Built authority & trust with your customer in order to be successful in your business, two important things must happen. First, your customers must see you as an authority in your field. Second, they must trust you to follow through on what you say you will do or the products or services will do. Without these two important factors in place, you will struggle to profit in your marketplace. With this in mind, you may be wondering what steps you can take to build authority and trust with your customers. The key lies in improving the quality of service your customers receive.
Build Authority & Trust with Your Customers
After the sale, the work of your sales team is done, but the customer’s experience with your products or services is just starting. Customers may continue to have questions or concerns after making a purchase. They may decide that this product is not the right one for them, or they may have received defective merchandise. In such instances, customers will contact your customer service support staff for assistance. Some businesses have not taken the time to train and develop their customer service or support staff, and this unfortunately can reflect negatively on the business as a whole.
Service After the Sale
The professionals who respond to customer concerns and inquiries after the sale need to be friendly, helpful and ready to do what it takes to promote customer satisfaction. Service after the sale can impact everything from how happy your customers are to what they tell their friends and family about their experiences with your company. This can, in turn, impact repeat business from existing customers as well as the potential for referrals.
Improving Service to Build Authority and Trust
The bottom line is that everyone who represents your business and who a customer may interact with must be highly educated and well trained. They all should have a strong desire to serve your customers and to assist with all of their needs. While you may focus on helping your sales team make the sale, you also should focus equally on training and educating your customer service support team. Some companies will even outsource their service department to ensure that their customers receive proper support and service after the sale, and this is an option that is available to you.
It is important to take a closer look at the level of service that your in-house call center is providing to your customers. Think about if your call center staff members are interacting with your customers in a manner that builds authority and trust. If not, you may consider exploring options to improve this. While providing development opportunities in-house is one option, a superior option is to outsource this aspect of your activities to a dedicated third party customer support center.