Did you know that there are almost 4.4 billion people on the internet today?
That’s more than half the world’s population. And that number will keep growing every year. This means that there will be more and more people interacting with businesses around the world through the internet.
The internet is the core of the digital age. It is the major source of all the data that gives this age its name – the information age.
And thanks to advancement in technology, mobile digital devices have made it possible for us to have quick access to a large cache of information.
For businesses, this transformation has changed the customer service landscape forever. The digital age has given consumers more power than they used to have due to the amount of information they have access to.
Keeping customers happy has become a digital game and many businesses have had to adjust to this trend.
In this article, I have outline 3 factors to help you adapt to the digital age customer service.
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Keep Your Customers Informed
Well, this is the information age and so this factor should not sound farfetched. Customers around the world have access to large amount of information daily. But it’s usually not enough. They cannot gather information about your company unless you give it to them.
How do smart businesses do this?
They do this by anticipating the sort of information their customers would need to stay engaged and provide it. Smart businesses also create and organize the information so that it is easy for customers to access and consume them.
Here are a few strategies they use:
Think FAQS
Customers love to be able to explore your platform and find information by themselves instead of being held by the hands. Research has shown that 40% of customer would rather serve themselves than interact with another human being. Therefore, it’s important that you include an FAQ section on your website.
Provide Shipping and Delivery Information
If you sell online, be sure to provide information about your customers’ delivery promptly. When a customer makes an online purchase, let them know where their item is and at what exact time it will arrive on their doorstep.
If the delivery will take over a day, ensure you update them through text or emails. This keeps them at ease and helps them plan around the delivery time.
Let Them Know What’s Going on in Your Business
Your customers feel like they belong somewhere when you let them in on what’s going on in your business. Coming out with a new product? Let them know. Just hired a new staff? Show him or her to them. Just opened a new location? Share it on your social media page for them to see.
I’m sure you get the picture.
You can do this through email, text, social media, or YouTube.
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Employ Customer Relationship Management Tools
In this age of digital customer service, customer relationship management (CRM) platforms have become indispensable tools in business. Knowing how important customers are to your business, managing your relationship with them using a CRM is the smart thing to do.
CRM softwares make it easy to sustain and grow your relationship with your customers. They collect, organize, and store data such as emails, phone calls, purchase history, demographics, and contact details.
In turn, you can use this data to create a more customized service for your customers. Personalized messages are powered by ample customer data and get more engagement than generalized messages.
Therefore, ensure that all your marketing efforts are executed using a robust CRM platform. This not only make your marketing more efficient but also more profitable.
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Take Advantage Of Chatbots
Unless you have got a team of email support who wait day and night at the other end of your support email, you need to look into chatbots.
And do you know why?
Because today’s customers are quite impatient. They don’t want to wait for 2 days to get an email response to a query. They need the answer and they need it yesterday.
Chatbots help your customers save time by providing answers to queries immediately. They also help you save money on hiring a large team of support staff. Chatbots are designed to mimic human conversational tone and so your customers won’t feel weird “conversing” with them.
As technology advances, chatbots would be able to provide more technical answers to customer queries. And hopefully, completely eliminate the need for a support email.
In the end…
Customer service plays a really crucial role in the success or failure of any brand. And in this digital age, customer service has taken a different turn. Whether you succeed or not is hinged on your ability to adapt to this ever changing digital landscape.
Use these three factors to keep your business relevant to the modern customer. Provide up-to-date information, employ customer relationship management tools, and use chatbots to respond to customers queries. Your customers will thank you for it with loyalty and purchases.
Before you go…
Do you know Wi-Fi marketing and analytics tools can help you create more valuable customer relationships?
You can integrate Wi-Fi marketing tools with your guest Wi-Fi and use it to gather customer data. This data is organized and stored in a system that is easily accessible to you anywhere.
Our product has a robust dashboard that presents your stored data in formats that are easy to interpret and work with. Using the data you can understand customer behaviour, create customer segments, and send personalized messages.
That’s enough to improve your engagement and drive sales up.
Want to know more? Contact us now.
POSTED ON December 4, 2019Share:
