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Service Blog

November 8, 2021

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

The Ultimate Guide to Training for Customer Service & Support

As a shopper, what experiences with a company have stood out to you more — their marketing tactics, or their customer service? Most likely the latter. Customer service is a company's opportunity to connect with customers, solve problems, and show they care. And when customer service is executed well, it can resonate with customers for years to come. That's why training your customer support team is just as important (if not more) as training your marketing or sales teams. Service experiences are what stick with your customers and inspire reviews and word-of-mouth advertising. Customer support shouldn't be an afterthought. Happy customers come from excellent service and are your best advocates – even better than your most talented marketers. That's why we've compiled this guide. By the end, you'll gain a complete understanding of how customer service training benefits your business, when different types of training might come in handy, and what materials you need to execute a thorough training program. Keep reading or use the chapter links below to jump ahead.

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5 Ways to Delight Your Customers This Holiday Season

According to Andy Williams, the holiday season is the most wonderful time of year — a wonderful time to delight your customers. It's far more affordable to retain your customers than it is to attract new ones, and the holiday season is a fantastic opportunity to remind your customers why they should stick around for another year (or more). Every day is a good day to delight your customers. But these best practices are especially important around the holidays, when stress levels rise and patience levels drop. Work with your customer service (CS) team to implement as many of these strategies as possible (some recommended by our very own CS team here at HubSpot), and your customers will leave your store (or hang up the phone) with a smile on their face.

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5 Customer Satisfaction Metrics You Should Be Monitoring

According to the Customer Service Report 2021 by LiveChat, the average customer satisfaction score dropped by more than 2% in 2020 compared to 2018. I don't want to worry you, but the report is based on data from over 25,000 companies representing 30 industries using live chat and tickets for customer service and sales. All in all, we've analyzed data from 594 million chats and 18 million tickets, so I think we can trust the outcome.

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What is Customer Relations? Everything You Need to Know

Your relationship with your customers is directly tied to the financial well-being of your business. Building strong customer relations will develop customer loyalty and retain valuable, long-term clients, increasing revenue from repeat purchases. You might've heard of customer relations. You might even have been on the opposite side of it as a customer. If you're looking to improve the customer experience and increase revenue, it helps to understand what successful customer relations look like and how you can create it at your business.

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6 Tips for Maintaining Customer Loyalty Beyond Holiday Sales

Holidays are a busy time for businesses. Sales peak, web traffic surges, and plenty of engagement opportunities sprout up within the customer experience. According to eMarketer's 2021 holiday shopping predictions, US retail sales will total $1.147 trillion in 2021, despite the coronavirus pandemic and recent delta variant resurgences. Despite these large numbers during the holiday season, most businesses see marketing and sales numbers return to normal. Customer demand slows and the outstanding performance drops off by mid-January. We can see this trend represented in the chart below, which outlines retail sales by month since 2017. If we look at the red circles, we can see how sales peak in the November pre-holiday season, fall slightly in December and steadily decline in January until the next holiday season arises.

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Ask a Customer Service Expert!

Every week, we ask HubSpot's support team to answer questions about customer service. Have something you want to ask? Submit it below!

What is customer relations?

"Customer relations refers to the methods a company uses to engage with its customers and improve the customer experience. This includes providing answers to short-term roadblocks as well as proactively creating long-term solutions that are geared towards customer success."

Ask a Question

Clint Fontanella

Manager, Marketing

HubSpot

The 64 Best Words, Phrases, & Ideas for Emotional Holiday Marketing

We may shop more over the holidays, but our brains have also learned to tune out the barrage of holiday marketing messages every year. So how can your business stand out?

With emotions! So this week, we’re sharing the complete guide to emotional holiday copywriting. In it you’ll find: