Personal Service. A buzzword used so often – by support
agents, customers and marketers alike – that it’s lost meaning for many of
us.
Which is a darn shame,
because personal service, when done right, is incredibly powerful.
It can be the
difference between a customer forgetting about you the minute their transaction
is over, and that same person returning to become a loyal customer for life.
But there’s a
difference between saying that you deliver personal service
(as so many companies do), and actually doing it.
Today, I’m going to
share what personal service really is, why it’s so important
for your business, and actionable tips you and your team can use to start
making your support more personal.
The Value of Personal
Service
A few years ago, a
survey by Genesys asked
more than 9,000 consumers about what mattered to them most when it came to
doing business with companies.
What did the respondents
mark as the improvement they’d like to see most among the companies they do
business with?
40% of them –
more than double the responses that the second place answer received –
said “better human service”.
In fact, another
study found that 72% of customers are “very” or “extremely” likely to do
business with a company because of their reputation for strong customer
service. The benefits are
clear. Now let’s talk about the approach.
How To Make Your Customer
Service More Personal
Just by keeping this
question in the back of your mind, you’ll begin to subconsciously add personal
touches to every support interaction.
To get you started,
here are a few tips you can use to make your support more personal right away:
Use Names (Both Yours
and Your Customer’s)
When Dale Carnegie
said that “a person’s name is to that person, the sweetest, most important
sound in any language,” he may not have had access to the latest medical
research.
But as recent studies
have shown, he was spot on. As it turns out, our
names are so important to us that hearing them light up an
entirely different party of the brain than any other words.
Using your customer’s
name makes them like you more, and on the flip side, using your own name
makes the interaction feel more personal, too.
Who would you rather
get an email from, “Mike” or “The Support Team”?
Show Your Face
Want to make a deeper
connection with your customers when they read your emails? Help them put a face
to your name.
Using photos of faces
doesn’t just increase conversion rates on your site; it help to humanize your
business, build trust and
make your customers feel as though they’re dealing with real people.
And real is key here.
No cheesy stock photos of “business” people wearing headsets.
Try putting photos of
your team on your site’s about or customer support pages, or even in the emails
themselves.
Know Each Customer’s
History With Your Business
Last week, I had to
call DirecTV to fix an issue with my service. After I told the
support agent about my problem, she told me that she’d be happy to help. But
right before she put me on hold, she casually noted:
“…and by the way,
thank you so much for being a DirecTV customer since 2001. It
means a lot to me that we’ve had your business for so long.”
That small touch made the
interaction for me.
Simply by knowing a
tiny detail about me as a customer, the agent made me feel like she (and the
company) cared about my business, and made the interaction a lot more personal
than a simple support transaction.
You can do the same
thing
Personal Customer
Service Is Worth It
Don’t let the buzzword
status of “personal service” fool you; it really is an important, and valuable
concept that can help you increase retention and grow your business.
Delivering personal support
isn’t terribly hard, but it can pay off in a huge way.
