In any business landscape, customer service is perhaps the most important aspect of said business. The key for any business is to learn how to deliver reliable customer service. But what is reliability in customer service and how are the two related? Housecall Pro is here to help.
Learning about why customer service is important, how to enhance customer service skills, and how you can improve customer service can help take your business to the next level. Learn how to deliver reliable customer service with this helpful guide below.
Learn How to Deliver Reliable and Consistent Customer Service
- What Does Reliability in Customer Service Mean?
- What Sets Reliable Customer Service Apart?
- How to Deliver Truly Reliable Customer Service Every Day
- Why Excellent Customer Service is Non-Negotiable
- What Defines Excellent Customer Service?
- How to Give Outstanding Customer Service Without Overcomplicating It
- Next Steps in Building Trust & Improving Customer Loyalty
What Does Reliability in Customer Service Mean?
Before you can really know how to quantify customer service, it helps to know the answer to the question, “What is reliability in customer service?” It is possible to learn how to give outstanding customer service, but it is critical to see why reliability is so critical.
Why is consistent and reliable customer service important? Reliability means a promised level of dependable service each time. When you get down to the bedrock of, “What is the difference between customer service and customer experience?” you will see that reliability plays an integral part of the process.
What Sets Reliable Customer Service Apart?
If you want to know how to deliver reliable customer service, you need to know what sets the most reliable businesses apart from the rest. Understanding how to quantify customer service, knowing what skills for customer service are most valuable, and how to be dependable in the eyes of the customer can help in that area.
What’s the Difference – Reliability vs. Consistency?
What is reliability in customer service? What is the difference between that and consistency? For starters, consistency is delivering the same level of customer service every time. There is no difference from one experience to the next.
Reliability, meanwhile, is maintaining a level of quality over time. When you think, “What is reliable customer service?” you aren’t thinking necessarily about consistency alone. After all, some businesses provide consistent customer service that isn’t remotely reliable. Delivering a standard and repeating it? That’s what defines excellent customer service.
Why Customers Crave Reliability
Why do customers desire reliable customer service? When you are wondering, “How can you provide excellent customer service?” it comes down to delivering a standard regularly. Customers simply want to know that they can call upon that business and get the same level of service that they have gotten each time.
Stop to think: what does excellent customer service look like? It is about friendly service, but it is more about getting the task done reliably. The best businesses are the ones that set a standard and adhere to it. They know how to deliver reliable customer service every time.
Stop and ask yourself, “What is reliable customer service?” That will help set the tone. It will help your business learn how to give outstanding customer service each day. What defines excellent customer service is a loose template to work within. The rest is about maintaining consistency and being reliable. What does excellent customer service look like? Reliability each time.
How to Deliver Truly Reliable Customer Service Every Day
Now that we know, “What is reliability in customer service?” it is time to implement that mindset. How can you provide excellent customer service? What skills for customer service are needed and how can you improve customer service overall? Here’s how to deliver a reliable customer service experience every single day.
Step 1: Set Clear Expectations
The first thing to do to improve customer service and take it to a new level is to set expectations. That not only means setting those expectations for the customer but for the staff as well. Everyone should know what is expected of them when they come to work that day.
Small gestures can be a great way to meet customer expectations. Arrive on time for appointments, keep a clean work environment, and offer complimentary services where possible. Those extra touches clearly demonstrate that there is a commitment to the customer and show that their well-being and happiness are considered.
Another way to provide reliable, consistently great customer service is to add personalized touches. There are ways to streamline any process, but it is critical to not let them feel too impersonal. The more touches you add, the more the customer can feel that you are paying attention to them and them alone.
Step 2: Be Proactive, Not Reactive
Resolving potential issues is a must. Things can and will happen, and good businesses need to know how to rectify those situations when they arise. That said, the very best customer service experiences are the ones that anticipate the needs of their clients.
Though it can be impossible to know every single want and need of every single customer, being anticipatory can go a long way. Most customers within a particular industry have similar needs. Addressing them before they become issues can be crucial to providing exceptional customer service.
Depending on your line of business, there are certain recurring issues that may arise. For instance, offering preventative maintenance shows that you have future issues in mind for that customer. That level of care can make anyone feel important and special, something that virtually any customer can appreciate.
Step 3: Keep Your Word – No Excuses
The single most important aspect of providing reliable customer service is to keep your word. Failing to show up for appointments, failing to provide resolutions, and failing to provide reliable, consistent customer service will resonate in the minds of customers.
Utilizing scheduling software will ensure that appointments are booked properly and that everyone knows where they need to be. Invoicing software will help ensure that each bill issued is accurate and clear, allowing customers to make payments without having to jump through hoops.
The very last thing a customer wants is more frustration. Coming into an experience not knowing if it will be of the same quality as the last experience will turn a customer off quickly. Make sure that whatever your business says it is going to do, it lives up to its collective word. Customers remember bad experiences far more vividly than they remember good ones.
Why Excellent Customer Service is Non-Negotiable
As a home service business, the goal is to stand out in the best ways. To do just that, it is non-negotiable when it comes to having quality customer service. If you don’t have a clear plan in place to train staff so that they are capable of providing the expected level of customer service your business requires, you’re dead in the water.
The Ripple Effect of Reliability
The thing to remember about reliability in business is that there is a ripple effect to be felt. One action may feel isolated, but it is not. When you deliver one bad customer service experience, the customer will be impacted and may share their experience with others.
The same is true of providing reliable customer service. If you leave customers feeling satisfied with each of their experiences, there is a good chance that they are going to share that with others. Word of mouth is still a very powerful tool for businesses and can be cut both ways if you aren’t delivering.
What Happens When You’re Unreliable?
So, your business struggles with being reliable. What’s the big deal? As it turns out, being less than reliable can be one of the worst things for your business. Every customer has a set of expectations when they call or enter your business. Failing to be reliable is something they will remember above all else.
That lack of reliability more than likely means that they won’t be repeat customers. More than that, there is a fairly likely possibility that they tell others about their experience. That equates to a lot more people who won’t even bother trying out your business because someone they trust told them all they needed to hear.
What Defines Excellent Customer Service?
Depending on which business you ask, customer service has different meanings. As it turns out, there is a lot more than meets the eye. Understanding what it takes to provide truly great customer service means knowing what that entails in the first place.
It’s Not Just About Smiling
A common misconception about customer service is that it is all about smiling during the process. While it’s important to be kind and friendly, that’s just the beginning. The goal is to resolve issues and to do so in an efficient, seamless manner. Customers need to feel as though you are empathizing with what they are going through.
What many businesses don’t take into account is what happens after the experience is over. Following up and letting the customer know that they haven’t immediately left your sphere of concern can go a long way toward creating an epic customer service experience.
Customer Service vs. Customer Experience: Know the Difference
Before you can hope to provide an outstanding customer experience, it helps to know the difference between customer experience and customer service. Let’s break it down.
- Customer Service: Customer service is all about the specific interaction between a customer and the business’s support team. This happens through several avenues, generally through email, calls, or online chats. Customer service is reactive, solving issues as they come up.
Keep in mind, that there are going to be times when only a reaction is possible. Mistakes happen and issues occur from time to time. Great customer service handles the job of resolving those issues in a convenient, efficient way. Some customers don’t even mind when something goes wrong, so long as the response by your business is up to the task.
- Customer Experience: Customer experience, on the other hand, is the overall impression that a customer has with a brand or company. This begins with their initial awareness all the way through post-purchase or service support. The overall customer experience should be a proactive one, the goal being to create a seamless transition from initial awareness all the way through the final interaction between customer and business.
Great customer service is a difference-maker, but customers remember the entire experience. From reaching out to your business to the response time, every detail matters. They’ll recall the quality of service, how simple it was to pay, and whether you followed up. When all these elements come together, they create a truly exceptional customer experience.
How to Give Outstanding Customer Service Without Overcomplicating It
Now comes the million-dollar question, “How can my business provide excellent customer service?” The key is to keep it simple and not overcomplicate things. There are five key tips that will help take your business’s customer service experience to the next level.
1. Invest in Your Team’s Skills
The thing to understand is that your customer service team is the face of the business. The goal should be to maximize their skill sets, to implement clear communication channels, problem-solving, and adaptability. When that happens, it becomes easier to anticipate the needs of the customer regularly.
Pro tip: A great thing to do is to implement role-play scenarios in training. Have customer service representatives go through different scenarios to help them anticipate each situation. Teach active listening skills to build a rapport with clients. Most importantly, focus on clear communication. For a service-based business, communication may be the most important part.
2. Set Clear Communication Channels
Speaking of communication, it’s the foundation of any quality business. Customers of all backgrounds know how frustrating it is to get in touch with customer service only to have several breakdowns in communication. Customers need to be able to reach you and begin the process of problem resolution.
How Voice Helps: One of the best tools to have is Housecall Pro’s voice system. This integrated phone system will ensure that calls are routed efficiently, wait times are minimized, and ensures that each customer feels heard instead of just being a number.
How HCP Voice Transformed Chimney Monkey’s Customer Service
Brett Conklin, from Chimney Monkey, shares his experience with HCP Voice:
“HCP Voice has been great for our Company! Having the calls integrated into HCP streamlines new customer intake as well as existing customer scheduling. It allows us to centralize all the information for a customer – to include the calls made to and from, and with call recording, we can go back and validate something without needing to bother the customer again.
We can receive and make calls from anywhere (from cell phones, remote offices, etc.), and they all get recorded and logged into the same customer record so everybody on the team has access to all the information.”
This is just one of many ways in which HCP Voice improves team collaboration, streamlines customer communication, and ensures no detail is ever missed. For businesses like Chimney Monkey, it’s a game-changer in delivering reliable, organized customer service. With features like spam filtering, call queues, and voicemail management HCP Voice ensures that your customer never goes without a point of contact.
Learn more: Streamline customer interactions, including call logs, notes, and preferences, into a single, organized location with Voice from Housecall Pro.
3. Never Miss a Call with HCP Assist
One of the worst ways to represent your business is to miss calls. A missed call is a missed opportunity and those add up before long. Having reliable phone support will ensure that you can capture those leads and improve interactions between your business and customers regularly.
HCP Assist is the perfect solution for home service pros looking for a reliable call-answering solution. With a 24/7 answering service, you can breathe easily knowing that your calls are being answered professionally at all times. Customers never feel left out and assist agents are able to book jobs directly to the calendar. Even better, post-call updates can be provided so you never feel disconnected from your customers.
HCP Assist Ensures Julian Heat & Air Never Miss New Opportunities
Jason Julian of Julian Heat & Air, LLC, shares his gratitude for HCP Assist:
“Thank you so much, HCP Assist, for taking care of us when we are not able to answer every call. This service ensures that we never miss an opportunity to deliver exceptional customer experiences. We are so pleased that HCP has our back! Best decision we ever made.”
With HCP Assist, Julian Heat & Air ensures no opportunity slips through the cracks. This tool helps businesses maintain excellent customer service, even during their busiest times, giving them peace of mind and happy customers.
Learn more: Let our agents take calls and provide excellent customer service so you can get more time back with HCP Assist.
4. Leverage Technology Where You Can
Technology has reached the point that we can now communicate with anyone, anywhere, at any time. Utilizing that technology to streamline your business is a must, especially in the service industry. That means being able to properly manage your schedule, take payments, and make things as efficient as possible.
What to Use: By using Housecall Pro’s service software, you can cover every base. This proprietary software works to integrate scheduling, billing, and customer communication conveniently in one place. Never leave holes in your communication when you can have a 24/7 service that covers those bases and ensures that business is always flowing in the right direction.
5. Measure and Improve Your Service
One of the worst mistakes businesses make is to just assume that what they are doing is fine. Maybe you’ve had exceptional customer service for some time and adhere to the mantra, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” While you may not have to fix anything, there’s no way to know if you don’t take the time to assess your customer service and see where things can be improved.
How to Start: Implementing customer satisfaction surveys is the best way to start. Asking the customer directly about their experience, what they were happy with and what they weren’t, is the best way. They are telling you what they want, what they don’t like, and how to make things better.
Another great thing to do is track your response times and follow-up rates. Look for areas of improvement within your customer service setup to see where things can be better. Ideally, those will be small cosmetic changes. The more issues you find, the more likely it is that you’ve been ignoring the problem for too long.
Next Steps in Building Trust & Improving Customer Loyalty
In today’s competitive market, exceptional customer service isn’t just important—it’s essential. Customers may come for your service, but they stay for the experience. If the process is complicated or frustrating, they’ll look elsewhere.
If your customer service needs improvement, reputable field service software like Housecall Pro can help. Simplify communication, speed up response times, and ensure customers feel cared for every step of the way. With these tools in place, you can focus on other areas of your business, delivering a seamless, reliable customer experience from start to finish.
