How to Use APIs to Strengthen Customer Interactions

While many small business owners and entrepreneurs might not yet know what “APIs” stands for, the good news is that they don’t have to be developers to use these application programming interfaces and bring value to their companies.

API

With APIs, projects are completed faster and operations are more efficient, meaning that this technology is quickly revolutionizing the business world. As APIs allow software across multiple platforms to “speak the same language,” integrations that once took a team of developers months can now be done in a matter of hours. The APIs expose those methods to a public interface, and because there’s no need to build systems from scratch, this technology helps small businesses and entrepreneurs remain viable and even grow in an increasingly technological marketplace.…

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Why Customer Service is So Important in E-commerce

When establishing an online store, you may not be thinking about the importance of customer service – after all, you won’t be seeing anyone face to face. However, it’s still crucial you’re communicating with those who do business with you, and here’s just a few reasons why.

Online customer service

You’ll keep them coming back

One of the most important things to ensure you’re practicing within your business is relationship building with customers. It’s absolutely vital – you want these customers to keep coming back, and existing customers are much more likely to buy from you than new customers would be.

By building these relationships, you’re letting the customer know just how trustworthy and reliable you are as a business.…

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The Benefits of Customer Service Training

Customer service expert Shep Hyken wrote in one of his articles ‘Customer service is not a department. It is a philosophy’ and many professionals would wholeheartedly agree with this.

Customer service training

When you utilise good quality customer service throughout the entirety of an organisation– from the recent hires to the CEO – you can improve the way that every element of the operation impacts the customer. This includes not only the employees on the front line, but also those working behind the scenes.

Customer service training makes the difference

As an example of the difference customer service training can make to unlikely roles in an organisation, imagine an employee behind the scenes in a logistics company.…

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7 Customer Service Best Practices Tips for Retaining Great Customers

Let’s face it: Getting customers is easy most times compared to actually keeping them. There’s so much competition to contend with these days, it’s near impossible to keep running with the best prices in your industry, your city; your little cozy niche that nobody knows about… Yet!

Then one day Joe Bigtime, who’s been watching your every move and figuring out how to do it even better than you, strolls into town and upsets everything you’ve been working toward. While you’ve been focusing on customer acquisition, your retention efforts have been left on the back-burner.

Suddenly, your customer’s lack of loyalty toward your business, and your obvious lack of loyalty toward getting their business again and again becomes of significant importance to your bottom line.…

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The Lost Art Of Customer Service Within The Tech Industry

Reinvigorating Customer Service in the Tech Industry

Tech industry

The tech industry is often highly impersonal — especially among companies that sell digital goods. A company can sell a digital service entirely over the Internet. The buyer pays online, and the service activates itself automatically. During the buyer’s entire time as a customer, he may never interact with an actual person.

Throughout the tech industry, customer service has become something of a lost art. Too often, companies rely on support forums, automated chat programs and online FAQ pages to answer customers’ questions. Customers who are unable find the answers they need through forums and automated solutions can end up feeling lost in the shuffle.…

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Improving Customer Service within a Small Business

In the cut-throat world of small businesses and start-ups, it’s often customer service that will differentiate you from your competitors. It’s rare that you’ll have a product offering completely unlike other businesses in your space, so those relationships that you make really have to count if you’re to retain and win business.

Customer support staff

The following are some practical tips that you can follow to improve your small business’ customer service.

Bricks-and-Mortar

If you’re lucky enough to come face to face with your customers on a daily basis (or your employees do) then you’ll find this challenge much easier than everyone else, for the simple fact that you’ve got an extra opportunity to impress.…

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3 Reasons to Invest in Knowledge Base Software That You Haven’t Thought of Yet

If you’ve considered investing in knowledge base software, you’ve probably already looked at the typical reasons that companies add the tool to their arsenal. Knowledge base software supports customer service, giving your employees the tools they need to help your customers quickly and efficiently, and in some cases, giving your customers more self-service options. A well-developed knowledge base helps improve staff productivity as well.

Man seeking info using knowledge base software

When all of the answers they need are at their fingertips, they don’t waste time searching for information. And knowledge base software helps keep you customers happy. Not only can they get help quickly, but a comprehensive knowledge center increases the likelihood that they will get the rights answers when they need them.…

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How to Improve Multi-Channel Customer Service

Without your customers, your business wouldn’t be successful, so of course you want to treat them well and make sure that you’re addressing every one of their needs. One of the best ways to show your customers you care about them is by making sure that your customer service channels are optimized to serve your customers in a quick, efficient manner.

Multi-channel customer service

Of course, each one of your customers will have a different preferred method of contacting you, so you’ll have to make sure that each of your customer service channels is responsive and helpful, whether it’s over the phone, e-mail, social media, or text message.…

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How to Improve Your Customer Service Through Efficient Process

There are two types of business in the world, there are those that rely solely on the talent of their employees, and then there are those that measure, track and report back on the work done by their talent. By far and away, the second type of business is going to have more success with your customers.

Efficient customer service

Customers don’t care if part of your business is failing; they simply want to know that they’re going to get what they’ve paid for. Businesses that rely on talent alone are unstable and unpredictable, and when there’s a problem with an aspect of the business, there aren’t the processes in place to find it, isolate it, and fix it to get the product to the customer on time.…

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What Is Great Customer Service and How Can It Help Your Small Business?

What Is Great Customer Service and How Can It Help Your Small Business?

By definition, customer service is what you offer an individual before, during and after a transaction. While this concept seems simple enough, truly exceptional customer service is getting harder to find. Why? Perhaps it’s because stellar customer service is an experience that not only gets customers from point A to point B, but enhances the overall level of customer satisfaction – an idea that can seem mind-boggling to some.

If you ask any virtual receptionist, however, she’ll tell you that offering quality customer service is no harder or more time-consuming than what you already do. The difference is that the personal connection you make with prospective customers adds value to your brand.…

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