The Aftermath of Providing Poor Customer Service

Every customer has experienced good and bad customer service. However, the latter sticks with them longer than the former, so it is imperative for businesses to deliver the best service possible. 

Customer service is an important part of any business—whether you’re selling products, services or anything else. As a business owner, you want customers to say good things about your service, and not talk about the poor aspects of your business. 

Word can spread quickly when customers are dissatisfied, so it's important to be aware of the risks of delivering subpar experiences. However, if you have failed in the past to deliver optimum customer service, fret not—all is not lost.

With the right acknowledgement and solutions, you can repair a broken relationship with a customer and overcome the risks faced after providing bad service. By putting in the hard work, you can successfully turn a bad customer experience into a positive one.

Let us look at some of the risks you can face by delivering poor customer service. 

Damaged reputation

Bad service will, naturally, result in bad reviews which in turn will create a negative image for your brand. While the odd mistake is always going to happen, consistently bad service can seriously damage your business’ reputation. All the years you spent building trust with customers can be tattered in a matter of days. 

One main reason for this is customer complaints are often public and open to scrutiny. In a study by Zendesk, 88% of respondents have been influenced by an online review when making a purchase. This showed that customers are influenced by online reviews in their buying decisions. 

We have all seen hashtags float against brands based on bad customer experiences. If not properly managed, these negative remarks can turn into a big disaster for the brand image. 

To counter the unregulated spread of comments over the Internet, agents should make it a point to apologise and resolve issues in the public eye. This will position your brand as one that cares about its customers and is willing to compensate in the case of a poor experience. 

If a complaint is particularly serious, a private response from the top management can go a long way in showing you are taking their concerns seriously.

Hosted phone systems make issue resolution easier. With all the data recorde, agents can go into customer files and look at past interactions to find out what went wrong. 

From here, you can offer solutions and schedule follow-ups if needed. By responding to negative feedback online, you display an openness to criticism and a desire to improve, shining a positive light on your image. 

Unsuccessful conversions 

Poor customer service, like failure to call back, providing incorrect information, long call waiting times and more, can kill leads in several ways. 

Lost leads have a knock-on effect across the business—wasted marketing budget, fewer conversions and more serious consequences from lack of sales. It is important to keep a close eye on conversions and be ready to step in should something go wrong.

When a customer encounters service issues in the early stages of the buying process, they might shun your business.  With little confidence in your service offerings before buying the product, they may anticipate difficulties post the purchase. 

Many customers have preconceived notions about service teams as being difficult to deal with. By providing poor service from day one, you are confirming their apprehensions, forcing them to seek other customer-orientated businesses to give their money to.

Having a large team is one step towards overcoming this risk. However, your staff must also be well trained and equipped with the right tools. Providing them with a hosted phone system that has auto-diallers is one way to enhance their productivity and reduce redundant workload. 

Additionally, by connecting your hosted phone system with your CRM system, you can give agents a pipeline of leads to contact. Each agent can then mark where that lead is in the buying process, allowing the next agent to pick up from where they left off. 

With all the information you need in one place, it is easy to convert leads into repeat customers.

Losing loyal customers

Poor service quality doesn’t just cost you, new customers, it affects your relationship with the existing ones too. 

If you don’t offer great support to loyal customers, they may think you used them as a cash-grab and left them in the dust. Having them think such thoughts is worse for your reputation than not winning new business!

If customers find it hard to get in touch with your support team, they will almost certainly choose a different company when they need to purchase again. After all, buyers are known to refuse to engage with a business based on a bad experience and it doesn't stop there.

Dissatisfied customers will also influence their friends and peers into not dealing with you. Without customer loyalty, you are bound to lose out on profits that repeat customers bring. 

To combat this, you can develop an inbound marketing strategy and keep existing customers engaged with your business. So, for instance, send them personalised emails about product updates based on their preferences saved in your hosted phone system. 

You can also offer deals and discounts, or schedule follow up calls to see if they need help with their purchase. All of these strategies are inexpensive and can yield fantastic results to create brand loyalty with your existing customers.

Make customer service run smoothly with a VoIP phone system

Customer service is tricky and your agents will go wrong at times. This is inevitable, but it is how you deal with mistakes that set you apart. 

If your business faces customer issues head-on and doesn’t shy away from them, you have the unique opportunity to turn a customer’s bad experience into a great one. 

By using your hosted phone system cleverly, you can leverage a range of tools to provide quality service. 

You can use the shared online portal to ensure that customer notes are up to date and their individual preferences are recorded correctly. You can also schedule calls right from your phone system to ensure no leads are missed.

Poor service brings along plenty of risks for your business, but there is always a chance to rectify these issues and turn the experience around. All this is possible with a dedicated team and the right technology.