Effective Ways of Handling Online Inquiries
Customer support is a vital part of a company’s organizational structure. Without this support, customers’ inquiries will go unattended and angry customers will pile up. Potential leads might slip away just because a customer representative didn’t attend to his needs. An angry customer might rant on social media and damage the reputation of your company just because one of your agents wasn’t able to respond to the customer’s inquiry.
The presence of an effective customer support is required simply because they have to attend to the needs of any customer inquiries. In a website design company for instance, customers might inquire about the different website packages, about your selection of different website elements such as banner options, responsive design, or even an integration of a login registration, or they might want to know if contents are included in your website packages. Customers will always have a lot of questions about your products and services no matter how many times you’ve explained it to them. An efficient and effective customer support is necessary to attend to their needs.
Different situations call for different responses. While automated response can help increase productivity of employees and help lessen the time they spend on writing scripts and pitches, having a personalized response will go a long way. A customer will feel more appreciated and special when a company response to him with a customized, heartfelt reply as opposed to some heartless, callous response from a computer generated message.
Customer inquiries are just inquiries at the beginning. When you play your cards right, these customers may become one of your biggest clients. Learn from these useful tips of handling customer inquiries effectively and efficiently:
- Why Did They Inquire?
Customers inquire because they need to know something from you. By understanding what they need, you can have unlimited options to offer them. Carefully provide them the best solution to their problems. Don’t pitch any of your products and services right away. By bombarding them with too many options to choose from, you increase the chances of losing their interest. Try to understand what they are looking for, then choose the appropriate package you can give them. As a customer support, you want to build rapport with your customers. Having a long-term relationship with them will significantly help your business grow.
- Respond Quickly
Excellent customer support is not easy to find nowadays anymore. Most customer representatives themselves are impatient and are caught up with a lot of things. As a result, customers’ inquiries go unattended. When a customer sends an email online they expect a reply as quickly as possible. As a customer representative, it is your duty to respond to any inquiries they have 24/7. To impress customers even more, have the initiative to provide them answers they haven’t even begin to ask. By patiently listening to your customers, you get to understand what they really need and want.
- Provide Solution Right Away
Because most people are impatient, they resort to the quickest way possible of solving problems. It is easier to ask for someone else’s help than to rack your brains out figuring what to do. For instance, in a web design company, because of its technicality, people rely on their web developers’ assistance most of the time. Constantly asking to troubleshoot the site, they need assistance in navigating the site or how to upload images or even contents. As a customer support representative, you have to provide solutions to their problems right away. If some of the site’s features are not working, you have to coordinate quickly to the person responsible in developing the site. As much as possible, avoid keeping your customers waiting because providing a terrible customer support is the easiest way to lose a customer.
- Be Patient With Them
Remember, customers inquire because they need information. How you present that information to them will determine the flow of the conversation. Whether they are inquiring about your products and services or they need assistance, as a customer support representative, you have to be able to provide them answers that are easily comprehensible. Be thorough with them, explain the situation carefully, and most importantly, provide a step by step guide for them to easily follow. Often times you need to repeat your explanation to them. It is your duty to help them understand what you are saying. And to do this, you must have an in-depth knowledge of your products and services.
- Follow Up
A follow up is just as important as answering a customer inquiry. Going the extra mile will result in impressing your customers even more. By getting in touch with the progress of your customers, you create an atmosphere of reliability where they can feel that you are there to offer support and assistance anytime they need. You not only track your customers’ progress, you also allow them to send feedbacks that can ultimately help improve your products and services. Remember, you want to create a long-term relationship with them? By genuinely attending to their needs, you open a door of trust where each of your customers can feel safe every time a system breaks down, a website gets hacked, or something went wrong. As the name implies, customer support, you must provide support beyond your customers’ expectations. Have the initiative to go the extra mile when it comes to your customers’ ease and convenience.
As a customer representative, it is your job to provide all necessary information your customers need. It is imperative that you remain calm and keep your composure in check when handling difficult customers. Remember that these people are just looking for answers. And the best way to manage customer inquiries is through patience and calmness. By learning everything you can about your products and services, guaranteed you can provide all the assistance your customers need.
Do you have any other tips on better handling customer inquiries online? Or stories you can share with us regarding any incident you encounter with a customer? Share your thoughts and comments on the section below!