Bulk SMS Marketing is one of the important marketing strategies in promoting real estate property. It is important to follow bulk SMS marketing strategies to keep up with the pace of competition in the real estate industry.
According to the Malaysian Institute of Estate Agents (MIEA), for the sale and/or purchase of land/buildings within Malaysia, the agent’s commission fees are set at a maximum of 3% of the property’s sales price.
By using bulk SMS in the real estate industry, information can be transmitted immediately.
In this regard, SMS Marketing provides property agents with an effective platform to promote and gets their work done without digging deep into their pocket.
Plus reaching your customers using SMS services is one of the most innovative and cheapest ways. Since everyone’s mobile phone has a default SMS system, information can be transmitted immediately.
There are 42.93 million mobile subscribers in Malaysia, accounting for 139% of the total population. Thus there is no denying that SMS marketing is one of the easiest and fastest ways to reach customers.
Smartphones or not, everyone has a text message system installed on their phones, so messages can be delivered to them almost immediately.
Eager to learn more? Let’s find out the benefits of SMS marketing, in particular, to real estate agents.
1. We All Tend to Open Text Messages in Real Life
SMS are usually read within the first 5 minutes, making it the fastest way to reach your potential customers.
Unlike your email inbox, your SMS inbox will not be overwhelmed by marketing messages, and that’s why people tend to open it instantly when they receive a text message.
Malaysia property developers and agents can use SMS services to send notifications about upcoming launches and new property developments.
By using SMS marketing, Malaysia property agents and developers can enjoy a higher click-through rate.
Emails can easily get lost in newsletters, invoices and promotional materials, and this is exactly what you want to avoid.
Based on a report by GetResponse, the average open rate for email marketing in Southeast Asia is 26% with a 4.9% Click-through Rate (CTR).
2. Bulk SMS is Cost-Effective
Many property agents in Malaysia tend to promote the property using Facebook marketing, which is way more expensive when compared with Bulk SMS.
Bulk messages are easy to send, and each text message costs only a few cents. This can bring a high return on investment for property agents in Malaysia.
You will most likely be charged based on the number of messages sent, which means you can control your costing more easily and know exactly what to expect when planning your budget.
In addition, you can monitor the response and classify the recipients based on location, age or any other information you have about them to create more customized and targeted campaigns.
3. SMS is Much Friendlier
In Malaysia, most companies are sending SMS to their customers to grow their business.
Although e-mail is one of the most important means of communication today, it is often not personalized. SMS, on the other hand, is a more friendly communication method.
In most cases, we will receive text messages from friends, family members, or people we think are important enough to know our phone number.
In this regard, property agents can customize their SMS according to the behaviour of the client.
For example, send out MMS content (photos) to showcase a few properties to a client. A picture speaks a thousand words. Beautiful photos can attract potential property buyers to schedule a viewing.
Send video walkthroughs and photos using MMS. You can even customize the message to include any info you want, but we recommend treating it as a bite-size listing. Here are just a few items you can include:
Address
Images of the property
Profile
Size
Price
Your contact info
Shortened link to Google Map
Shortened link to your website
4. Secured Information using Bulk SMS in the Real Estate Industry
We all receive a lot of emails every day, which makes it easier for us to get lost in the newsletter. In addition to this, the spam filter may not always work properly.
Some important emails can end up in the spam folder. With SMS, messages are rarely lost, and property agent can ensure that important information reaches the client as soon as possible.
Buying a property is a big decision. Understandably, your leads may need some time to think over before deciding or scheduling a viewing. As SMS is encrypted, clients can feel more confident with the SMS content.
For more information about spam filter solution, check on Exabytes SpamExperts – Anti-Spam Solution to help filter virus and malware.
5. Set Alerts and Reminders
Last but not least, you can arrange to send text messages to clients to remind them of important appointments.
For example, if you have an appointment with a client to view a house and want to remind him before the appointment, you can always arrange for SMS to be sent on the appointment day, or a few hours before the appointment starts.
It makes your job easier because you do not have to constantly check and remind your potential clients about appointments.
You can sync the automatic SMS service to your online calendar and arrange for it to send automatic messages when the meeting is near. This way, you will have more time to prepare for viewing instead of focusing on tedious small tasks.
In Exabytes, we provide Bulk SMS marketing service that is reliable, low cost, and we can help you deliver bulk text messages worldwide.
Please feel free to get in touch with our friendly staff at [email protected]
Some of the frequent users of SMS messaging services are those in the healthcare industry such as clinics, appointment scheduling software companies and even full-blown EMR (Electronic Medical Records) software companies.
As one of the primary use cases of SMS messaging, it shows the efficiency of bulk SMS notifications in managing and communicating with patients.
Patient care is one of the main priorities for physicians. In this regard, the continuous use of technology improves patient experience.
Simple deployment of SMS API will have a relatively significant impact on the experience of the patient.
Here are a few ways of how SMS messaging especially transactional SMS can help in the healthcare sector.
1. Call-to-Action
This means that an SMS alert could act as a reminder for the patient regarding his appointment. When an appointment reminder is added, a shortened link will be made available so that the patient can reschedule the appointment (if needed).
In this case, it saves the clinic time and there is no need for the patient to make a phone call to the clinic for any changes.
These timely messages, which are best sent beforehand reduce client no-shows and drive future appointments.
For example, clinics and hospitals in countries like the United States, United Kingdom, Canada have provided this kind of service as people tend to check their phone more often and read the SMS message more frequently as compared to email reminders.
2. Patient Care
Appointment reminders will not only act as the notification that notifies patients about their test results.
A shortened link that directs the patient to see his medical examination results on the patient portal will be included in the SMS message.
SMS messages are also very helpful as a recurrent reminder for recurring appointments. Prescription refills can be triggered. They can also remind the patient to take medication.
Therefore, it’s very useful for the doctor as it gives an overview of the health of the patient before an appointment, notify regular checkups of the patients and more.
3. Notifying Staffs
Other than the patients, clinic and hospital staff also will have their phone with them all the time. So, instant SMS notifications can ensure that the doctors and staff are informed, including shift changes and other internal communication.
If you want to increase the speed of SMS delivery, you can use Flash SMS to grab their attention immediately.
Thus this could also save the doctors and the medical staff time as they will be alerted when an SMS message comes in.
Additional ideas, birthday reminders and schedules like maintenance schedules, cleaning schedules, emergency messages, meeting reminders, shift changes can be sent out by a quick blast SMS message.
4. News and Alerts
Other than that, SMS messages can also make sure that everyone is informed. For example, with the recent COVID-19 pandemic, the whole community should be well informed about the latest updates and precautionary tips.
In this case, MKN Malaysia has made use of SMS messaging and sent out the message for everyone to stay alert. This is a very good example as bulk SMS messaging is now a very effective tool for the government to keep the public informed.
For businesses, this method can be adopted to show how much you care.
5. Healthcare Software Needs to Include SMS
EMR software companies or appointment scheduling software must give their clients the option to communicate with the patient using SMS.
It is also because SMS API is simple and easy to deploy, but not every clinic will have an IT department with the developers. So, this will be the chance for the healthcare software companies to fill the void.
This will not only be a win for the healthcare providers and their patients, but SMS can also become a part of the model that could generate revenue for the healthcare software company.
Similar to CRM, the healthcare management software company can offer bulk SMS services to hospitals and clinics at a reasonable price.
6. Consider Omni Channel Messaging (Bonus)
This is also considered as an omnichannel messaging as it increases the interaction for call-to-action.
More channels for communication also means the patient can have more channels to communicate with the healthcare provider, making things to proceed smoothly.
In this case, a quick message can remind people to always take care of their health. It is because SMS messaging is a powerful preventive approach in healthcare.
Besides that, you can build a satisfaction survey using SMS blasts to get feedback from patients. Tracking the feedback and making improvements will help your practice constantly improve the customer experience.
This piece of software has seen significantly increased use in the industry, and it’s now referred to as Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) scores.
What Types of Bulk SMS Messaging Can You Consider?
SMS marketing can be a powerful tool for businesses to reach their customers with personalized messages and offers. There are two main types of Bulk SMS – Transactional and Promotional.
Transactional SMS
Transactional SMS hold the purpose of delivering important, rarely urgent messages to both DND and non-DND customers.
Transactional SMS is an effective tool for organizations to use in their marketing campaigns. It helps them target customers based on their location and interests.
It also allows them to provide instant feedback on the customers’ experience with the company’s product or service.
Promotional SMS
Promotional SMS promote or market a product or service to non-DND numbers.
Promotional SMS is a text message sent by a company to its customers. It is usually a one-time message that contains some promotional content.
It is easy and quick to send out, it can be used in any country, and it can be personalized to the customers’ needs.
At the same time, it also offers an opportunity for companies to build a relationship with their customers by providing them with more information about their products or services.
Round Up – How SMS Messaging Can Help in the Healthcare Sector
So here you go, the 5 Unique Ways of Using SMS in Healthcare. Wondering how SMS services can help your business. If you are interested in Bulk SMS, make sure to check out Exabytes Bulk SMS Marketing service!
We provide Bulk SMS marketing service that is reliable, low cost, and we can help you deliver bulk text messages worldwide.
Please feel free to get in touch with our friendly staff at [email protected]
Recently, Microsoft has come out with an announcement on the related changes to our Office 365 subscriptions for small and medium-sized businesses—and to Office 365 ProPlus.
This is a natural evolution for Microsoft. Microsoft 365 start as a licensing bundle for enterprise customers in 2017 – a combination of Windows, Office, and Enterprise Mobility and Security (EMS).
It represents Microsoft’s vision for the future of Microsoft productivity tools – an integrated set of apps and services that puts artificial intelligence (AI) and other cutting-edge innovations to work for you.
For a small and medium-sized business, it includes Microsoft Teams which is able to help you host rich meetings with your teams and events online; cloud file storage and sharing capabilities so that you can collaborate with your team anytime and anywhere and security and identity solutions to safeguard your business.
Microsoft is pleased to bring small and medium-sized business customers into this growing Microsoft 365 family, especially at a moment when most of the businesses are facing extraordinary health and economic challenges.
*Note that the changes to these products will all happen automatically.
Why is Microsoft making these changes?
Microsoft wants the products to reflect more range of features and benefits in the subscriptions as Microsoft 365 is an integrated set of all apps and services that puts AI and other cutting-edge innovations to work for all of us.
For small and medium-sized businesses, Microsoft Teams is included to help you host rich meetings and events online. It also provides cloud file storage and sharing capabilities which can help you in collaboration with the team. And the security and identity solutions will be able to safeguard your businesses.
It is a way to simplify. A new product name approach is designed to help customers find the plan that they need for their business.
How does Office fit into Microsoft 365?
There will be no changes in regard to this as Office suite is a core to the Microsoft productivity experiences. Microsoft cloud productivity offering has grown well beyond what people usually think of as “Office”.
Microsoft 365 is breathing new life into these apps with the help of the cloud and AI. It also adds new, born-in-the-cloud experiences like Teams, Stream, Forms, and Planner. All of this is underpinned by a set of common services that keep your data safe and secure.
Good news! If you are facing issues on managing your WordPress site, this workshop is for you! We will conduct a free WordPress Workshop for our WordPress hosting clients and you are invited. Guess what? It’s totally free of charge!
About the Trainer
The trainer, Julian Song has 12 years experience in WordPress as a web designer and consultant. With more than 10 years working experiences as graphic designer and art director in International Advertising Agency, Julian has been handling client like Lexus, Toyota, Canon, Maybank, Telekom, etc.
His dedication in helping SMEs to GLCs, from Malaysia to International to build and maintain their website and won him a good reputation as WordPress Consultant.
What’s in for you?
This WordPress workshop will dish out important advice on the best practices on managing your site, including installing the right plugins, the “myth” of SEO, the right way to perform backup, the recommended security practices and more! Join us to find out if you are running your WordPress sites in a correct and the simplest way possible.
Step by step guidelines will be provided in order to ensure you gain the ability to manage and optimize your website.
Hello everyone! Here is a good news! Due to overwhelming response from last week’s SME DigitalFest, we decided to bring you the BM and Mandarin versions of SME DigitalFest 2.0! Yes, these upcoming events will be conducted in Bahasa and Mandarin!
These are our very first events conducted in Bahasa and Mandarin and they will be broadcast online for everyone for FREE on Thursday and Friday! Don’t miss this rare opportunity!
If you missed the last event, don’t miss it again!
Just in case you are still not sure what SME DigitalFest 2020 is all about, here is a quick intro:
What is SME DigitalFest?
Organized by the Exabytes Group, SME DigitalFest is an effective platform for Small/Medium Enterprises (SMEs), relevant industry players and experts to gather and have in-depth discussions to gain a thorough understanding of the development, challenges, opportunities and trends of the business.
What you will learn from the event?
You will learn how to sustain your business and maintain your income during this MCO period through SME DigitalFest 2.0.
Take your business online in 3 DAYS without affecting your current business operation!
Great news! We’ve launched WordPress Pro Version in addition to our existing WordPress packages. WordPress Pro Version comes with a FREE .COM Domain, additional SSD storage and value-added features such as Smart Update, Speed Kit and Backup to Cloud.
2) We’ve Stopped Accepting Payments Made via Cheque
In an effort to comply with the Movement Control Order and protect our customers and employees against coronavirus (COVID-19), we’ve stopped accepting payments made via cheque with effect from 31 March 2020 till further notice.
We thank you in advance for your kind understanding.
Please rest assured that we’re still accepting payments through PayPal and Online Banking.
3) Our tech support team is still reachable 24×7!
Due to the recent COVID-19 outbreak, all our employees are currently working from home to continue providing support to our loyal clients. Although this may indirectly result in a slower than usual customer support response time, please rest assured that our tech support team is still reachable 24×7!
4) Exabytes (MY) has taken the initiative to Assist and Support SMEs amid the COVID-19 outbreak
Exabytes (MY) has taken the initiative to Assist and Support SMEs on how to seize the current opportunity without meeting face-to-face with the customer, get more people to notice your business while staying at home and have team collaboration while everyone is not in the office.
Hey guys! The very first Online SME DigitalFest is coming very soon! Due to the recent COVID-19 outbreak, we decided to shift the SME DigitalFest 2020 from a physical event to an ONLINE event.
So don’t worry! You’ll still be able to learn from in-depth discussions and gain a thorough understanding of the development and specific current business challenges, opportunities and trends.
Just in case you are not sure what SME DigitalFest 2020 is all about, here is a quick intro:
Organized by the Exabytes Group, SME DigitalFest is an effective platform for Small/Medium Enterprises (SMEs), relevant industry players and experts to gather and have in-depth discussions to gain a thorough understanding of the development, challenges, opportunities and trends of the business.
Many don’t realize the importance of digital transformation until the COVID-19 Crisis.
Traditional industry structures and business models are being disrupted by the innovation of new products and services, changing cost structures, lowering barriers to entry and shifting value pools. Companies need to re-imagine how to create, distribute and capture value in this new environment. Navigation requires holistic and sustained insight and intelligence.
Just like the theme of SME DigitalFest 2020 suggests, it’s time to double down on digital transformation and start/expand your business online!
Check out the speaker of the event:
and many more upcoming!
Don’t wait! Register now to join our Online SME DigitalFest 2020! ADMISSION is 100% FREE!
If you are looking to learn everything about Digital Transformation, how to shift from offline to online, you should join this momentous event! Register now at: www.digitalfest.asia !
Usually, 403 forbidden error appears when the user is a novice to WordPress, and the security plugin is configured very poorly.
Not only this but sometimes WordPress hosting company can make some changes without any prior notice, then also you can encounter 403 Forbidden error.
There can be different scenarios for display of this error including access denied on WordPress login page, wp-admin page, access denial on the installation of WordPress, or visiting any WordPress site page, etc.
How to Fix It?
You can begin the process of fixing 403 Forbidden Error with deactivation of all the WordPress plugins along with the security plugin. If you can get the resolution this way, then you can activate the plugins one by one and can figure out which plugin was causing it.
Another reason can be incorrect file permissions, for which you can seek the help of your hosting provider. Otherwise, you can change the permissions for your website.
If the problem is due to the corrupt .htaccess file, then you must try connecting your website with FTP client and then locating the file and then you can make a fresh .htaccess file in permalinks option present in website settings.
2. Database Connection Error
Sometimes, WordPress becomes unable to build a database connection due to various reasons.
Usually, the beginners face such issues at a high rate because of incorrect login credentials or due to any corruption in the database.
When there is the installation of any incompatible or damaged plugin, then the hosting servers perform very low.
Due to which, you can encounter the database connection error.
How to Fix It?
On the very first note, you must check whether your database is okay or not, and if it shows any error, then you can repair it by going to wp-admin.php file. Here, you need to enter a code “define( ‘ WP_ALLOW_REPAIR ‘, true );. With this code, you can get an optimized database. After this, you must navigate to www.yoursite.com/wp-admin/maint/repair.php, and then click on repair and optimize button successfully.
For another reason, you can change the database login credentials, and you need to login into your PHP My admin account where you can make the desired changes.
3. Fatal Error
When the WordPress update gets failed in between, then you encounter Fatal error saying Call to Undefined function is_network_admin().
This error message generally appears when you have updated your WordPress website, and then you have entered login credentials to log in into the WordPress website.
How to Fix It?
If you face Call undefined Fatal error, then you must try manually updating your WordPress site because there will be fewer chances of any glitch or corruption in the files.
For this, you can download the latest file and then unzip the downloaded folder. After this, you must make it sure that you have backed up your WordPress and all its files and then change the name of your WordPress. For the next step, you need FTP as you will have to upload wp-includes and wp-admin directories to a web host with the help of FTP. At last, you can copy wp-content files from new to an old folder by replacing and overwriting those files. Remove the .maintenance file from the directory and upload the latest version of the left files.
4. PHP Memory Limit Error
As the name indicates, PHP Memory Limit error message appears when there is memory exhaustion in the working of your website.
In actual, every web hosting server needs some memory with which they can install and run the features or plugins required for the smooth working of a website.
The memory allocated by PHP is not unlimited but specific.
If WordPress coding becomes unable to manage with already provided memory, then exhaustion occurs, and an error message appears.
How to Fix It?
Firstly, do the editing of the wp-config.php file present in the folders of your WordPress site. Then, use FTP client or file manager and paste a code in your wp-config.php. The code is “define( ‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘256M’ );. Then move the wp-config.php file to the hosting server again. That’s how the problem will be solved in seconds.
5. White Screen of Death
The most annoying WordPress problem is the appearance of the white screen of death where you cannot find any options on the screen even to change the settings.
It might be happening due to exhaustion of memory or due to improper coding of the website.
Otherwise, your hosting provider can also be at fault.
How to Fix It?
If the white screen is due to memory exhaustion, then you must try your level best to increase PHP memory limit.
If still, the problem persists, then you can deactivate all your plugins to find the dysfunctional plugin. Also, clear the cache so that you can solve your problem on the fingertips.
In any case, you are still encountering the same issue; you should replace the existing theme of your website.
Conclusion
We hope that we have listed out all the common WordPress errors and the solutions are worked for you.
If the issue still exists, you may seek for help from your hosting provider.
Feel feel to comment below about any horrible experiences you have had with WordPress and how you fixed them.
Do you know that 35% of websites in the entire world are built using WordPress? The figure also means approximately 75,000,000 websites out there are using WordPress right now.
Why is WordPress the most preferred/popular CMS (Content Management System)? There must be some convincing reasons!
In this article, we will share with you 5 solid reasons why the majority of us choose WordPress. In fact, you should too. Read on to find out!
In short, CMS is a software that allows you to maintain and update your website without any need to know HTML or CSS. The system will provide you with the tools necessary to create, edit, and publish content.
Lower setup and maintenances cost
One of the biggest reasons people love WordPress is the low setup and maintenance cost. The cost of getting a WordPress website done is relatively low compared to other CMS.
In fact, the CMS itself is free, but one is not able to use it without a hosting and domain. Therefore it is strongly recommended to go for a managed WordPress hosting, instead of an ordinary web hosting.
A CMS built for everyone, any website
Lower cost doesn’t mean limited features and functions. In fact, more than 50,000 plugins are available for download and install to extend the functionality of WordPress.
For sure, most of them are free, but some fees are required if you opt for certain advanced features.
Thus, with these powerful plugins and themes, you can create any type of websites — blogs, ecommerce stores, fancy company websites — with zero restriction!
Most importantly, WordPress website is built with simplicity in mind; even if you are not a professional web developer, you can still build a great website by yourself.
The CMS that brings more traffic
One of the ultimate goals of any website is to get as much exposure, traffic, and visitors as you can.
Thus it is of great importance to use a SEO friendly platform/software so that search engine like Google can find your site easily and display the it in relevant search results.
Different search engines have different algorithm. The rules of algorithm are dynamic and sophisticated; the more algorithm rules you fulfill, the better ranking in search results.
Since WordPress core has been developed and optimized for search engines, you don’t have to worry about it at all. Moreover, there are a great number of plugins available that can further enhance the SEO of your website.
For more advise on this topic, feel free to refer to our WordPress SEO guide to get more ideas.
WordPress helps to protect your site
Here comes another concern when running a website. You want it to be secured all the time. Hackers are continuously trying to find loopholes to attack websites on the internet.
But the good news is, WordPress website is developed with security in mind, with regular security updates to minimize website vulnerability.
If you wish to get extra protection for your site, follow these guidelines to ensure your site is highly secure all the time.
You must be frustrated when you encounter issues or problems with your website, but no worries, the huge WordPress community that is made up of countless WordPress gurus and experts have got your back.
For more latest news and practical tutorials regarding WordPress, feel free to visit our blog or subscribe to our newsletters. Drop us a comment below and tell us any WordPress related topic you might be interested!
As a business owner, the most important thing is to increase word-of-mouth referrals and reduce churn rate.
But how? The most effective way to do so is to improve your customer service to your existing customers.
Don’t think so? Read on the customer serve tips you should know as a successful entrepreneur.
No matter how well your products are, or how talented you think your team is, what your customers are most likely to remember is the experience they gain when they’re in contact with your company.
Grey Roth found that the most powerful competitive differentiator among competitors is customer service.
Your customer relationships will deteriorate and growth will slow down if you are not constantly looking for opportunities to improve your customer service.
One of the methods we use to keep our support team on their toes and our company culture on track is a customer service tip-of-the-day.
In this post, we’d like to share 30 best tips with you, so you can use them to give your own support team a crash course to offer amazing customer service.
1. Always Practise Empathy, Patience and Consistency
Some of your customers will be full of the questions, some are just talkative and others are mad at you when they start the conversation.
You must be ready and well-prepared to empathize with customers and handle all their enquiries with the same level of service every time.
2. Understand that Good Customer Service is a Continuous Learning Process
Each customer is unique and thus it will be different in every support situation.
You have to be willing to keep learning so that you can handle surprises, your customers’ mood and address new challenges accordingly.
It is important to have a deep understanding of your customers’ challenges and continue to search for better ways to address them.
3. Ask Your Customers if They Understand
Always check with your customers to make sure that they know exactly what you mean.
You will not want your customers to think they’re getting 25% off when they’re actually getting 25% more products.
Ask them if they understand what you’re saying. Stay cheerful no matter what.
Use positive language and never end the conversation without confirming that the customer understands and is satisfied whether on Live Chat or helpdesk.
4. Don’t Be Afraid to Say “I Don’t Know”
Your customers rely on you to know about your products inside out. You should always stay informed enough to respond to their questions or at least get the idea if the questions become too technical for you to answer.
It is okay to say to your customers “I don’t know” when you are not familiar or not sure of the answers.
As long as you follow up with “but I’ll find out” to your customer, customers will appreciate your honesty and efforts to find the right answer or solutions for them.
5. Show Your Customers Your Work Ethic
Customers prefer a support agent who doesn’t pass the buck/sticks until their problem has been solved.
However, you can’t spend too much time handling only one customer while others are waiting. Stay focused on your goals to achieve the right balance.
6. A Thick Skin is Needed
Many people would say “the customer’s always right.” There is truth to that.
The best customer service agent should have the ability to swallow their pride and accept all the blame or negative feedback…or handle certain unreasonable customers in an emphatic way.
No matter what, your primary goal is to increase customer satisfaction regarding your service.
If a customer is completely unreasonable, just be human and level with them. Let them know you’re doing your best.
7. Show Your Customers You’re Human
Try your best to identify the common ground and mutual interest with customers you help.
By humanizing your relationship, you can easily resolve all the conflicts. As a result, your customers will like you and your business more.
8. Pay Attention to Your Customer Experience
A bad customer experience at any point in the customer lifecycle can really destroy your relationship with them.
Pay critical attention to key touchpoints: customer trial periods, customer sign-ups, customer on-boarding etc.
You can build a knowledge base for your customers to find the answer to the solutions.
Maybe you can try out Exabytes Helpdesk Software (with easy to understand guidelines) to build a knowledge base.
Make sure you have a full view of your customer experience, or you risk service breakdowns that will hurt business.
If you discover a lapse in service, make sure to bring it up with your management team so it can be fixed.
9. Be an Active listener
When you use active listening, your customers feel heard. Let your customers know you understand them by clarifying and rephrasing what they say.
The main purpose is to empathize with them and reflect their feelings by saying things like, “I’m sorry, I can see why that is upsetting” or “That is a problem and I understand what you’re saying”.
10. Admit Your Mistakes
Admit your mistakes if you mess up or even discover your mistakes before your customers do.
Admitting you messed up builds trust and restores your customer confidence in your service.
It also allows you to control the situation, re-focus on customer’s attention, and fix the problem.
11. Follow Up After a Problem is Solved
Always follow up with your customers, make sure their issues were resolved properly and customers are satisfied with the overall service.
Give them a call, send them a good support email, or ask them to fill out a feedback survey form so that your customers know you care and you’re still on their side.
12. Be Real by Getting Personal
Your customers want help from real people, not just FAQs and automated emails.
Take advantage of social media (Facebook, Twitter, and review sites) and respond when your customers post on your page.
Display support team pictures and bios on your website. Show your customers that your company has real people working on their behalf.
13. Be Accessible
Always be accessible for your customers so that they can reach you when they need it.
No matter how your business is largely online, try to arrange a meet up with your local customers or offer video calls (such as Skype) if face-to-face isn’t possible.
The more ways you are accessible (via phone, chat, text, email etc.) the more trust you’ll build.
14. Rollout the White Glove Treatment
You should make sure that your products or services meet your customers’ needs.
Offering a VIP treatment to your best and loyal customers to make them feel appreciated.
You can assign support agents to specific customers so they can build personal relationships. Make each of your customers feel like they have a friend in the business.
As a Loyalty Exabytes Customer, I believe you had received our appreciation gift before.
15. Create a Customer Community
Creating a sense of community around your products is a great way to make your customers feel valued.
You can do this by bringing your customers together for webinars, interactive websites, social media such as Facebook Group, blog comments, trade shows and conventions.
When your customers come to these forums to learn from you, it’s a great opportunity for you to learn from them.
16. Make Sure Your Support Team is Happy
Your customers’ happiness isn’t the only thing you should be concerned about.
You should know how your customer service team feels about their working environment, opportunities for career advancement, training, available tools and resources, and their peers.
Collect feedback from your employees and respond to their feedback. Set benchmarks and goals, and track performance.
Your support team’s happiness will affect the overall customer service performance of your business.
17. Always Collect Your Customer Feedback
To improve your customer service and grow your business, you should learn from your customers (the good and the bad), and the unpleasant experience your customers have.
You can create multiple touchpoints that are easily accessible so that your customers can give you their feedback.
Your customers can tell you regarding the issues they face, and this can be a good point to improve your business. You can also find out what is stopping your business from growing.
18. Know Your Customers
Try to understand what customers are actually looking for, why they bought your product, and what they love or hate about your company.
Use a helpdesk tool like Freshdesk that makes tracking customer conversations and information easy, so when customers contact your support team, they have a meaningful interaction.
19. Practice Clear Communication
How you communicate with your customers is important in customer service. The way you speak affects communication.
Tone affects communication. Watch out for passive-aggressive language (“Actually…”).
This will turn your customers off. Moreover, avoid confusing your customers with slang, colloquialism, or technical jargon.
20. Dealing with Customers using their Style
It is important to be friendly, personable and casual when you speak or write to your customers.
There are many companies that offer customer service that sound as if they are robots programmed to speak like a 16th century nobleman.
Don’t be a robot nobleman. Have a real conversation with your customers.
21. Use Positive Language
Here’s an example of positive language in a customer support setting: “The upgrade will be available next month.
I can put in an order for you right now and make sure your account is upgraded as soon as it’s released!” Next we’ll give you an example of negative language.
22. Don’t Use Negative Language
Here’s an example of negative language in a customer support setting: “I can’t get you an upgrade until next month. Our service is backordered and unavailable right now.” See the difference?
23. Use the CARP Method
It’s important for customer service teams to stay consistent in the tone they use and the processes they practise. The best way to do both is to use the CARP method:
Control the situation.
Acknowledge the dilemma.
Refocus the conversation.
Solve problems so the customer leaves happily.
24. Solve Problems on the First Call
Practising first-contact resolutions is One of the best ways to keep customers happy and be seen as a company that provides outstanding services.
In other words, solve your customers’ problems the first time they call in.
There’s nothing your customers will appreciate more than getting their issues addressed the first time around.
25. Always Close Conversations Correctly
Every conversation you close with a customer should end with you saying “Is there anything else I can do for you today? I’m happy to help!” and your customer saying “Yes, I’m all set!” loud and clear.
Close a conversations correctly shows the customer three vital things:
You care about getting things right.
You’re willing to keep going until you get things right.
The customer is the one who decides what “right” is.
26. Use Customer Service Templates
It’s important to keep your standards high and your response time low. Stop wasting your time to answer every basic and common question.
Build scalable templates so you can respond to these types of enquiries with ease and professionalism.
27. Help Your Customers Help Themselves
You should always be available, even if you aren’t. Make sure you are offering a self-service help desk with top-tier support material for all to see and benefit from.
Use screenshots, videos, and clear styling and make sure your how-to’s and FAQs get great reviews.
28. Stay Informed with Customer Data
Did you know that you will not need to spend a lot of time addressing the issues when the customer data can easily eliminate the guesswork?
Tracking the frequency of issues as well as the average handle time will give you the reporting you need to make better decisions on how to improve your business.
Use a helpdesk like Freshdesk that is able to track your customer activities including the issues they have faced before, the product that has been purchased, etc.
29. Surprise your Customers with an Offline Thank You
Nothing says thank you like a handwritten note.
Taking the time to send a personal thank you letter via snail mail is the kind of unexpected thing that builds rock-solid customer relationships.
You can see how Oxwhite do this to their customers.
For VIP customers, throwing in a batch of fresh baked cookies or even a Starbucks gift card is a nice touch.
Customer appreciation, therefore, goes a long way in building a healthy customer relationship.
30. Remember that Customer Service is Everyone’s Job
Everyone should be feeling the customers’ pain points.
When your whole company is encouraged to be involved in customer service, potential problems, bugs and features become illuminated for the entire team.
There’s no faster way to make improvements and drive your business forward. It’s so simple, yet often overlooked: just talk to the customer!
