Customer Service Excellence: Personalized Service is Key to Growth
Let’s face it: buyers are smarter than ever and more aware of their needs. Your competitors are also providing a higher level of service than ever before — not to mention, they are also actively growing.
What can you do to keep up with the service demand, win customers, and continue to grow?
Personalized service is key.
According to an executive survey by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services:
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9 in 10 say customers expect organizations to know their interests and anticipate their needs.
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8 in 10 say personalization is important to their organization’s strategy, and over half indicate these personalized tactics are driving revenue and profits.
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81% of respondents believe personalization will be an important driver in 2020s.
Delivering service excellence
It’s 2021. If you have a service business, it’s incredibly important to first deliver the highest level of service that acts as a foundation to the business.
In other words, deliver service excellence.
What does this mean? You first need to ensure your service meets the expectations of your customers (or better yet — exceed them).
For example, if you operate an HVAC business that installs heating and air conditioning for homes, the final result of your work should be — at a minimum — a home with proper heating and air conditioning that provides comfort at any given time.
That’s the base that all customers would expect from you.
The “excellence” comes in when you take into account the level of craftsmanship and detail on the installations, how you communicate throughout the whole process, and ensure the homeowners are set for the future.
HVAC is just an example. This applies to any field or industry, really.
In general, you should have the following covered:
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Amazing customer onboarding experience. Leave no stone unturned, no questions unanswered. Make sure your customers know exactly what they’ll be getting from you with as detailed specifics as possible.
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Zero friction. Whether it’s having no technical issues or on-point service times, make sure everything works like clockwork.
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Personalize, personalize, personalize. There are many ways to personalize the whole experience, but it first starts with how you see your customers.
Delivering personal service
Service businesses are about cultivating relationships as much as it is about delivering results for the clients.
Too often entrepreneurs find themselves entitled to business. This is ultimately a behavior sure to degrade the level of personalization and service they are providing.
One tactic you can try right now to go back to your roots is thanking your customers for the business. A simple thank you note goes a long way and will let your customers know that you truly do care.
You don’t even have to do this face-to-face. By utlizing SMS messaging, you can reach out to your customers with kind words wherever they are.
You can segment your customers into different types:
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All current customers
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New customers
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One-off customers with high-value services
From here, you can create a template for each segment and automate the delivery of the messages, too.
Delivering a personalized service first means caring about your customers and their needs. It means being grateful for the business and to be thankful for the responsibility of taking care of them.
With this mindset, you can then practice real strategies to improve customer satisfaction.
Business activities like gathering feedback become a value-discovery tool rather than a meaningless survey to boost your ego.
Delivering up-to-date service excellence
When you start caring about your customers, staying up to date becomes the norm. By staying in touch with your customers and market trends, you are ahead of the game.
1. Use the latest digital tools to deliver excellence
To continue with the example I used before, if you run an HVAC company, you should use a HVAC software to manage your operational needs. A single tool that helps estimations and quoting, scheduling work, team management, CRM and billing.
Why have clunky processes with archaic technology when one tool does all the work? Rid yourself of headaches and problems with industry-leading solutions like Jobber.
2. Stay informed
The same HBR shared at the beginning of this article also shared that 74% of survey respondents expect personalization to be boosting their organization’s revenue by 2020 — up from 44% from 2018.
Industries change and both businesses and customers mold new behaviors. It is entirely up to you to make informed decisions. Service business excellence means staying on top of and ahead of the competition.
3. Be nimble and react to market needs
Qminder filled a gap when COVID-19 lockdowns did not allow businesses to take care of on-site visitors. This digital queuing system allows to manage walk-ins while maintaining social distancing thanks to its touchless solution.
By providing up-to-date offers that meet the needs of today’s fast-changing world, Qminder instantly became one of the leading solutions for managing visits that maximize safety.
Similarly, by adapting to the market needs, you are more likely to thrive and acquire customers.
