In today’s rapid business world, customers’ expectations are vital to treating them as individuals. The key differentiator in building loyalty is to provide personalized customer service. Creating more personal experiences for the customers despite focusing on the quality of interactions, initiatives build deeper engagement and maintain a long-lasting relationship by adopting standard marketing strategies.
What is the meaning of personalized customer service?
The modern world requires companies to use social media websites to communicate with customers or clients effectively and create a positive image of the organization.
Personalized customer service is when a company should analyze the likes and dislikes of the customers and keep a record of what they have purchased from them in the past.
Besides that, the company should be aware of the current trends in the market and make suggestions for the products the customers may be interested in. This makes the customer feel extra special as they get personalized customer service.
Best ways to deliver personalized customer service
Delivering personalized customer service should be a part of an organization’s culture. Identify and understand your customers better by means of questionnaires or surveys, interviews, focus groups, and social media.
Some of the best ways to deliver personalized customer service include:
Buidling a relationship by understanding the problems and responding with solutions
Gathering more knowledge regarding the challenges faced by the customers can be an easier task to provide relevant answers at multiple-touch points in a stipulated time. It enhances trust if you listen patiently to the customers and respond with proper solutions.
Being aware of the changing needs and making adjustments
Customers’ expectations are always high in terms of variety and flexibility. Companies must evolve their products and services to continue to meet the customers’ needs where the relationship with the customers can be made stronger than ever before.
Responding in a timely manner
Personalized customer service has to be a blend of proactive and reactive at the earliest possible time. Else there will be a risk in the business forever. Social media can assist in facilitating this by serving as a two-way communication platform for customers and brands.
Connecting with customers through all possible channels
Customers can interact with the companies through a variety of channels traditional voice channels (chat via phone), digital channels (website, social media), indirect channels (partners, dealers, etc) and self-service channels (FAQs, online forms). Keep yourself in customers’ place and cover all your bases to expand personalized customer service.
Anticipating customer needs and greeting them with a personalized experience
Provide sufficient information about what your customers are looking for to make them gain an overall satisfying purchase experience by carefully analyzing them and understanding their buying patterns and trends.
Tailoring the messages to individual customers
Make your customer special by reaching out to them with personalized messages. Give individual attention by taking your time to respond to keep each of the messages personalized to gain their attention.
Creating an interactive website for further assistance
Many companies are providing a self-service option to allow customers to help themselves on their website before contacting customer service. This alleviates the pressure on the customer service representatives and allows the customers to find the information they require without waiting for someone to revert.
Establishing a presence among the customers
It is recommended to establish a unique page where your customers will be looking for product information and updates. This ultimately increases the likelihood of them making a purchase from you in the future.
Importance of personalized customer service
It is more important for companies to value their customers because today’s customers are informed and they are cautious of what they want before they step into the store or log onto the retailer’s online website.
- Personalizing customer service with the apt information at the right time can increase conversions by more than 80%.
- It builds a trust factor between the company and the customers to strengthen a lifelong relationship where customers can share positive referrals about your products with their family members and friends.
- Moreover, it increases the customers’ lifetime value and reduces churn rates simultaneously.
CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) is the estimation generated from a customer relationship by means of long-term profit
The churn rate is the percentage of customers who never extend their relationship with the company by discontinuing it within a given period of time.
Both of these calculations are considered as important metrics to measure as they indicate how a company has been successful by retaining customers.