This newsletter was hand-curated while listening to Halo by Beyoncé.

Service Blog

January 10, 2022

Hi there,

Catch up on your prescribed dosage of customer service with this week's latest and greatest content on the Service Blog.

Enjoy,

Flori Needle

HubSpot Service Blog

How to Respond to a Google Review: The Ultimate Guide

Google is the world's most popular search engine. When your potential customers take to this huge source of information to start researching products and services, business listings appear — along with recent customer reviews with starred ratings and comments. As BrightLocal found that 79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, suffice it to say that the reviews on your Google My Business profile can have a big impact on you finding new customers. Google themselves have disclosed that responding to reviews — good or bad — increases your ratings. In this post, discover the importance of responding to Google reviews, and learn how to respond to the ones you receive from customers — both positive and negative.

Read More

The Ultimate Guide to Software as a Service (SaaS)

If you've been thinking about launching a SaaS product, now is the time to do it. More and more companies are adopting the Software as a Service model. Organizations use an average of 80 SaaS apps as of 2020. This is a 5X increase in just three years, and a 10X increase since 2015. Additionally, the SaaS industry is expected to be worth roughly $172 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2022. Unfortunately, there's bad news, too. The SaaS market is becoming saturated fast. Many new entrants will face challenges winning against established brands. And, even if a new company achieves a staggering 60% growth annually, according to McKinsey & Company, "its chances of becoming a multibillion-dollar giant are no better than a coin flip." In short, the SaaS market offers an incredible opportunity, but to succeed in it, you'll need at least some basic knowledge about its dynamics and intricacies. Luckily, that's what you'll learn in this guide. We'll help you understand how the SaaS industry works. You'll also discover what you need to know to launch and start growing a SaaS product. Keep reading to learn more, or use the chapter links below to jump ahead.

Read More

service reps making their interactions with customers fantastic in different ways-1

7 Ways to Make Every Interaction With Customers Fantastic

Your customers have high expectations — and if your business can't meet them, they're going to leave you for your competitors. If that sounds harsh, well, it is. In addition to getting a product or service that works for them, they want to buy from companies that make it easy to get help when they need it, that go above and beyond for them, and that make them proud to support their corporate culture and philosophy. You already know that the customer experience doesn't end with a sale — it's an ongoing work in progress that companies should be constantly seeking to improve and iterate on. To get you started, here are our suggestions for how you can make your customers love interacting with your business.

Read More

How to Let Customers Know About a Price Increase (Without Making Them Mad)

It happens to every business. There's been a change in your industry and as a result, the resources and services needed to produce your product cost more. Now, you have to tell your customers, who have been loyally standing by you for years, that you have to raise prices. You're probably putting off the conversation, worried about how customers will react. It almost feels like you're letting them down. After all this time that they've dedicated themselves to your business, you're repaying the favor by increasing prices? Have no fear. Most customers expect that the cost of their beloved products won't remain stagnant forever. However, if a competitor's prices are not increasing, this potentially puts you at risk for customer churn. You must handle a price increase quickly and authentically to ensure that your customers understand the situation and are willing to stick through it. In this post, we'll explain what a price increase justification is, then we'll review some best practices you should consider when making a price increase announcement to your customers.

Read More

The Quick & Easy Guide to Call Center Best Practices

Customer service, when done well, can accomplish a lot for your business. Good customer service encourages trust, brand loyalty, repeat business, word-of-mouth advertising, industry reputation building, and more. You may choose to offer help by phone, email, live-chat, or in-person. Either way, using a call center is one of the quickest and most convenient ways to offer support. If your business is leaning on call centers to do a lot of customer service by phone, then it's important to monitor the quality of the calls. Understanding and monitoring call quality will help ensure the best for your customers. Building a call center team that is well equipped, trained, and knowledgeable is essential. This article will explore how to develop the best call center for your business.

Read More