12 Ways to Exceed Customer Expectations

It’s tough to meet customer expectations, let alone exceed them.

But it is possible. Here are 12 ideas to help you improve customer satisfaction.

1.    Understand why your customers call

The majority of customer service operations still do not measure the reason why customers call, at least not in an ongoing and analytical way.

This should be the first port of call in your journey to exceeding customer expectations. If you learn why your customers call, you can publish answers to FAQs on your website and help your customers to help themselves.

With thanks to Mats Rennstam at Bright 

2.    Pair customers up with the same agent every time they call

With CLI you can identify existing customers by their phone number when they call. Your CTI layer can then automatically pop the customer’s information on to the agent’s screen, cutting down the amount of time it takes to identity check.

In addition to this, you can give your customers a more consistent experience by pairing them up, as far as possible, with an agent they have spoken to before. You can also identify high-value customers and push them through to a dedicated team or to your more experienced agents.

With thanks to Carl Adkins, Infinity CCS

3.    Go the extra mile and send out birthday cards

For a truly exceptional service, go the extra mile and do something your customers won’t expect.

Send a birthday card, a Christmas gift, or a box of chocolates to celebrate their promotion. Even a coupon for their next shopping experience with you will help them feel rewarded.

The ripple effects of outstanding customer service extend beyond satisfaction and retention. It distinguishes your brand, builds repeat business and improves employee morale.

4.    Use guiding prompts rather than entire scripts

Make sure your agents sound human not robotic!

Try giving out guiding prompts rather than entire scripts to make your agents sound more knowledgeable, confident and engaging.

With thanks to Jonathan Gale, NewVoiceMedia

5.    Be proactive rather than reactive

Handling customer complaints proactively rather than reactively is a great way to exceed customer expectations.

Customers don’t want to spend their time chasing up complaints, which is why many decide to show their dissatisfaction by simply not doing business with you again. They may also choose to share their bad experiences with friends and family, resulting in a muddied reputation and potential loss of income.

Stand out from the crowd by contacting your customers before they’ve had the chance to make a complaint or, better still, before they’re even aware of a problem. A truly customer-centric approach to complaints will earn respect, trust and loyalty that will last long into the future.

With thanks to Laura Campos, Ultra Communications

6.    Focus your time on your customers’ real priorities

Always ensure you focus your time and resources on your customers’ actual priorities, rather than pandering to industry myths.

This will enable you to run a cost efficient operation and exceed your customers’ expectations.

With thanks to Mats Rennstam, Bright

7.    Personalise your customer interactions

Personalise each interaction using your customer database.

With analytics and background information at their fingertips, agents can be better equipped to deal with customers – anticipating possible issues, demonstrating knowledge of previous contacts and allowing them to recommend solutions then-and-there.

8.    Speed up your problem-solving service

Speed is of the essence. Ensuring that a customer’s problem is understood quickly and that they do not have to re-explain themselves will help to guarantee that the customer leaves feeling positive about their experience.

With thanks to Mark King, Senior Vice President Europe and Africa at Aspect

9.    Use accurate forecasting to meet customer demand

Long call-waiting times can be a major cause of customer service dissatisfaction. The use of accurate forecasting and workforce optimisation software can help you to balance customer demand with the number of agents.

By maintaining this balance, call-waiting times and abandoned call rates can be reduced and resolution times increased. The costs associated with under or over staffing, including loss of sales, can also be minimised.

10.     Look after your customers on hold

If you do have a queue situation, look after your customers on hold by using multiple comfort prompts such as ‘position in queue’ or ‘time to answer’ announcements. This will help to reassure your customers, as well as manage their expectations.

Allowing customers to remove themselves from a queue and instead receive a call when an agent is available can also improve your customers’ perception of your business, as well as reduce call waiting times.

With thanks to Richard Farrell, Chief Technical Officer, Netcall

11.     Create consistency across all channels

Enabling your agents to handle multiple types of transaction has numerous benefits for the overall customer experience. It means that if your customer has several problems which need dealing with in the course of one interaction they do not need to be transferred from department to department.

This is where intelligent workflow really comes into its own. It can take a long time to train even the most capable agent to handle multiple types of transaction and queries, especially if they are complex and require the use of different back-office systems. An intelligent workflow, run in the agent’s desktop, not only guides the agent through the process for each transaction type, but also acts as the agent’s only interface.

Whether your customers are contacting you by phone, email, chat or social media, they expect a consistently high level of service and a fast, knowledgeable response which solves their problem quickly.

With thanks to Carl Adkins, Infinity CCS

12.     Develop new products in line with customer needs

If a customer needs something you don’t provide, it’s worth considering whether it is something your other clients might use as well.

If a valid business case can be made (which in our experience is frequent), launching a new product, and informing the original customer about it, will not only make the customer feel that they are being looked after but also increase sales.

With thanks to Simon Beeching, Syntec

For more on the topic of understanding, managing and exceeding customer expectations, read our articles:

• How Are Customer Expectations Changing and What Does That Mean for Us?
• How to Manage and Exceed Customer Expectations – With Examples
• Top 10 Tips for Exceeding Customer Expectations