How it Works
Ultimate Security
What is retail support?
What is retail customer service? Retail customer service and support are a set of actions aimed at providing customers with superb services, timely answers and help should they require it.
How is retailing customer service different?
Retail customer service might seem like the same thing with customer service for any other field. It does call for different skills and knowledge to be acquired by the professionals. A business operating within a retail segment must make sure their customer service agents have experience in helping shoppers make a purchase to get to the checkout point.
Customer experience has to be superb to turn shoppers into repeat customers almost on the spot.
How can any company reach this goal?
Customer service in retail: best practices
Providing the best retail customer service is not easy. It takes a lot of experience and practice. Those providing customer service in retail stores must know the best ways to satisfy their customers and turn them loyal.
Listen and hear
When working with customers in retail, make sure the customer service team knows all about communication with any type of customer. It might be:
- In person — in shops and stores;
- Via the phones — retail customer service call center;
- Via online messengers and emails — for both on- and offline stores.
No matter what channel, a retail customer service team has to know the product inside-out to provide shoppers with outstanding customer service. This requires listening and hearing them no matter how angry, irritated or disappointed they might seem. Most customers want someone to talk to and to tell their issue to. The main thing to remember is if a customer is angry, they are not angry at a customer service consultant but with the issue itself.
Hearing them out and resolving their issues in the shortest time will improve customer satisfaction.
Go the extra mile
It all depends on how good a retail customer services you want your business to be famous for. Any business wants to be known for superb retail support services. So many businesses that provide additional services and strive to add value to their retail customer service team by making it go the extra mile for their customers. What can businesses do to add value to their customer service?
- Provide retailer customer service 24/7;
- Take customer feedback into account when making changes;
- Train the team to use positive language;
- Obtain necessary cybersecurity certifications.
Do what your customers would expect from you without them asking. Stay ahead of your customers’ requirements and be sure to provide them with retail customer services of consistent quality.
Use positive language
Although we already touched on positive language in good customer service in retail, it is important to expand on the topic. What is positive language? What is a retail support definition of a positive language?
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🚫 |
✅ |
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We can not do this. |
We are looking into another solution |
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There is no way to resolve this. |
We will do everything to resolve this. |
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Refund is impossible. |
We can make you another offer. |
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This is a difficult task. |
The resolution may take some time. |
By shifting the rhetoric into a positive outlook and towards positive language, one can easily change customers’ perception of your entire team and business.
Provide memorable and personalized experience
74% of customers get frustrated if their online retail experience is not personalized. 36% of customers say retail businesses need to pay more attention to personalization and the most important — a whopping 91% of customers prefer to shop with retailers that personalize their experience and journey.
Bottom line — the more you personalize your retail customers’ service, the less churn you will see.
Retailer customer service management — involvement into the process
Management in retail customer service plays a pivotal role in the performance of a team. The more attention managers are paying to each of the team members, the better they will perform in the long run. What are the best ways to be involved in the team’s life and performance?
Hire the best retail support team
The first step is expanding the team with the right professionals. Correct hiring and onboarding processes can make sure you are getting the right people into the right positions and provide them with the right skills and knowledge.
Developing an elaborate hiring process that will leave you with the best retail customer service professionals is probably the most important thing a business owner can do. Without it one can never assemble a good management and customer service team. Do not be afraid to go through many candidates for the position. Take the time to find the right one and the search will pay off.
Train the team
Take your time training the team and then ensuring the knowledge is mastered and used in practice to the fullest extent. Another good practice is checking the level of your team’s knowledge every once in a while. This way no dip in retail customer service will escape the management’s attention, and they will be able to address them right from the get-go.
Adopting the best training techniques and developing them to perfectly suit your needs might take a lot of time. In the long run it will turn your retail customer service team into real professionals in the field.
Conduct and participate in team building
75% of professionals say teamwork and collaboration are very important for their productivity. But efficient collaboration is impossible without good team building.
What is the best team building for a retail customer service team?
- Communicate in an informal setting;
- Conduct online trivia nights;
- Encourage out-of-work communication;
- Play games that will help the team to get to know each other better.
The best way to form professional relationships is to build a personal one. Personal bonds last longer making the team closer and more efficient.
The future of retail customer service and SupportYourApp
Retail customer service, just like any other, is developing and changing. For the most part it is due to customers’ preferences and expectations. The current events like the COVID-19 are making their changes too. For example, 58% of retail businesses now think their teams will keep on working from home at least partially even when the pandemic is over. 35% of business owners think home will become a primary working spot for their teams.
Customer activity will also take a long time to come back to the pre-pandemic era. 70% of customers stopped shopping for non-essential items online as their priorities have changed over the last year.
Customers will pay more attention to their retail experience. 59% of responders say they started to pay more attention to customer service and journey than they did a year ago.
Customers’ preferences change. And the world of customer service must too. Here flexible customer service and support solutions come in handy — in the time of change. And the entire team of SupportYourApp is prepared for any changes that customers are going through.
How did we reach such results?
We have superb hiring and onboarding techniques
SupportYourApp HR and onboarding departments are real pros when it comes to expanding our team with the best of the best. Our elaborate interviewing process helps us make sure only the most experienced and worthy applicants will join our team.
Onboarding makes sure all the newcomers have the knowledge necessary for developing and growing within SupportYourApp structure. And we do it all with our customers and clients in mind.
We provide teams with all retail customer service tips and tricks
After the onboarding, future retail customer service professionals are ready to soak in a decade of SupportYourApp experience through an extensive training program. During it our newest customer service consultants get all the information on the product or service they will be supporting.
We also never stop checking the level of their knowledge and often conduct tests and quizzes to make sure everyone is on top of their game.
We always listen to the teams
Our teams are completely free to speak up their minds to their managers. We always listen to everyone’s concerns and make sure everybody is comfortable with their product and the team. No one is left without proper care and support. Each member of each team is taken care of. We prevent burnouts by talking to the professionals and making sure they are comfortable with their working conditions and their projects.
This also ensures the best customer-centric approach as we select only the most appropriate and skilled professionals for every project.
As a result we have developed our own retail customer service trend — the best and most efficient communication with the customers by making our teams as knowledgeable and comfortable as possible.
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