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Good customer service is more than just giving solutions; it’s about ensuring you fill all the gaps and pain points likely to make customers have a poor experience.
Even the best-intentioned firms might face some customer service problems that can swiftly erode the confidence you’ve diligently cultivated with your clients, frustrating them, leading to loss of revenue and poor reputation.
According to a Talkdesk survey, 68% of customers believe that a single unfavorable customer service encounter can undermine their brand loyalty.
Knowing the root cause of these customer service problems and finding solutions to deal with them can turn barriers into opportunities.
In this blog, we will explore common customer service problems and discuss why addressing these issues is important for any business seeking to thrive in a competitive environment.
How can outstanding customer service be a valuable asset for your business?
“A business absolutely devoted to customer service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.” – Henry Ford, founder Ford Motor Company.
Providing exceptional customer service may undoubtedly rank among your company’s most important assets.
Good customer service turns ordinary transactions into remarkable encounters that promote client loyalty and word-of-mouth recommendations.
According to Microsoft research, 88% of consumers think that a company’s client experience is just as important as what it sells or offers.
Great customer service becomes a critical difference in a market where rivals may quickly match items and pricing.
Beyond the quick sale, exceptional user support:
- Fosters emotional ties with clients
- Improves business reputation
- Builds customer trust
- Helps you draw in new clients as well as keep your current users
All these benefits lead to long-term success and sustainable growth for your company.
Common customer service challenges and their resolutions
Businesses often confront various customer service issues that can affect customer happiness and loyalty.
Here are a few typical customer support problems, along with solutions:
High volume of queries
When there are more questions than resources to handle them, it can be difficult for agents to manage and address customer service problems effectively.
Reasons for high inquiry volumes
- Greater demand for the product or service: When a brand becomes popular, the number of users asking about it will increase.
- Problems with the product or service: Unexpected glitches, flaws, or technical challenges may lead to a swamp of complaints from clients.
- Promotional campaigns: Successful implementation of promotional programs may lead to many potential clients asking questions about goods and services.
- Seasonal variations: Certain industries experience peak periods, such as Black Fridays, with significantly higher customer interaction.
How to handle high inquiry volumes
- Implement an efficient routing system: Utilize a help desk ticketing system with an effective auto-routing feature to assign each questions to the appropriate agents or team to handle it well and reduce resolution time.
- Make use of self-service resources: Provide thorough FAQs, online guides, and knowledge base software that enable clients to solve customer support problems on their own.
According to a study conducted by Higher Logic, 77% of respondents say that they view organizations more positively if they offer self-service options for customers seeking support.
- Automate repetitive tasks: To speed up processes, use customer service software that incorporates capabilities like artificial intelligence and workflow automation.
- Increase staffing: Temporarily expand your customer care staff to manage extra work at busy times.
Inconsistent service quality
It is possible for support agents to offer different degrees of service to users during their contact with a company.
For instance, team members can reply differently to the same question or waiting time can vary.
Customers always want to be treated fairly and equal, without feeling others are given higher priority. If they feel there is favorism or inconsistency, they can easily churn and have a negative brand perception.
Reasons for inconsistent service quality
- Improper training: It’s possible that employees didn’t get enough instruction on customer service guidelines and practices.
- Unclear duties and responsibilities: Workers may perform inconsistently as a result of unclear roles and obligations.
- Unbalanced workload: Overworked employees may hurry conversations and provide lower-quality services.
- Lack of feedback: Businesses might not be aware of problems with service quality if they don’t receive regular feedback.
How to resolve inconsistent service quality
- Use standardized training: Implement thorough educational courses that give all customer support agents the same information, abilities, and company values.
- Establish clear service level agreements (SLAs): Define effective performance standards to always ensure provision of uniform customer service.
- Empower employees: Give customer service representatives self-service resources to resolve issues faster. You can also allow them to make some decisions independently.
- Regular performance reviews: Regularly evaluate employees’ performance to see whether they are adhering to service standards.
Lack of personalization
When a company cannot customize its interactions and services to each client’s unique requirements, preferences, and prior behaviors, clients are bound to feel undervalued and less connected to the brand.
According to a McKinsey and Company survey, 71% of customers want individualized interactions with businesses, and 76% become frustrated when they don’t get what they expect.
Reasons for lack of personalization
- Not enough information collection: Industries might have inadequate customer data or not making good use of the insights to tailor their products and offerings.
- High employee turnover: There might be impersonal service if new hires are unfamiliar with the preferences or histories of the customers.
How to resolve the lack of personalization in customer service
- Invest in data collection and analysis: Compile thorough client information, such as preferences, purchasing history, demographics, and behavior. Make use of customer insights to spot trends and divide up your clientele according to traits they have in common.
- Personalize communication: Adapt messages and contact methods to the interests of your users. Refer to previous discussions, address them by name, and offer suitable product suggestions.
- Implement customer journey mapping: Recognize touchpoints where customization may improve the experience by understanding the consumer journey.
Communication barriers
When there are miscommunications or information exchange errors between customers and support agents, it may cause:
- Misunderstandings
- Unsolved customer support problems
- Negative client experiences
- Important details being left out
Causes of communication barriers
- Language issue: When customers use a different language from the agents, interactions become hard and often need translations to understand one another.
- Cultural differences: Diverse customer bases may have different communication styles and expectations.
- Jargon and technical language: Employing terminology exclusive to your sector or complicated phrases could cause a disconnection with your clients.
- Poor listening skills: Misunderstandings and annoyance can arise from a failure to pay close attention to the consumer.
How to resolve communication barriers
- Invest in multilingual support: If required, provide translation or multilingual help. Employees should get cultural sensitivity and awareness training.
- Simplify language and avoid jargon: Stay away from tech terminology and hard words. Use plain language and communicate clearly and directly.
- Actively listen: Pay attention to when a client is talking to clearly understand their perspective.
- Utilize omnichannel support tools: Use an omnichannel inbox to manage all customer requests from one platform, irrespective of the communication channels customers prefer to use.
Technology issues
Technology issues in customer service occur when the tools and systems that support communication, ticket resolution, and service delivery malfunction or become outdated.
These difficulties disrupt customer satisfaction, cause lags in response times, and make it difficult for representatives to address customer service issues successfully.
Technology problems might include slow live chat platforms, broken phone systems, sluggish CRM systems, or software errors in self-service portals.
Reasons for technology issues
- Outdated systems: Legacy systems may not support modern functionalities or easily integrate with new technologies. Inadequacies and vulnerabilities may result from irregular updating.
- System or network downtime: Occurs when there is a software malfunction, routine maintenance or network glitches that can disrupt service and prevent users from contacting customer care or submitting requests.
- Lack of proper usage training: Employees may not be well trained on how to use customer service tools effectively.
How to resolve technology issues
- Conduct regular updates and maintenance: Keep all customer support tools up-to-date and troubleshoot all customer service issues to prevent unexpected downtime.
- Invest in modern, scalable technology: Upgrade to modern customer service platforms that are cloud-based and capable of scaling to handle fluctuating demands.
- Train agents on technology use: Make sure that each and every customer care representative has received the necessary training to operate the technological tools available to them. Organize frequent training sessions on new features or upgrades, and offer continuing assistance to handle any issues agents may run into with the systems.
Lack of feedback mechanisms
A business might not be aware of customer support problems that impact customer loyalty and satisfaction if it lacks efficient mechanisms for obtaining and evaluating client feedback.
Reasons for lack of feedback mechanisms
- Lack of awareness: Some organizations underestimate the value of good consumer feedback and treat it as optional rather than essential.
- Fear of negative feedback: Companies may avoid asking input for fear of obtaining unfavourable criticism that could affect their reputation.
How to resolve the challenge
- Offer multiple feedback channels: Collect feedback through a range of ways including surveys, social media comments, email, and in-person interviews.
- Make it easy to provide feedback: Use brief, understandable surveys or make feedback forms easily accessible to streamline the feedback process.
- Act on feedback: Show that you appreciate the opinions of your customers by making adjustments in light of the information you’ve learned.
- Leverage technology: To collect, evaluate, and act upon feedback, make use of reporting analytics and customer relationship management (CRM) programs.
Long wait times
Customers are facing extended delays in customer service when they have to wait a long time for their issues to be handled, whether by live chat software, phone, or another help channel.
This difficulty is a major cause of annoyance for clients who need prompt service, particularly in cases of emergency or major customer service issues.
A report from Talkdesk reveals that 84% of participants anticipate their questions or issues will be resolved promptly and accurately.
If customers believe their time is not respected, long wait times can result in a bad impression of the company, lower customer satisfaction, and even customer turnover.
Reasons for long wait times
- Understaffing: Insufficient number of customer service representatives to handle increasing support ticket volume.
- Inefficient processes: Slow or complex procedures can increase handling time for each customer.
- Limited self-service options: If there aren’t any alternatives for self-service, customers are not equipped to resolve issues on their own and need to seek assistance from agents, it results in long waiting times for customers.
How to resolve long wait times
- Track and evaluate performance metrics: Keep monitoring the key performance indicators (KPIs) such as average wait times, customer satisfaction scores, and resolution timeframes to identify the customer service problems and find ways to improve.
- Communicate wait times: Keep customers informed about expected wait times through messages or notifications. Transparency can help manage client expectations and reduce frustration.
- Promote the use of self-service options: Give customers access to self-service resources (such as FAQs, chatbots, and knowledge bases) so they may resolve issues without waiting for assistance from a professional.
Unresolved customer service complaints
When clients complain about a service or product and their concerns are not adequately addressed, they may become irate and leave bad reviews.
Unresolved customer service complaints about poor product quality, service delays, unsatisfactory customer service contacts, and missed expectations are common.
Reasons for unresolved complaints
- Lack of empowerment: If customer service agents lack the power or resources to properly handle customer service complaints, it might set off a vicious spiral of escalation without end.
- Inadequate training for staff members: Some employees may not be well trained with the customer service skills necessary to handle diverse customer service scenarios. Such employees might find it hard to resolve unique customer service issues.
- High number of complaints: Companies may find it difficult to handle an increase in customer service complaints, which might lead to certain concerns being ignored or handled insufficiently.
How to address unresolved complaints
- Apologize and acknowledge: Always acknowledge and empathize with customers’ feelings. Apologize for their negative experience to help diffuse tension and build rapport.
- Empower employees: Grant decision-making and immediate problem-solving authority to customer care representatives. This can improve customer satisfaction and expedite the resolving process.
- Establish a follow-up system: Always follow up with customers after issues have been resolved or after any interaction to get their feedback to know if they need further help or have any suggestions.
Passing customers around
This is the practice of continuously moving a client between agents, departments, or support channels without solving their problem.
Customers find this to be a difficult experience since they frequently have to describe their issue more than once while waiting for a response.
Customers become more dissatisfied and have a poorer opinion of the company’s capacity to resolve customer support problems when they perceive that the service is less efficient and they are handed around more frequently.
Reasons for passing customers around
- Insufficient training: Employees may not be fully trained on all aspects of the product or service, leading them to escalate customer service issues rather than resolve them themselves.
- Poor communication systems: Ineffective tools or methods might make it more difficult for reps to get information or swiftly forward a client to the right person.
- Departments operating in silos: When departments don’t work together, they may transfer clients between them without providing a satisfactory response.
- Complex products/services: Businesses offering complex products/services may require specialized knowledge, leading to multiple transfers as the issue gets routed to various experts.
Best practices to resolve passing customers around
- Empower frontline staff: Grant customer service representatives the authority and resources to solve customer service issues without escalating.
- Invest in a customer service software: Utilize an effective help desk ticketing system to automatically convert support requests to ticket, categorize, and route them to the appropriate agents to handle.
- Cross-training: Provide staff members with cross-departmental expertise to address a broader range of questions.
- Create a knowledge base: Reduce the need to move clients around by creating a merged knowledge source that staff members can use to promptly address inquiries and fix customer service problems.
Pushing the wrong products
The term “pushing the wrong products” describes the circumstance in which a company advertises or suggests goods that are at odds with the requirements, tastes, or purchasing intentions of its clientele.
This might happen in the course of customer service communication, marketing initiatives, or sales encounters.
Reasons for pushing the wrong products
- Sales pressure: Workers may put their own requirements ahead of those of the customers, which might result in pushy upselling or cross-selling techniques.
- Lack of product knowledge: Recommending inappropriate goods or services might be the consequence of inadequate product understanding.
- Misaligned incentives: Reward plans focused on sales may promote product promotion over careful consideration of client needs.
- Poor listening: Failing to understand the customer’s specific requirements and needs leads to irrelevant recommendations.
How to resolve pushing the wrong products
- Put the needs of the client first: Prioritize understanding and ensuring you meet customer needs first before other interests like sales targets.
- Implement customer-centric incentives: Put in place pay programs that prioritize customer pleasure above sales figures.
- Create a feedback loop: Actively seek customer feedback to identify product preferences and adjust sales strategies accordingly.
- Encourage collaborative selling: Encourage a collaborative approach where customer service and sales find the best solutions for customers rather than going up against one another to close deals.
Lack of follow-up
This can include scenarios like not answering calls, not sending confirmation emails, or not requesting feedback.
Reasons for poor follow-up
- High workload: When customer care agents are overworked, they may forget crucial follow-up duties because they are overloaded with queries and responsibilities.
- Poor processes: Support agents might fail to follow up with clients because of ineffective issue-tracking systems.
- Absence of accountability: If follow-up criteria or rules are unclear, personnel may not prioritize it.
How to resolve the lack of follow-up
- Establish clear follow-up procedures: Have a clear method and templates to use to keep track of progress in all customer service aspects.
- Set timelines: Communicate after-sales support timelines to consumers to manage expectations.
- Educate staff: Give instruction emphasizing the value of post-purchase services in fostering connections with users.
Addressing customer service problems the right way
Unresolved customer service issues can significantly affect a company’s reputation and overall profitability as well as customer happiness. However, organizations can transform obstacles into avenues for growth by being aware of such customer service challenges and establishing mechanisms to bypass them.
Improve your client support experience with BoldDesk. Use our free trial option to experience what BoldDesk has to offer. Feel free to reach out to the BoldDesk support team for any assistance. To arrange a live demo and see how you can customize BoldDesk to your specific company needs.
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