While customer service has always been an important issue to address, business owners are starting to realize that the transparency of the internet has made it a more vital issue to address. In the digital era, one dissatisfied or disgruntled customer can cause a tidal wave of complaints and concerns that can cripple your business’ growth. To reduce the likelihood of something like that happening, these suggestions can help you boost the quality of the customer service your business provides.

Start With the Right Team

While you may be the owner of your business, your employees will become recognizable as the face of your business. Your employees are the ones your customers will deal with in making purchases, asking questions, and raising complaints. If your employees are rude or seem disinterested in your customer’s concerns, that will affect the experience customers have with your business. When you hire energetic and passionate employees who are willing to learn about your business and its products, you can trust that they will represent your company in a positive manner.

Don’t Let Phones Go Unanswered

Ideally, you should answer every phone call personally, but the needs of your business will require you to be on the go through most of your workday. To compensate, you should ensure incoming calls are always answered by someone. If your employees aren’t able to meet this demand, try outsourcing a call center. When customers can reach someone to address their concerns or take a message that will be relayed to you, they will feel more valued as a customer. In many cases, a customer is less likely to return to a business that never seems to be reachable. Consumers want to know they can talk to someone on the phone when they experience a problem or concern with one of your products.

Maintain a Social Media Presence

Once you create social media accounts for your brand and start posting to help market your brand, you should also start paying attention to the comments you receive on your posts. It’s very likely that the people taking the time to comment on your posts are also some of your most loyal customers. Interacting with them in a social media post will help them feel valued, and they will be more likely to share your posts and recommend your brand accounts. More importantly, their comments can give you insight into the ways in which your customer service is failing. By paying attention to their comments and considering making changes to address their concerns, you can show that improving the customer experience is an important concern for your brand.

Reach Out to Reduce Customer Churn

You should also do what you can to encourage past customers to return to your business. When you show an interest in your customers after they have made a purchase, you’ll be establishing a positive customer service practice that will help your brand stand out. This can be something as simple as an email or text message that asks the customer to rate their experience with your business. You can also send past customers a message to let them know about upcoming sales or new products. Another way to make customer service a priority is to offer a small discount on their next purchase. This will show them that you value their return business.

Create an Employee Rewards Program

When you ask customers to rate their experiences with your business, you can also ask them to rate their experiences with specific employees. When an employee is recognized for providing superior customer service, that employee should be rewarded to encourage other employees to do more to meet customer needs. The reward can be anything from an extra paid day off to a free lunch. You can mix up the rewards to keep it exciting or create a tiered system that provides greater rewards for higher degrees of excellence in customer service. In addition to boosting the quality of customer service, a reward system will also improve employee morale.

As you continue to work on improving your business’s customer service, you’ll see a comparable increase in customer satisfaction. While customers won’t neglect to let you know when they have had negative experiences with your business, they will also be just as eager to let you know when you’ve made up for a failure. Consumers are forgiving as long as you’re willing to make an effort to improve their experiences.