Speed Matters: Why Fast Customer Service Is Essential to the Success of Your Business

Is the customer service you offer fast and efficient? Do you make it a point to resolve questions or complaints you receive from customers as quickly as possible?

If your answer is no—or even “I’m not sure”—then it’s time to rethink your customer care priorities. The simple fact is this: In today’s competitive marketplace, fast customer service matters—and the companies that fail to achieve it can’t expect to win the loyalty of increasingly demanding consumers.

Just how much of an impression does fast customer service make? According to a customer service survey from Zendesk, 69% of consumers say they judge the quality of a customer experience (CX) based on whether they receive a “quick resolution” to their inquiries or requests for assistance.

“69% of consumers say they judge the quality of a customer experience (CX) based on whether they receive a “quick resolution” to their inquiries or requests for assistance.” Click To Tweet

And if you still think satisfying your customers with speedy service isn’t that important, consider recent customer research from Qualtrics customers spend more money with companies that offer a good CX and are also more willing to promote it to friends and family, try its new products and services, and even forgive it after an occasional negative experience.

5 Tips for Offering Fast Customer Service

Really, the fact that offering fast customer service helps boost satisfaction and loyalty is kind of a no-brainer. It’s something everyone can relate to: We’ve all been customers at some point in our lives, and we all appreciate speedy resolutions to our questions.

The real question is, how can companies make sure they’re offering the fastest possible customer service? Here are five proven methods for doing just that.

Tip #1 for Fast Customer Service: Implement Automated Customer Service, ASAP

The easier you make it to interact with your company, the more likely you are to earn customer loyalty. And the first step for doing that is to give people the option to get instant (or almost-instant) answers to their most basic questions.

The easier you make it to interact with your company, the more likely you are to earn customer loyalty.
Source: www.shutterstock.com.

In other words, if you haven’t already set up an automated process for basic inquiries, it’s time to do so—stat.

Also known as self-service or self-care, automated processes—such as online chat, automated voice response and static online info like website FAQs—are the most basic way to ensure you’re offering fast customer service. The idea is to give folks the chance to find quick answers to their questions before escalating to a live agent—an option that most customers now expect from businesses.

Pro Tip: Why Today’s Customers Expect Self-service Options

Tip #2 for Fast Customer Service: Offer Access to High-quality Agents

But as important as it is to offer the option to resolve simple inquiries via self-service functionality, it should be remembered that automation isn’t always good enough. For more complex (or time-sensitive) issues, you need to always have high-quality customer service agents standing by—ideally, on a 24/7 basis.

Your business needs to always have high-quality customer service agents standing by—ideally, on a 24/7 basis.
Source: www.shutterstock.com.

Pro Tip: How to Balance Automated Service with Live Agents

And we’re not talking about run-of-the-mill, temp-quality agents who only know the basics of your business. Today’s consumers expect top-shelf professionals who can offer real expertise in the finer points of your industry and customer care best practices, from technological knowhow to the ability to interact with customers in a way that’s friendly and efficient.

After all, the quality of your customer service is only as good as the agents who provide it. So, when it comes to speed, as well as efficiency and general helpfulness, those agents need to be as highly skilled and trained as possible, with the capability to not just meet but exceed your customers’ expectations.

Tip #3 for Fast Customer Service: Monitor and Measure Key Metrics for Continuous Improvement

The rapid evolution of the technology underlying modern communications has not only given businesses the means to engage with customers across more channels than ever before, but also the power to continuously monitor and measure those interactions to achieve continuous improvement.

Technology has given businesses the power to continuously monitor and measure interactions to make improvements.
Source: www.shutterstock.com.

Also known as data-driven contact center analytics, this method includes measuring such customer service-oriented key performance indicators (KPIs) as the speed with which you resolve customers inquiries and your satisfaction rate (as well as many others). It’s a critical tool in making sure you’re doing everything you can to make sure the customer service you deliver is not only as fast as possible, but also constantly getting faster.

Pro Tip: How to Drive Growth and Cut Costs with Data-driven Contact Center Analytics

Tip #4 for Fast Customer Service: Offer Your Customers Omnichannel Service

Another way of making sure that you’re offering fast customer service is to integrate all of your communications channels into a single, omnichannel strategy. In addition to simply being a good idea in terms of modernizing your CX strategy, taking an omnichannel approach also means eliminating a lot of the efficiencies that can get in the way of fast service.

For instance, according to the Zendesk report we cited earlier, 72% of customers blamed what they called a bad customer service interaction on the need to explain their issue to more than one person when contacting a company. Besides being slow, a system like that is also frustrating to your customers, and it isn’t doing you any favors in terms of the efficiency of your contact center operations.

“72% of customers blamed what they called a bad customer service interaction on the need to explain their issue to more than one person when contacting a company.” Click To Tweet

Omnichannel customer care—or the process of bringing together every channel on which you engage with people, including the in-store experience, into one consistent strategy—automatically ensures that you’re speeding up your customer service, while also improving your odds of delivering a CX that’s satisfying to the people who interact with your brand.

Pro Tip: Get a Better Understanding of Omnichannel Customer Care Here

Tip #5 for Fast Customer Service: Outsource Your CX to the Experts

But offering omnichannel customer service is no simple task—nor is setting up efficient self-service options or ensuring that you’re offering access to the highest-quality customer care agents your industry has to offer on a 24/7 basis.

Luckily, there is a way to tackle all of these challenges in one step. When you partner with an outsourced customer care provider, you get access to that all of technology and expertise —as well as a network of thousands of top-shelf agents across the United States and Canada with real expertise in delivering the kind of fast and friendly customer service that earns consistently high satisfaction scores.

With more than 20 years of experience helping businesses of all sizes, and across all industries, achieve the best possible CX, Working Solutions is the perfect choice for ensuring that you’re not only offering fast customer service, but also positioning yourself for success with the kind of long-term growth strategies that get real results.