Companies thrive or fail based on their reputation. Maximum effort to build, maintain and enhance a positive reputation is a common thread across successful companies, making brand reputation management essential to your customer strategy.
Building a successful reputation requires providing customers with high-quality products/services and delivering excellent customer service on demand. To do so, support staff must be available when needed. Customers require access to support around the clock, and brands that value their reputation and want to grow their business, provide it.
While many factors impact your reputation, the customer experience of interacting with support staff might just be the most important one. Access to support personnel who speak clearly, are equipped to resolve issues effectively and can connect with customers on a personal level largely determines which brand a customer buys from and remains loyal to.
Make Contact Convenient for Customers
To provide the convenience customers seek and expect, your support staff usually must be available 24/7. Whether you staff internally or hire a contact center partner or a mix of both, make sure you offer hours of service that your competitors do, at the minimum.
Capitalizing on the revenue opportunity from your customer base is reason enough to be available when desired, but there is more to consider than just ringing the register. Your reputation is at stake and the management of your image as it is reflected on social sites makes a compelling second reason to have staff engaged at all hours.
Consider the Impact of Engagement
Customers are quick to share their experiences, good and bad. According to Review Trackers, reviews are up by over 50% relative to pre-pandemic levels and companies aren’t responding fast enough (or at all) to reviews. This insight alone should be reason enough for you to act on the opportunity to protect your brand and capture incremental revenue from your competitors in the process.
It’s common knowledge that bad news travels much further than good news. Depending on the reach of a given customer, a strong influencer can severely impact your reputation and revenue with just one post, review, or short tweet. It’s imperative to make sure great experiences are the norm and unfavorable posts are replied to promptly, with empathy and/or successful resolutions. Positive experiences are valuable, too, and engaged brand reputation managers acknowledge these posts and share appreciation sentiments with their happy customers.
Therefore, it’s important to have staff who have been tasked with monitoring posts and reading reviews. because you only have one opportunity to offer a timely response which all the world can see.
While monitoring social posts as frequently as possible is preferred, some companies use the typically slower third shift as a strategic time to catch up with social activity. Many companies, particularly those that piggyback agent responsibilities between providing support through email and social channels, reserve email replies and social post reviews for their low volume periods (i.e., the evening).
Implement Expertly Trained Staff
Every customer wants to feel important, and valued by the brands they spend their hard-earned money on. Make sure all staff representing your brand are extensively trained to provide excellent results, and the best possible experience to every customer, and sincerely relay statements of appreciation. Customers are quick to share insight into their service experiences with support staff. Even in the face of a less-than-ideal situation, such as a product not working or a damaged item due to shipping, your staff’s actions can result in the creation of a loyal brand ambassador.
Having sufficient staff available to support customers promptly and at their convenience, will increase your chances of providing a positive service experience. Customers dislike waiting for assistance, particularly for those who have a problem to report. The longer they wait, the more challenging it becomes for support staff to make that customer happy.
Offering live agent access to your customers 24/7 is not just a great way to build a strong positive reputation, it has become a best practice for most successful brands.
Contact Telecom, Inc. for Brand Reputation Management Support
Telecom’s contact center team has been elevating customer experiences and positively impacting brand reputation management for nearly three decades with our combination of excellent domestic staff, custom solutions, and 24/7 support. Contact us to discuss the many ways we can help you offer support when your customers need it, allowing your brand to be celebrated by happy customers.