The Surprising Way to Measure – and Keep – Your Customers’ Love
There’s a surprising way to measure – and keep – your customers’ love. And that’s in your data. Not just any data but in your support data specifically – the data where you will find the answers to what went right, what went horribly wrong, what frustrated the you-know-what out of your customers, and everything in between.
You can also leverage support data to grow your company. Support data can give you insights into your customer base that you might not get from downloads and surveys alone. This kind of information is also great for improving your products and thinking of new features and services.
Your support data is regular treasure trove of amazing, business-growing customer information – and used properly, you can use it to make customers fall in love with you. (Well, with your company, brand, and products at least.)
Whether you use Zendesk, Desk.com, Freshdesk, or any other help desk software, the information and insights from your support data will help you make better decisions about your products and services. Studying this data is what’s going to make you better at customer service, make you better at knowing your customers, and ultimately increase your customer loyalty!
Consider these stats:
- 86% of buyers will pay more for a better customer experience, but only 1% of customers feel that vendors consistently meet their expectations. (Forbes)
- 50% use a company more frequently after a positive customer experience. (NewVoiceMedia)
- 52% of consumers have made more purchases from a company after having a good customer service experience. (Zendesk)
- 55% say easy access to information and support can make them fall in love with a brand. (RightNow)
While it’s up to your marketing team to get customers to engage with your brand, it’s your support data that can help provide the extra insights that tell you what kind of TLC each relationship needs to create loyal customers for life.
Listening: The key to relationship building
Businesses have lots of ways to listen to their customers. They can check out forums, social media channels, look at behavioral data from the website, etc. But support data is different. It’s very real, very raw. Within it lies tons of conversations between your customers and your support people. Paying attention to and analyzing this data can give you insights into brand-threatening issues, such as:
- Bugs that need to be fixed
- Common, repeated issues and frustrations your users experience
- New features, functions, and changes that don’t work or are confusing to users
- How your users are using (or not using) your services
How to avoid a fight
One key to successful relationship building is learning what your partner likes – and, more importantly, what he or she dislikes.
Digging through support data can reveal those times you released a new feature or changed something and received a flood of complaints. That kind of feedback can help you when creating or releasing new features or products in the future. You’ll also gain insights into specific features that may need to be improved or that customers might like you to create.
Be attentive (and provide praise-worthy customer service)
Being a good partner means being attentive to your other half.
As a business, one of the best ways to create a loyal customer is to be extremely efficient, effective, and attentive with your customer service. This means always being there for your customers when they need you. Not all support tickets are angry, crazy, “something is broken” situations. Sometimes your customers just need a little help figuring something out. They want you to show a little love.
So how do you know whether or not you are being attentive enough? By looking at the following metrics within your support data:
First response time: The time it takes for your customer support representatives to respond – whether it be by phone (hold time) or email. You know that phrase about first impressions? When a customer has to wait too long to receive the help that they need, it leaves them frustrated, which is why this metric is so important.
Problem resolution time: The number of actions and the time it takes to completely resolve a customer’s issue. Firing off an answer as quickly as possible does not mean you’ve satisfied your customer’s needs. If your support representatives are not taking the time to fully understand the problem and respond with a helpful solution, then you’re not really being efficient or effective.
Abandonment rates: At what time customers are dropping off during the problem resolution process. It could be a sign that you are not responding in a timely manner, that support people aren’t providing the right or most effective solutions, or that they are taking too long on calls (which is all right if they’re actually providing solutions and the issue is difficult enough to warrant the time, but that’s not always the case). Your abandonment rate may also indicate that your support people lack product knowledge or support skills.
Give them what they want
Finally, a great way to gain customer love is to surprise and delight them. You know all of that listening you’ve been doing? Those feature requests and bug fixes? Give the people what they want! By listening to complaints, comments, requests, and concerns, you can position your brand to be in tune with customer wants and needs, thus creating raving fans and lovers of your brand.
“Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.” – Walt Disney
Your support data can help you do just that and make your customers fall in love with you in the end.