Offer multi-channel support
The easier your customers can contact you, the higher your customer satisfaction levels. To offer multi-channel support, you need to be where your customers are.
Consumers use various channels and devices to make purchases. That’s why it’s worth having a presence to cover any channels your customers use. These channels include:
- Live chat support
- Social media support
- Email support
- Phone support
In short, what’s the one biggest benefit of multi-channel support? You can engage your customers over their preferred method of communication. So ensure that you offer top-quality support across all the channels. This lets you boost brand credibility as well as your customer satisfaction.
Also, 64% of customers expect to receive real-time help regardless of the customer service channel they use. This is why offering live support does help improve your customer satisfaction.
Don’t know how happy your customers are with the support you offer? Try sending them this free, ready-to-use survey to find out:
Free-to-Use Customer Service Evaluation Survey Template
Free plan available. 100 free survey responses included every month!
Make collecting feedback a company process
Who knows better what your customers want than the customers themselves?
Customer feedback is one of the most powerful resources your business can have. It’s a clear indicator of how pleased your customers are with your brand, services and products. Above all, customer feedback indicates what are your customer satisfaction levels.
It’s no surprise, then, those customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable than companies that don’t focus on customers. Here’s one simple recipe to become a customer-centric company:
- Collect customer feedback through surveys using different channels
- Turn that feedback into action
It’s simple. You collect customer feedback. You act on it. You improve the customer experience and increase customer satisfaction. Rinse and repeat.
Taking customer feedback into account shows you value customers’ opinions. Here are some free survey templates to get you started:
Free-to-Use Website Usability Survey Template
Free plan available. 100 free survey responses included every month!
Free-to-Use User Experience Survey Template
Free plan available. 100 free survey responses included every month!
With that out of the way, let’s discuss how else you can improve customer satisfaction.
Measure customer satisfaction regularly
The Bain study reveals that companies with a customer experience mindset drive revenue 4-8% higher than the rest of their industries. But how do you know your customer satisfaction scores?
The first step is measuring customer satisfaction. As a result, you can receive valuable insights into areas to improve. But also find out what works well.
So how to start measuring customer satisfaction? Here are the three most important customer experience metrics:
NPS (Net Promoter Score) – Ask how likely customers are to recommend you. Predict repurchases and referrals.
Free-to-Use NPS Survey Template
Free plan available. 100 free survey responses included every month!
CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) – See if customers are happy with your product or service.
Free-to-Use CSAT Survey Template
Free plan available. 100 free survey responses included every month!
CES (Customer Effort Score) – Measure the ease of doing business with your company.
Free-to-Use CES Survey Template
Free plan available. 100 free survey responses included every month!
By running these three surveys you can understand the drivers for improving customer satisfaction.
For example, imagine you know what your customers are complaining about. And you also know what they like about your product or services. Isn’t it then easier to keep them happy?
Suppose a customer mentions slow response times when giving a low CSAT score. Clearly, at this point you know you’ll need more people in your support team!
Ask for feedback across all touchpoints
It’s simple. Ask customers for feedback where they are most engaged. There are many survey distribution channels for you to choose from.
For example, if you’re looking to run CSAT surveys after closing a ticket, you can use email surveys.
So what happens when you collect customer feedback across all your channels? You can then improve the entire customer journey.
Here are all the survey channels you can use with Survicate:
And here are some surveys you can start running right now:
Free-to-Use Product Satisfaction Survey Template
Free plan available. 100 free survey responses included every month!
Free-to-Use Customer Feedback Survey Template
Free plan available. 100 free survey responses included every month!
Actively ask customers for feedback
Don’t wait for clients to leave you unsolicited feedback on social media. Instead, encourage customer feedback and ask for it proactively.
For instance, do you see a high bounce rate on one of your landing pages? Try running an exit-intent survey to find out why people are leaving your website:
Free-to-Use Exit Intent Survey Template
Free plan available. 100 free survey responses included every month!
Similarly, did a customer just buy from you? Ask what made them buy. And what you can do to increase their post-purchase customer satisfaction:
Free-to-Use Post Purchase Survey Template
Free plan available. 100 free survey responses included every month!
If you want to launch a new feature, it’s worth asking your customers what are their expectations. It’s a great way to make sure the new feature will meet their needs. This, in turn, allows you to boost customer satisfaction levels.
Share feedback across all your teams
Let’s face it, customer feedback is useless if it goes unheard. That’s why analyzing and responding to customer feedback should be a company-wide effort.
If a piece of feedback concerns mobile application bugs, it’s best addressed by the product team.
But what if a customer complains about your recent social media campaign? Then it’s your marketing team that needs to respond.
The more, the merrier. That is, the more people in your company collaborate on customer feedback, the higher your customer satisfaction.
Sometimes you even need to get the management involved.
For example, imagine a customer made a custom feature request. It turns your product roadmap upside down. To ship the new feature for the customer, you need the approval of your management. So the higher-ups in your company will read the feedback before they approve the feature.
In other words, you need to escalate each piece of feedback to the right team.
Also, you should foster a sense of customer-centricity in your company. And encourage every team to set some time aside each month to analyze customer feedback.
The ultimate reward is that all your teams will know exactly what your customers want. Your departments will then find it easier to sync their efforts.
But how to make sure that the right team knows about a piece of feedback that concerns them?
Let’s have a look at the Survicate and Slack integration. Here’s how customer feedback flows into Slack for the right team to see:
Reply to all feedback
Whether you get a positive or negative piece of feedback, it’s worth taking the time to respond to it.
If a customer is happy, you can capitalize on it. For example, by getting more positive reviews, case studies, or testimonials.
But why is this important? 88% of consumers trust user reviews as much as personal recommendations. So building social proof can encourage potential clients to buy from you.
Conversely, if a consumer is upset, you should try to find out what makes them unhappy. You can then improve your product or services and reduce the likelihood of churn.
What to do when you get new feedback? If it’s negative, make sure to apologize to the customer. In high-risk cases, you can even offer compensation. Here’s a sample response to negative customer feedback:
Hi [customer_name],
Thanks for taking the time to rate us and thanks for the honest feedback! We’re sorry to hear about [insert the reason the customer is unhappy here].
Please rest assured we’ve passed on your comments to the right team. They’ll be making improvements very soon. Your feedback will help us improve!
Is there anything we can do to make up for the bad experience you’ve had with us? Please let us know how we can help.
On the other hand, if the feedback is positive, try asking the customer a favor. Some people need a little encouragement to leave you a positive review.
Above all, the least you can do is thank the customer for taking the time to answer your survey. Because following up on customer feedback is a surefire way to increase customer satisfaction.
FURTHER READING: 7-Steps How to Respond to Negative Feedback [Real Examples]
Here are some more customer satisfaction tips about how to handle customer feedback:
- Customers appreciate it when you acknowledge you hear their voices
- When you turn feedback into action, it helps you drive loyalty in your existing customers. And it helps you keep them!
- Customer that have a positive experience with your brand can become your brand advocates
Replying to customer feedback can only boost your customer satisfaction levels. Think of it this way. If you devoted 10 minutes of your time to answer a survey, would you want the company to follow up with you or not?
Act on complaints and negative reviews
Did you know that complaints and negative reviews are a source of valuable feedback? When you analyze them, you know exactly what your customers want.
FURTHER READING: Importance & Benefits of Customer Complaints
So treat complaints and negative reviews as an opportunity. It’s a chance to build closer relationships with your customers. Here are some tips to help you:
- Always contact the customer directly after they’ve left you a negative review
- Try to fix their issue and update them on the progress
- Reply to negative reviews on review sites on one condition. Only when you’re sure it won’t trigger an even more emotional response from the customer and harm your business
- Keep track of the reviews your customers are leaving
- Let your customers know you’ve acknowledged and resolved their complaint
Those tips will help you improve your customer satisfaction levels. Why? More than two-thirds of users trust reviews more when they are a mix of negatives and positives.
As a result, negative reviews won’t kill your business if you respond to them well.