When your business organization is on a low budget, there are probably several functions that are loftier-priority when allocating funds. Of grade, your product team could use some financial assistance, and marketing — particularly advertising — could always apply a lilliputian padding. However, it might seem similar a waste to invest coin in your customer service team. After all, how can information technology really improve?

Contrary to popular belief, your customer service team should be just as of import — if not more than important than — as your other teams. After all, it'south the straight connection between your customers and your business. Still not convinced? Read the following list to understand how essential customer service is to improve your business and relationships with customers.

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Investing in customer service helps actuate your flywheel because loyal customers will help you lot acquire new customers, free of charge, by disarming prospects to interact with your make. And, their positive testimonials volition exist more constructive than any of your electric current marketing efforts — and cheaper, too.

Aside from that, let's wait at some data-backed reasons why you should invest in your customer service team.

1. Customer memory is cheaper than client acquisition.

An increment in customer retention of merely v% tin equate to an increase in profit of 25%. This is considering repeat customers are more likely to spend more with your brand — 300% more, to exist exact — which then results in your business having to spend less on operating costs.

importance of service

Co-ordinate to our inquiry team, the customer conquering cost (CAC) — how much it costs to acquire a new client — is more than for a company that doesn't invest a small percentage of its budget in customer service. Ultimately, investing in customer service can decrease your churn charge per unit, which decreases the amount you must spend on acquiring new customers and decreases the overall CAC.

2. Customer service represents your brand paradigm, mission, and values.

Y'all may have an thought of what your brand represents. Even so, your customers can't go into your caput and they'll make assumptions based on your social media presence, advertisements, content, and other external marketing.

Your customer service team, nevertheless, is where you have more than command over this perception. These individuals speak directly to your customers and they have the responsibility of representing your brand when interacting with current or potential buyers. In fact, 96% of customers say customer service is important in their pick of loyalty to a brand.

Without your customer service team, you have no means of direct advice. Due to this, your customer service team is essential in relaying to customers what you want your make image to exist. They can aid influence customers and convince them of your strengths over competitors.

iii. Happy client service employees will create happy customers.

No employee is going to relish coming into work if they feel nether-appreciated compared to employees on other teams. The same goes for your customer service team. Later all, 69% of employees say they piece of work harder when they're appreciated.

It's important to note that 55% of employees who strongly disagree nearly beingness happy with their jobs will however work specially hard for customers.

However, their reasoning behind serving customers is less near wanting to provide quality service. Instead, it's nigh maintaining their professionalism and integrity, not wanting to go fired earlier quitting, beingness empathetic to customers, but getting recognition from them in the end.

Therefore, if you desire your customers to do their best work, they should feel respected and appreciated. Only so volition they find intrinsic motivation for doing a proficient task and serving their customers the correct way, which will pb to your customers also feeling more respected and appreciated.

4. Happy customers volition refer others.

And, when your customers are happier, they're more probable to spread the goodness to friends, family unit, and coworkers. In fact, 72% of customers will share a positive feel with six or more people. Think about information technology: if you have a stunning feel with a brand, you lot're probably going to rave about it to your friends over dinner later that nighttime. It's natural; you desire your shut ones to commit to a brand that y'all trust.

Customer-service-important

It's a concatenation reaction. If you accept a happier client service team, they'll piece of work harder to satisfy and exceed the expectations of your customers. Then, those customers volition be extremely happy with your brand and refer others to it. Your customers tin can be your best — and cheapest — course of word-of-mouth advertisement, every bit long equally you lot give them a reason to do so.

5. Expert customer service encourages customers to remain loyal.

Equally said before, it's a lot cheaper to retain an old customer than to larn a new ane. In this sense, the higher a customer's lifetime value — the total acquirement a visitor can expect a single client to generate over the course of their relationship with that visitor — the higher the turn a profit for your company.

Customer-retention-stats

Prototype Source

In comparing to, mayhap, hundreds of competitors with similar products and services, your visitor has to do more than than savour in the exciting features of your products. By providing stellar client service, yous can differentiate your company to your customers. Loyalty is rooted in trust, and customers can trust real-life humans more than than the ideas and values of a brand. So, by interacting with your customer service team, those customers can build, hopefully, life-long relationships with your business.

6. Customers are willing to pay more to companies that offer meliorate client service.

67% of customers would pay more than to become a meliorate customer service experience. Clearly, customer service matters so much to customers that they would literally pay more to collaborate with a brand that does it well.

These are statistics that can't be ignored. In an era where companies are learning to prioritize client service, whatever company that doesn't practice and then will crash and burn down.

Customers are influenced by fifty-fifty a unmarried feel; one positive experience could be the deciding factor for them to stick to a brand, whereas one negative i could send them running to a competitor.

7. Customer service employees tin offer important insights about client experiences.

Information technology doesn't matter how you lot perceive your brand. What matters is how your client perceives it.

For example, if you work for an athletic wear company, you might associate your brand with fitness, wellness and wellness, and people who play sports. However, your customers may purchase from you lot because they associate your brand with leisure, condolement, and attractiveness. And then, you should align your marketing with those values besides.

Your customer service team can reply a lot of these probing questions for you lot. Rather than having to spend time and money on constantly surveying customers, you tin can have your client service employees simply ask these questions while interacting with customers. Their response tin can requite y'all a lot of insights into improving your products, marketing, goals, and employee training.

And, the more than you amend the customer feel, the harder your employees will work. Research shows that companies that invest in client experience also come across employee engagement rates increment past an boilerplate of 20%.

eight. Customer service grows client lifetime value.

If you're running a business, customer lifetime value(CLV) is a pretty important metric. It represents the total revenue you lot tin expect from a single customer account. Growing this value means that your customers are shopping more frequently and/or spending more money at your business.

Investing in your customer service offer is an fantabulous way to improve customer lifetime value. If customers accept a great feel with your service and back up teams, they'll be more probable to shop again at your stores. Or, at the very least, they'll share their positive experience with others, which builds rapport with your client base of operations.

This makes new customers more trustworthy of your business organisation and allows you lot to upsell and cross-sell additional products with less friction. New users will trust that your sales team is recommending products that truly fit their needs which will create a smoother ownership experience for both the customer and your employees.

ix. Proactive customer service creates marketing opportunities.

If you're looking for a cost-constructive way to invest in your business, you should consider adopting proactive customer service. Rather than waiting for customers to report problems, this approach reaches out to them before they even know they exist. That way, customers know you lot're constantly working to remove roadblocks from their user experience.

Proactive-customer-service

Paradigm Source

But, proactive customer service isn't just used for customer delight. It'south also an effective marketing tool for introducing and promoting new products and services.

For example, if you lot create a new feature that solves a mutual problem with your product, your customer service team tin refer it to your customers. They can use your CRM or ticketing system to look up customers who have had this problem in the past, reach out to them via the service ticket, and introduce the new feature too every bit its benefits. And, this can sometimes exist more effective than a sales pitch because customers feel like the service rep truly understands their issue afterwards troubleshooting their problem.

10. Customers expect high-quality service.

People don't only expect your business organisation to have a client service squad; they look your customer service team to be world-course and fix to assistance at a moment'south find.

In fact, according to new data gathered after the COVID-19 pandemic, more than half of those surveyed (58%) said their customer service expectations are higher today than they were a year ago.

But, customers don't but desire loftier-quality customer service, they're demanding it. 66% of customers said they would switch brands if they felt they were being "treated like a number, not an individual." Customers accept more options now than always before, and now that they've realized it, they're not agape to take their business concern elsewhere if they're unsatisfied with their experience. Information technology'south now on brands to run into customer expectations if they want to concenter and retain loyal customers.

11. Businesses demand omni-channel solutions.

Earlier COVID-19, businesses were gradually exploring new, digital means to engage and support customers. Only, once the pandemic hit, this timeline accelerated significantly and it was no longer a article for businesses to communicate with customers via social media, alive chat, or video calls.

While we're nevertheless in the midst of a global pandemic, these communication channels volition be here to stay for the foreseeable future. Customers not only enjoy using these channels simply, over time, they'll come to expect them as a standard in the client service industry. That'south why businesses demand to invest in omni-channel solutions and so they can link these new mediums together and create a seamless customer experience.

The image below explains how omni-channel experiences work.

importance of service: omnichannel

Epitome Source

Rather than having each channel operate independently, the channels are linked together so messages and information tin can be shared freely between them. That style, customers don't accept to navigate abroad from what they're doing to get help from your business. Whatever fourth dimension they need assistance, they can reach out on any aqueduct of their choice and will get an immediate, reliable response.

12. First-class customer service is a competitive reward.

No matter what industry you're in, you want your business to stand out. After all, nobody strives to be the "second-best" at something. You want to be meliorate than every other company you're competing with and you want your customers to know information technology, also. That's the primal to keeping customers loyal and getting them to continuously interact with your make.

Customer service tin can be an first-class differentiator for your company. In fact, sixty% of customers stop doing business with a brand after 1 poor service experience. And, 67% of this churn is preventable if the customer'southward trouble is resolved during their first interaction. That means if you provide excellent customer service, you'll non simply retain your customers, but you'll acquire your competitors' as well.

It's undeniable that a well-trained, positive customer service squad can make your company the best version of itself. Their power to communicate directly with customers can revolutionize your company and grow your customer base.

13. Positive client service makes people more likely to exercise concern with you.

Consumers consider customer service when they're making purchasing decisions. In fact, 90% of Americans apply customer service as a factor in deciding whether or non to practise business with a visitor. This means that the reputation for your customer service volition impact a large majority of potential customers.

Additionally, customer service doesn't begin and end with your frontline reps. The client service potential customers experience during the sales procedure will also bear upon their purchasing decisions. Providing positive customer service should be the goal for any customer-facing function.

14. Fantabulous customer service will protect customers who experience a fault down the road.

Like nosotros've mentioned, when customers have a poor client experience, they're quick to share about it and exit the visitor. Nevertheless, if your company provides splendid customer service overall, 78% of consumers will do concern with a company again after a error.

Additionally, only one in five consumers will forgive a bad feel at a visitor whose overall client service they rate as "very poor," while nearly 80% will forgive a bad experience if they rate the service team as "very good."

15. Customer service can lead to more than acquirement.

At the end of the 24-hour interval, yous probably make your budgeting decisions based on what brings in the most revenue. Information technology might surprise you lot to learn that customer service tin bring in revenue and touch the lesser line. Businesses can grow revenues between 4% and 8% above their market when they prioritize better customer service experiences.

Additionally, 89% of companies with "significantly higher up boilerplate" customer experiences perform amend financially than their competitors. A positive customer experience has a direct impact on your revenue and growth.

16. Personalized customer service can better your online conversion rate.

Like to the point higher up, better customer service can also improve your conversion charge per unit, not just your revenue.

In fact, your online conversion rate tin improve by roughly 8% when you lot include personalized consumer experiences. A college conversion rate should pb to more sales and then more revenue. At the end of the 24-hour interval, customer service keeps your flywheel moving, just like marketing and sales.

Without customer service, retaining customers and success would be impossible. In fact, the flywheel would probably finish spinning birthday. With excellent customer service, yous'll attract new customers, prevent customer churn, and build your brand reputation and image. Plus, the information continues to support the fact that bang-up customer service is an expectation, non a "nice-to-take."

Editor'southward note: This postal service was originally published in October 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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Originally published Sep 30, 2021 12:00:00 PM, updated January 10 2022