5 Common Mistakes That Lead To Customer Defection

What leads to customer defection? Not much. Just one bad experience. That’s it. And just like that, you’ve lost a customer—and his or her friends, family, and co-workers. If you want to survive and thrive in today’s marketplaces, you must create customer loyalty.

Customer Defection Experiences Are The Key

The best way to prevent customer defection is to provide world-class customer experiences.

Good customer experiences start at your call center—the epicenter of your customer service

Get it right there and customers come back again and again. Get it wrong there and you drive customers away.

How do you get it right at your center?

Eliminate the common mistakes that create bad Customer Defections services—mistakes like those listed below.

Mistake #1: Making A Bad First Impression

You have about 30 seconds to make a good first impression during a call. If you miss this window of opportunity, it’s gone forever. Your greeting is key. Make sure it’s upbeat and sincere. Its quality and sincerity set the tone for the whole transaction.

How quickly you answer the phone can also hurt first impressions. Strive to answer all calls within three rings. You only have one chance to make a good first impression. Don’t blow it.

Mistake #2: Not Using The Customer’s First Name

Customers need to feel comfortable with you. Using a customer’s first name during a call or in an email is among the fastest—and best—ways of making customers feel comfortable.

Getting the customer’s first name also helps humanize the call center. Some agents struggle with doing that but training can develop this skill.

Once you get the customer’s first name you can start building a relationship.

Mistake #3: Providing Irrelevant Information Means Customer Defection

Customers like relevant information. They dislike irrelevant information. Yet agents—and companies—often provide irrelevant information to customers, irritating them.

Make every customer contact count. Maximize every chance you get to build a relationship with your customers. It benefits you. And it benefits them.

Mistake #4: Believing That All Customer Inquiries Are Equal Will Lead To Customer Defection

Some companies prioritize inquiries by the method of contact. Believing that all customers are equal often spells trouble. Instead, prioritize by the customer. That way you can bump your best customers up in the queue if you need to.

Also, make sure your after hours call center executives have access to all key customer information. You don’t want customers repeating information like phone numbers or addresses, every time they call. Update this information whenever a customer calls.

Action Point: Review your call inquiries. Determine how they’re prioritized—by the customer or by the method of contact. If they’re prioritized by the method of contact, prioritize them by customer.

Mistake #5: Not Managing Customer Relationships In All Media

Customer relationship management (CRM) goes beyond the telephone. It encompasses all media. So make sure you apply the same techniques to all channels—e-mail, fax, IM, etc.

And don’t forget the Web. Be consistent across all media.

CRM technology can help. It integrates all media. It also allows you to provide added value across the whole communications spectrum.

Take advantage of it.

Ridding yourself of these 5 mistakes boosts the quality of your customer service at your call center—the key to providing world-class customer experiences.

Good customer experiences keep the customer from defecting and prevent your brand from being tarnished.

Let us put our proven experience in providing call center outsourcing services for small and medium-size companies to work for you. Request a quote from our sales team.