Customer expectations are not uniform, nor are customer experiences.
To build an ideal experience, you want to think about various characteristics, like social expectations, how they met your company, and which channel they choose to communicate with your company.
Whatever shape or size of the expectations, it is essential to think through your experience to manage expectations.
- What do your clients expect when engaging with your customer care process?
- What do your customers expect in regards to communication across all channels?
- Where do they engage with you, from face to face to online?
Create more opportunities for your clients, and safeguard your brand name from bad reviews. Think, when your client can anticipate excellent service and accommodating support, from returns and exchange to customer care hold times, there will be no surprises that will trigger them to leave your organization. They will likely tell their friends to enjoy your company’s services.
Here’s a complete guide to getting you started on the process of surpassing client expectations for your company, big or small.
What are the customer’s expectations?
The expression ‘client expectation’ describes any assumption your customers make related to your services, products, or brand name. They form an expectation from their experience, along with research related to your company or entity.
Did you know? According to Think with Google, over 53% of consumers research online before deciding to make a purchase or contact a company.
Also, don’t forget people ask their friends. 92% of consumers trust referrals from people they know. Not to mention, social media posts influence the purchase decisions of 83% of US online shoppers.
Expectations, first impressions, and well-designed customer experiences will improve your bottom line, brand name, and presence in the community.
How do you create great customer experiences to support expectations?
Consumers approach your brand and its product or services with prejudgments in mind. The predetermined expectation is that you will operate in a manner that advantages them, their way of life, their workplace, or a specific task — even if it is inconvenient or unkind to you and your team. How can you deliver? Here are a few thoughts:
Advertising and marketing.
Be Proactive! Listen to your customers and provide solutions. Most importantly, get your message in front of them with social ads, youtube ads, and google ads.
Live support.
Contact center services allow you to offer live helpdesk, order management, receptionist, HR, and on-call support 24-7-365. Always let your customers call you and get to an actual human!
Referral Programs.
Incentivize your customers and employees with a referral program. You can offer an Amazon gift card, cash bonus, or even a discount on services to promote great word-of-mouth.
Survey and Reviews.
Your consumers will be even more understanding and devoted to you in the future if you can anticipate their needs from their viewpoints. Routine surveys, check-ins, and review requests give you a sense of experience and expectations from their mouths.
Contact Center Reporting.
Partnering with a contact center gives you access to unique touchpoints in customer experiences. These details can include consumer wait times and hold times, client service channel activity, after-hours activity, real-time messaging, customer complaints, and more.
Understanding all of this, how do you start managing the expectations of your clients?
Check out these five pointers to assist you in surpassing expectations, and in doing so, eventually growing your business while eliminating customer-facing headaches, confusion, and disappointment.
Anticipate interaction on every channel, and don’t overcommit.
Consumers will be less likely to criticize you online or fight with your customer support experts if they know what to anticipate from your company: Your site, your social networks bios, your marketing, any documented messages on your item pages, and at checkout must be a consistent experience.
Never leave a customer waiting on hold or for customer support. Offer FAQs online, 800 numbers with 24/7/365 service, and routine check-ins.
Lastly, don’t over-commit. It is better to have one social channel that you are a master of than 100 social channels that you rarely check.
Pro-Tip: Hold times affect client expectations. Learn how automations can help!
Inspect your consumer’s journey by putting yourself in their shoes.
If you notice an increase in nasty social comments or complaints online, and you’re not sure why you need to try putting yourself in the client’s shoes to understand their experience with your brand. Frequently examining and monitoring the touchpoints of the customer journey can assist you in determining areas of improvement, handle expectations, and modify your messaging.
Put on your analytical hat and ask yourself:
- What is your client’s journey?
- Where can you improve?
- Where can we gather client feedback and evaluate it consistently, and what can we utilize to inform a much better position of our brand name?
Tell the truth: set reasonable expectations with sincere communication.
Among the most reputable methods to prevent unrealistic customer expectations is to offer genuine, upfront support —be sincere and thoughtful when possible. Leveraging consistent branding and messaging around how your item works and around hours, returns, and client service levels preempts common questions and safeguard your brand and time.
Also, please do not spam people. Be intentional about your communications. Your clients are likely very busy and only have a small window of time for your company. Respect people’s time!
Be reputable and consistent.
This may sound a bit repetitive, but we can’t impress the importance here. Respect your customer and their time. Regularly surveying and check-ins are a big part of a commitment to your customer. Then, taking the feedback and implementing it into your experience and products will take you to the next level. You’re motivating repeat customers and client commitment.
If you fail here, you will end up being misunderstood.
Make setting expectations a substantial part of your staff training.
You can utilize all of the newest tools and reliable support out there; however, if your personnel are not regularly fulfilling customer expectations, a lack of training will leave your customers with a negative experience.
Make sure all of your departments, teams, and supervisors are trained on:
- Your mission and core values.
- Customer and return/exchange protocols.
- How your product and services work, including setup, go live, and support.
- Shipping and Construction Expectations.
- How and Where to regularly receive support.
Summary.
Handling customer expectations is mainly about guaranteeing your team can fulfill the ideal service levels. And, you can utilize a contact center to support your customer experiences.
By partnering with an experienced contact center like Call Experts, we can improve your referrals, increase your bottom line, and enhance word-of-mouth for your company. Rely on our Experts so you can focus on your core business. We are real people who deliver real results, and we know that when you succeed, we succeed. Contact us now!
