Customer service process - what stages does it consist of and how can it be optimized?

Getting the consumer's attention and interest in your offer is only the beginning of the sales path. In practice, it is the customer service process in a store or service company that can influence whether a customer decides to complete a transaction. The conclusion is simple - a thorough analysis of the customer service process is crucial to a company's sales performance.

In this article, we will explain to you what its most important stages are and what to do to actually improve the efficiency of the customer service process.

Customer service process - definition

The process of customer service in an online or stationary store or a company offering specific services is a multi-stage one, spanning the period from the moment the consumer became interested in your product/service to the sale and after-sales service. It is worth noting that the customer service process map does not end with the finalization of the transaction. On the contrary, keeping in touch with the customer and ensuring that he/she receives help and expert advice after the sale is a step towards establishing a long-term interaction, building his/her loyalty to your brand.

Stages of the customer service process

The pattern of the customer service process is determined by the individual nature of your offering, but in practice there are several points common to all companies.

Stage 1. Getting the customer interested in your offer and presenting him with detailed information about it. The course of the customer service process should be tailored to the individual customer's needs and expectations. Employees dealing with customers must be competent enough to clearly present the qualities of the product or service. For the course of the customer service process, it is therefore crucial to properly train the employees delegated to this task.

Step 2 Answering customer questions. First of all, your employees should not be surprised by any question from the person being served, so it is very important to have a thorough knowledge of the products or services being sold. Explanations should be given in simple language that the recipient understands, while the customer service team itself should present an attitude of respect and readiness to help.

Stage 3 Sales. Finalizing the transaction is the culmination of the customer service process. At this stage, if possible, it's a good idea to add to the buyer's shopping cart some samples of other products that are available in your offer.

Stage 4 Post-sales contacts. Mapping the customer service process absolutely should not end at the purchase stage. After the sale, it is a good idea to ask the customer about his impressions and, based on this, to pick out areas of activity that need to be optimized. Customer satisfaction survey is the key to positive change.

Besides, the process of individual customer service is worth supplementing, if the user agrees, with the sending of a newsletter. For regular customers, it is advisable to prepare additional benefits, for example, in the form of price discounts. You need to keep in mind that this final stage of the customer service process will fundamentally affect customer loyalty, which will translate into the likelihood of repeat purchases.

Proper management of the customer service process determines customer experience, or the consumer experience. In other words, how your employees interact with buyers largely determines the level of sales.

Customer service process in online vs. stationary store

The elements of the customer service process vary, depending on what product or service you offer. So you need to develop a model that will be able to produce the best results in your case. In practice, how the customer service process works also depends on the type of store you run: the scheme is presented differently in an online store and differently in a stationary store.

The characteristics of the customer service process in an online store accentuate, first of all, the lack of real contact with the goods and the service person. What does this mean? Standardization of the customer service process in an online store is even more important for sales efficiency than in a stationary store. E-shop owners face major challenges in minimizing the distance between the service person and the buyer, as well as efficient delivery of orders.

Improving the customer service process: what is worth keeping in mind?

Optimizing the customer service process is a business to be or not to be. It is fundamental to identify the areas that need improvement. What can help you do this? A mystery shopper survey.

A mystery shopper is an unknown service person who pretends to be an ordinary shopper and is able to objectively evaluate the sales process on this basis. Beforehand, it is worth defining the criteria for evaluating the customer service process, so that the person playing the role of mystery shopper will know what issues he or she needs to pay special attention to. It is also worth investing in professional audits, such as a retail audit. Conducted by impartial people who show the necessary distance and are not emotionally connected to the brand, they will allow you to formulate a factual assessment.

See also: what is and why use experience marketing?

Properly improving your customer service process gives you the chance to visibly increase sales in your stationary and online store. What do you need to take care of first?

• Various channels of communication. This applies to stationary stores as well as e-shops. Ideally, a potential customer should have several channels to contact the service department. This will allow him to choose the most preferred one and influence his evaluation of the process. A hotline, email contact, the ability to send a message and receive a response via the brand's social media profiles, chat boxes on the website - these are all essential.
• Short response time. No one likes to wait, so when improving your customer service process model, you need to pay attention to response time. Reducing it to a minimum is an absolute must. Otherwise, an annoyed customer may take a competitor's offer. In the case of stationary stores, be mindful of how long a customer has to wait for someone from the staff to offer help.
• This point applies only to stationary stores. Long queues in a store are a marketing shot in the knee, so it is worth making an effort to relieve them effectively. Waiting is annoying, especially today, when, living in a rush, customers do not want to waste precious time standing in lines.
• Order status information. A very good idea to improve the e-customer service process. By informing the buyer that his order has been accepted for processing or by sending an email informing him that the package has been shipped, you give him a clear signal that you care about efficient contact.

SUMMARY: efficient customer service process directly translates into sales, so it is worth taking care to optimize it, while paying attention to the differences between online and stationary stores.