Here’s How Attentiveness in Customer Service Can Save Your Business.

Customer service is an integral part of every single business that exists. Businesses that plan to survive no longer build their customer service teams to consist of people who simply need jobs. Instead, they hire trained professionals who possess great communication skills, emotional intelligence, empathy, and very importantly, attentiveness. Remember, your customers are the real reason you are still in business, so why not pay rapt attention to them and make them happy? Being attentive is the quality of making eye contact, listening to what the customer has to say, following the conversation till the end, and responding appropriately at every point. Attentiveness in customer service goes beyond talking to customers and easing their pains. It is also about you making sure that they do not encounter such issues in the future.

Attentiveness in Customer Service Helps in:

Determining A Customer’s Emotional State

It goes beyond hearing customers rant over the phone about how unsatisfied they are. You can only successfully perceive your customer’s mood/emotional state when you attentively attend to them. During the conversation, you will be able to decipher what is said and unsaid. Most importantly, you won’t treat a frustrated customer the same way you’ll handle an unsatisfied one. A customer service personnel can respond by saying something like, “I understand that you are currently displeased with the issues you are experiencing and we apologise….”.

Listen Actively

Actively listening to customers is another way attentiveness in customer service is saving all types of businesses. This communication technique involves you listening to another party without interrupting or trying to justify your brand’s actions. It is processing all you have heard, interpreting without any form of distortions, and producing the right response to such a situation. You can only respond appropriately to inquiries or complaints and give helpful information when you are aware of what they are angry or inquiring about. To be on top of your game as a brand, you must also engage in active social listening. Monitor your brand mentions as well as that of your competitors to know what customers are saying about you in real-time.

Engaging Angry Customers in Productive Conversations

Getting an angry customer to calm down should actually be a skill in itself. Obviously, customers aren’t always right and in some cases, they could be mad at a situation they got themselves into, which shouldn’t be your problem. However, they have placed you in that space as a go-to person when things go wrong; the least you can do is to get them to listen to you and make better decisions in future. Your conversation with an angry person will hardly ever be productive; for this reason, you should initially talk them into a neutral state where they’ll be willing to learn.

Focus on Problem Solving

Brilliant businesses know that a problem doesn’t get solved by simply recognising that there is a problem. They focus more on solving it. This same energy should be maintained when the customer service interacts with their clients. It’s important to get basic information like purchase date, name of the product, and more, but do not dwell too long on getting all that information. At that moment, the client is more interested in you solving their problem so that they don’t have to spend another minute communicating with you.

Carrying Out Maintenance Systems 

Even if you do not deal with machinery and other technical services/product that require frequent maintenance, you must still embrace this practice. Maintaining a business involves you checking from time to time the quality of your product, delivery, customer experience, communication channel, availability, pricing, and everything in between. You want to make sure that you keep assessing various points where customers are likely to face challenges in their interaction with your business. With this method of attentiveness in customer service, you will be able to fix issues before customers notice them.

Many businesses are struggling to survive – especially during a pandemic, and reasonable businesses are trying to make sure they never wait till they are dragged on social media before they fix customers’ problems. Referring customers to experts who can help them out goes a long way to show that they are valued and in the hands of the right person. Paying attention to customers can help you smell issues before they get ugly and save your business from collapsing.