most accurate method to measure the effectiveness of the customer service you are providing your customers is the increase in the value of the next orders that they place. if you are a retailer with an ecommerce website then another way to know if your personalization campaign has succeeded is to measure the conversion rate, which means that how many visitors actually place orders. It is also necessary to conduct a sentiment analysis if you wish to understand the psyche of your customer and this will not just help you gauge the satisfaction that the customers have with your product or service and how to improve your communication with them.
Gathering feedback from customers – One of the standard method of doing this is that the chatbot or the human agent should ask the customer how they liked your services if the customer has himself contacted you. This will give you an honest opinion and if your target audience is not in a position to get into a discussion with you then it is a good idea to send then a link to a feedback form. If you are operating from an app then you can include a short feedback page or simply ask them how much they rate you on a scale of 1 to 5. Such information will help you improve as you grow.
Making changes and improvements based on customer feedback – Simply taking the opinion of the customers is not useful unless you take actions to improve on your product or services. Hence, you should keep a record of the customer feedback and then improve on the areas which are getting the maximum negative feedback.
Conclusion
Where on one hand competition is rife in the market in practically every business, but there are also the means with which you can defeat your competition easily. Taking the help of modern technologies that we have discussed will help you to get more customers and will also turn the existing ones into loyal customers and brand ambassadors who will spread positive information about you in the market. This in turn will get you more customers. Hence adopting modern technology like AI powered chatbots, feedback systems and others that we have already discussed.