Running a profitable business can be challenging, especially in the context of standing out from your competitors. Especially during times when your resources are minimal, one of the most important aspects of your business to work on is the customer experience. If your customers are happy and love dealing with you, the likelihood that they’ll go elsewhere is small. Here are some cost-effective ways you can amplify the customer experience:

1. Empower Your Agents to Effectively Connect with Customers

Instead of requiring your agents to follow a standardized script to the letter, empower your agents to really connect with your customers. This will allow them to focus more on the human element, which is the hallmark of good customer service.

2. Be Responsive to Feedback

Nothing can be more frustrating to customers than an organization that doesn’t acknowledge problems and won’t do anything to resolve them. This often causes customers to switch to a competitor. Therefore, customer feedback remains critical to understanding whether your customers are genuinely happy with your products and services and if there’s any further scope for improvement.

3. The Power of Apology and Accountability

You’d be surprised how quickly a sincere apology can simmer down fraying tempers when a customer feels he or she has gotten the wrong end of the deal. Once an apology has been made, for customer recovery to be really effective, there needs to be active follow up and accountability to resolve problems satisfactorily.

It is the rare customer that expects perfection from service providers. It is also rare for businesses to be able to ensure all customers are satisfied 100% of the time. However, an apology and taking accountability can go a long way towards solidifying the customer service experience.

4. Look at Things from the Customer’s Point of View

Taking the customer’s perspective into account at all points of the customer journey reaps rich dividends in terms of customer relationship management. The customer journey involves interactions with sales, customer service, tech support, as well as product development and end-user experience. How would you rate your service in all these areas if you were a customer of your company?

5. It Starts From the Top and Works Its Way Down

The customer experience is also, to a large extent, dependent on how well your customer service agents and customer contact professionals are being managed. Are they happy in their respective environments and are you keeping the channels of communication open with them? Are you willing to hear the feedback that they have to share with you? Is your work culture customer-centric and team-oriented?

Good customer experience doesn’t have to be a complicated metric that’s seemingly difficult to manage. A coach can give you guidance on how to improve and track the customer service experience for your particular organization.