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Customer support is more than just resolving tickets.
Your company builds a relationship with every single customer, it’s a personal connection that your customers have with your brand, with you.
Customer-centric firms always put their customers first. They understand how critical customer support services are to customer satisfaction and retention.
So, how do you offer your customers support in times of uncertainty?
During times of uncertainty, people panic. Right now, the world is faced with a global pandemic. No one really knows what’s going to happen next.
But one thing you do know is that your customers need your support, now more than ever.
What should you be saying to your clients?
The answer? Everything, just don’t stop the conversation.
We’ve broken customer support down into 3 core pillars to help you talk to your clients in times of uncertainty.
These principles haven’t changed, they’re how you should be supporting your clients day-to-day, we’ve just included some extras tips on how to talk to your clients right now.
Connect
Your clients are going to be incredibly overwhelmed right now. Imagine, how many COVID-19 emails have you had from brands you’re affiliated with? 10- 20?
There will be a lot of noise to cut through to keep connected to your clients. So, sending the right message at the right time to the right people is really important.
Customers can connect with your brand through a variety of channels. So, you still have many methods of reaching your clients, even though you can’t physically connect face-to-face right now.
You should be sharing updates that affect your clients, keeping them informed so they’re not in the dark and know that they can reach out to you for support or advice.
When they connect with you:
- Get back fast
- Be personal
- Be clear and informative
- Problem solve
People like to be heard, and they want their problems dealt with quickly when they’re worried. They trust their broker to look out for them and right now is no different. It’s a mortgage advisors duty to do exactly that for each and every client.
Educate
The world is scared, which means your clients are too.
The Bank of England has cut the base rate (again) to the lowest since it was founded in 1694 in a bid to combat the impact of Coronavirus on the UK economy.
It’s your job to educate your clients about what these changes mean for them and their current situation.
It’s also your job to understand how they’ll be feeling so you can tailor your approach. It’s likely you’re getting phone calls from worried clients about their mortgage with questions like:
Should I take a mortgage holiday? What does this mean for my credit?
Advisors need to be in the right position to offer clients clear information about how these changes affect their situation. Because every single client will have seen a change.
Ways you can educate your clients:
- Blogs
- Webinars
- Downloadable guides
- Videos
- Email series
- Podcast
Think about ways you can educate your clients from home. There’s alot of technology available at your disposal to help you reach your clients when you cant meet them face-to-face.
Quick win: pull together some FAQs based on the conversations you’ve been having, put them on your website and send them via email to your clients.
Support
Look for other ways that you can offer support to your clients.
Get your entire firm involved, so everyone understands the customer pain. Listening to your clients will give you a great understanding of how they are feeling so you can better support their needs. Just like when you capture customer feedback.
Be accessible. Clients should always be able to reach you in their time of need.
Embrace tech as a support channel so your clients have various means of getting in touch with you. Be this through your website, social media, phone, text, email – you get the message, there are plenty of ways to stay connected with clients.
But remember, customers, are human. Using tech as a supportive solution will help you reach more clients. But, they still need to speak to a human- especially at times of high concern and anxiety.
Be proactive get in touch first. Forward-thinking businesses anticipate how clients are feeling and alleviate their worry first- so you’re always front of mind.
Tip: when talking to clients, leverage your emotional intelligence to really understand how to support different cases.
Be prepared to say goodbye
Customer support is all about building and strengthening your client relationships. How you manage this relationship is how you show value to your client base. So, like any other human relationship, they need to be nurtured and cared for.
If you’re not offering support for your customers when they need it most, you best say goodbye to your client base.
Stay safe and well, all.
