How to Provide Outstanding Customer Service in The COVID Age?

In a year of twists and turns, there’s nothing more important than caring for your customers and helping them feel safe so they keep coming back and the lights stay on. Thankfully, tough times bring opportunities as well, and the pandemic has given us new insight into customer service and how we show up for the people who keep our businesses going.

Customer Service is the New Marketing

The most successful companies are reorienting their customer experience efforts to meet their customer’s primary needs: • Safety • Security • Everyday convenience The more your customers feel safe and happy with their experience, the more likely they are to think highly of your brand, come back often, and provide those word of mouth referrals for new business. Here are the stats on a few trending service-channels to deliver those needs to your customers: Messaging platforms • WhatsApp use has increased 148% since late February • Texting is up 26% • Direct messaging on Facebook and Twitter is up 21% Self-service support • Self-service customer support is growing five-times faster than any other type of customer support (up 206%) No matter how you communicate with your customers, the idea is to demonstrate goodwill and build long-lasting emotional connections.

Six Emerging Trends in Customer Service for 2020

1. Coronavirus is setting higher expectations for customer service

Customer service may be on the verge of a historic improvement. Now that many businesses are offering limited services, quality customer service is even more critical—it can separate your small business from the rest. Experts say companies that figure out how to adapt, incorporate new technology and develop deeper human connections will come out on top. Top takeaways for your business: • Be a customer advocate: Work with and for your customers to build trust and loyalty. Help your employees, if you have them, to do the same. • Try out new technology applications to help customers online quickly and automatically. • Think about new customer needs and adjust how you meet them in person and online. • Keep human connection in the picture. At the end of the day, we all want a little connection with other people. Show your customers you care.

2. Showing empathy for your customers is crucial

More than anything, the customer experience is about emotion and this pandemic has created a lot of it. If you can tap into your customers’ emotions, you can craft high-quality customer service. The key is to shift your customer service mindset, by attempting to understand the other person’s perspective, their journey and most importantly, their feelings. Top takeaways for your business: • Beware of implicit and confirmation bias. Instead of automatically responding to customers, be open to their explanations and where they’re coming from. • Understand where your own beliefs are coming from so you can shift your lens when talking to customers. • Ask non-judgmental questions to show your customers that you care about how they're doing and what they need.

3. Agile and responsive customer experiences will win out

Customer experience leaders say that success means being “proactive rather than reactive." But the crisis has pushed a lot of us into “reactive mode” just to get by. To handle the new reality, try to adapt and move forward. Customer experience is “a long play, not a short-term response.” Top takeaways for your business: • Think through your decisions, instead of making knee-jerk calls due to coronavirus. Take thoughtful action based on what you know and customer feedback. • "Proactively monitor the pulse of your customers’ sentiments” and use them to find opportunities to make their lives easier and better. • The best customer experiences are intentionally designed based on your values, vision and authenticity.

4. Customer trust is even more important than customer satisfaction

While satisfaction changes quickly, trust is harder to influence because it involves a choice. But that also means it can also be recovered when it’s lost. Top takeaways for your business:

• Adjust your response to meet changing customer needs. For example, during Covid, many stores eased up on their return policies, recognizing that helping was more important than penalizing. • Decrease friction and stress. Just as many airlines allowed customers to cancel and change flights without fees due to coronavirus, you can decrease friction to increase trust. • Be transparent. Tell your customers that you understand their needs and are doing something new to meet them.

5. It's critical to keep up with changes in consumer behavior

There’s been a huge cultural shift since the start of the pandemic. The key is to shift with your consumers and embrace new ways of doing business. In total, there are ten emerging consumer trends. Here are the top four that can help your small business, depending on your industry: • Offer virtual experiences. Consumers are looking for ways to connect now that they can't attend in-person events. How can your business create virtual experiences for them? • Look into Shop streaming, which is all about creating online shopping experiences that combine shopping and chatting. • Make it easy for your customers to feel healthy and safe in your store. • Teach new skills. Consumers are embracing businesses that connect them with experts and mentors to help them learn something new.

6. Customer effort and customer anxiety are growing

Hold times for customer service lines have gone up as much as 34% and escalations have skyrocketed 68%, suggests the Harvard Business Review article. In other words, customers are anxious. So how do you decrease those feelings of anxiety and increase customer satisfaction? Top takeaways for your business • Update your policies to reduce customer frustration. Don't rely on your previous policies or hide behind them. Make changes to keep your customers less stressed in the world we live in now. • If you have a customer service team, take advantage of collaboration tools to help them learn from each other in real-time. • If you're on your own, make notes the next time you successfully handle customer issues so you can pull from those experiences in the future if needed.

Happy customers can help your business rebound

Great customer experiences create happy customers who want to spend money on your business. As long as you shift your service to match your customers' needs, you'll be in good shape.