Catch up on your prescribed dosage of customer service with this week's latest and greatest content on the Service Blog.
Enjoy,
Alana Chinn
HubSpot Service Blog
16 Customer Satisfaction (& Other Common) Survey Mistakes to Avoid
If you're curious about your customers' thoughts and opinions about your company, it's best to ask them yourself instead of waiting for them to reach out or post a review online. The perfect way to gauge customer satisfaction is to send out a customer satisfaction survey, which is simple for your customers to fill out and can be analyzed to help you gain important insights into your customer's experiences.
Whether via phone call, live chat, a Tweet, or sending an email, people get the answers they need through a company's customer support team. The results of customer support interactions play a huge role in how those customers feel about your business and brand as a whole, which is why it has the potential to greatly impact your business' reputation, customer retention, bottom line, and more. In this post, we'll review everything you need to know about customer support, including why customer support is important, what makes it unique from other customer-facing roles within your company.
Consumers like to know the value they'd get from a product or service before making a purchase, which leaves businesses to spend a lot of money on advertising, sales demos, and other marketing campaigns to give customers the information they're looking for. The freemium model is a remedy to these high costs, as it reduces the price of acquiring new customers by shifting the burden of product or service education from your sales and marketing teams to the customer.
I remember when I learned how to drive a car with a manual transmission, or "stick-shift." I knew how to drive an automatic, but when I sat down in the car, I saw an extra foot pedal and a gear shifter that went left to right rather than up and down. Confused, I put the car in first gear without stepping on the clutch, resulting in a ghastly screech followed by the car shutting down. This was my version of a cognitive walkthrough. But when used in technical applications, there's a much more methodical process than the one I used. In this post, let's break down what a cognitive walkthrough is and how it differs from other usability tests. Then, we'll provide some best practices you can use when conducting this test at your business.
Online Customer Service: 16 Data-Backed Ways to Improve It
80% of customers say they've stopped doing business with a company based on poor customer service. Meanwhile, 56% of customers prefer to shop online, according to a study by Raydiant. Add those data points above together and you'll understand why you can't ignore online customer service. "The online experience your customers have with your team shapes their perception of your product and your brand as a whole. It can either build brand loyalty or damage your reputation — both of which, can happen very quickly," says Emma Sinai, Director of Customer Success at PartnerStack. If your online experience hasn't gotten the attention it deserves, read on. We've taken service data, plus expert commentary, and used it to create 16 actionable tips to improve your online customer service.
Every week, we ask HubSpot's support team to answer questions about customer service. Have something you want to ask? Submit it below!
Why is average handle time important?
"Average handle time is an essential customer service metric because it relates to the customer's most valued commodity: time. Nowadays, customers expect to engage with someone immediately when seeking support. By measuring AHT, you can monitor how well your customer service team meets this demand and make necessary changes to your support and service offers."