Delivering excellent customer service creates brand loyalty and helps businesses prosper in the long run.
But being polite and using “please”, “thank you”, and phrases such as “Our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.” or “I’m sorry you feel that way” will not do you any justice. It takes more than that. – You need to attain understanding and determination in order to achieve agreement or compromise when needed. Keeping this in mind, one can conclude that in customer service, psychology is imperative.
What is customer care psychology?
The idea behind customer care psychology is to understand the customers’ behavior and the emotions that drive them to act in a particular way. It analyses the customers’ motives and ensures positive outcome and successful overall interaction despite the complexity of the queries.
Customer care psychology principles
So, what are the main principles of customer care psychology, and how do they work?
1. Apply emotional intelligence
The first and most important of all principles.
We all know what intelligence is. To quote PhychCentral, it is the ability to learn new concepts and apply knowledge to problems. Emotional intelligence (EQ) is similar. It is the capability of identifying and managing own and others’ emotions, assisting for the accomplishment of clearer communication.
And as communication is key for customer service, it is easy to conclude that improving your EQ will indeed benefit your communication strategy. Next time an angry client calls, do not simply wait for your turn to speak, listen carefully instead and prevent further misunderstanding. Your goal must always be the resolution of the conflict, no matter the client’s animus outburst. – Ensure that your words are in alignment with that.
Demonstrate empathy and maintain a positive attitude, fulfil his emotional needs and focus on addressing his query or complain accordingly.
2. Personalise customer experience
A survey conducted by Gartner on marketing personalization registered that companies tend to lose 38% of their customers due to poor personalization practices.
To avoid this, integrating customer relationship management (CRM) platform, such as Zoho CRM, HubSpot CRM, Zendesk, and Sales Creatio, is strongly recommended. In this way, you or your agents will be able to access all available customer data – past and present orders, previous interactions with customer service, given feedback, that will be valuable for the personalized resolution of every query.
3. Aim to resolve all issues during the first call
An estimated 32% of consumers will leave a brand after a single bad customer care experience. – Do not risk those 32%, aim for a First Call Resolution (FCR) to retain them.
To enhance your FCR performance, set your program goals straight and then train your agents accordingly. Speech analytics tools are a good starting point. NICE CXone, CallMiner Eureka, ExecVision, and CallTrackingMetrics are just examples of the endless possibilities out there.
Of course, do not focus only on phone calls, but measure FCR across all contact channels, chats are just as important. Better FCR rates will help you to gain in-depth knowledge about why complaints appear in the first place. The gathered data will assist you in preparing the appropriate responses.
Operate 24/7
What JeffToister found is that 88% of customers expect an acknowledgment from businesses within 60 minutes and that 30% demand an answer within 15 minutes or less. – This is particularly impossible if a company works exclusively with human supporters.
In contrast, bots, chatbots, and virtual agents provide an immediate response – on weekends, holidays, early in the morning, or late at night, time and date are no concern for them. Moreover, they can handle multiple clients simultaneously and collect and analyze customer data, assisting in the personalization of conversation.
So, if you are not convinced to implement a robot into your business yet, now is the time to consider it.
Collect feedback
Last but not least, collecting feedback is at the core of customer care psychology. It is a guiding resource for the development of any business, as it assists in improving overall services.
One way to collect it is through carrying surveys. The platforms Typeform, Survey Monkey, Super Survey, andQuestionPro are perfect for creating engaging questions that gain valuable insights. Other ways are to review live chat transcripts, analyze recorded calls, or monitor social media. Decide on your approach and be strict about it.
To quote Bill Gates – “Sometimes, the most unhappy customers are the greatest source of learning.”
As it can be concluded, implementing customer care psychology is quintessential for each business. If you need more information on the matter and aspire to learn more about how we have integrated the principles within our process, give us a call.
