Imagine you’ve just bought a new automated time-tracking product and need help with the initial setup. You go to the company’s website, but the search feature is terrible. Instead of a single page with a handful of results, you must wade through 10 to 20 pages. When you find a promising page, it reads like the company expects everyone to be as knowledgeable about their product as their employees are. You look for other avenues of support but find there’s no user community. The automated chatbot accepts your question but says not to expect an answer before 48 hours. Finally, you’re put on hold for hours on end when you call the helpline.
When faced with this kind of frustration, it doesn’t take long for buyer’s remorse to set in. If you’d known what poor support you’d receive, you might have spent your money elsewhere. You might even be inclined to leave a bad review, deterring others from making the same purchase. This kind of experience is never good for the vendor’s brand.
A truly customer-centric organization puts as much focus on supporting existing clients as it does on acquiring new ones. Many businesses claim to focus on providing a great customer experience, but when you look closer, that’s not the case. High-growth companies often focus on sales and neglect support. That’s understandable: Without sales, there’s nobody to support! However, that model can come at a cost: customer attrition. In fact, 96% of customers will switch companies because of poor customer service.
While they may be few in numbers, vocal unhappy customers have a more significant impact than satisfied ones, and they will voice their displeasure more often than happy customers will sing a company’s praises. Without a proper support system, unhappy customers blame the company instead of the product for not meeting their needs. That can lead to fewer sales, to a poor reputation and even to fewer job applicants.
Spending more money to gain new customers only to lose them because of poor support is a recipe for disaster. In today’s inflationary economic environment, companies that want to survive must do whatever they can to keep customers. It’s more costly to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one. Furthermore, loyal customers spend more with a company and are more willing to forgive mistakes. Loyalty translates to one of the most important metrics for business success: customer lifetime value.
When discussing support, your first inclination may be to think about contact centers and customer service representatives. Yes, the contact center is an essential piece, but you need a customer-centric mentality to extend across every facet of the organization, from marketing your website to sales and order fulfillment, finance, product development and more. Every one of these affects the customer’s journey.
If everyone in the company is on the same page—doing what’s best for the customer—there’s less friction in the sales and implementation process. Agents will not cut corners to “save costs” nor end a support call early to “meet hourly quotas.” A customer-centric organization has a knowledgeable and well-trained staff so that anyone can ultimately help support existing and potential clients. Someone in your finance department might be unable to answer a technical question, but they should know where to send a customer to find answers quickly.
Providing superior support to your customers need not be complicated. Here are some ideas that can help you deliver a great experience.
Support lets companies show—not tell—their customers they love them, which can lead to a healthy bottom line, especially in tough times. The better you treat customers, the longer they will remain with you. Competitors who try to lure them away will have to work much harder to succeed. After all, your customers won’t want to risk working with a company that doesn’t meet the support standards you’ve set. They’ve experienced buyer’s remorse before, and they want no part of it anymore.
Support is the foundation of your company. Start there, and success should follow.