Customer Loyalty Newsletter - Jan 2019

CUSTOMER LOYALTY | JAN 2019 | ISSUE 27

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Example of Excellent Customer Service (And What You Can Learn) - An Article by Tim at Rentenly.com

Get Back to Customers ASAP People just don’t like waiting around too much to get a reply from the brands they interact with, which is why one of the best ways to offer great customer service is to respond to your clients as fast as you can. That doesn’t mean just sending speedy email replies. You also need to respond fast to customer comments on social media. And yes, ideally, you should respond to both positive and negative comments – offering the positive ones acknowledgment and addressing the negative ones with a solution or apology (if necessary). Virgin America, Alaska Air, and JetBlue Airways are good examples of excellent customer service when it comes to response speed , with an average response time of 4-5 minutes on Twitter. We can assume their response times on other channels aren’t too bad either. Naturally, the response time could vary depending on your market and audience. Nonetheless, you should have an employee or an entire department (depending on your budget) monitor the social media channels your brand is active on, and watch for any relevant mentions. Takeaway Today, people would normally expect speedier response rates from companies because they imagine it wouldn’t take a lot for you to have someone responsible for monitoring and responding to online comments and emails – even though the reality is different. However, trying to explain that to your customers won’t make them happy, so – instead – you need to do your best to speed up the response rates to increase customer satisfaction. After all, approximately 41% of consumers say being put on hold while trying to reach a support represen- tative frustrates them the most . And waiting for an online response from a brand you engage with would be considered as being “put on hold” nowadays. That’s not all – 32% of people expect a response to an online review or complaint they left on social media within 30 minutes (and 42% expect the same within 60 minutes). Also, 70% of Twitter users expect to get a response from a brand they reach out to . Out of them, 53% want the reply in less than an hour.