According to Freshdesk’s Future of CX report, the pandemic has forced consumers to adapt to digital channels. While the consumers of 2023 prefer digital-first experiences, they expect service providers to keep up with quality customer service across channels. As companies revisit their customer service strategy, they can take a leaf out of companies that get customer service right.
The best customer service companies don’t get recognized just for a stroke of brilliance in handling certain moments with the customers. Their strength lies in the imitable support processes and customer-centric culture. Let’s learn from the companies that deliver the best customer service.
8 best customer service companies
The best customer service companies rely on customer support teams and processes to drive customer loyalty. Read on to find the key takeaways from the best customer service companies.
#1 Amazon: Self-service is the first step to serving customers
Amazon is the go-to e-commerce portal for buying a wide range of products. When the pandemic struck in 2020, companies realized that customers needed to be assured of the security of their health and transactions. So, companies had to be proactive and innovative to deliver excellent customer service.
To make the buyer’s journey seamless, Amazon compiled a list of questions related to general shipping, delivery, refund, etc., that would help customers stay assured of their purchase in uncertain times. They created a separate FAQ page with all the information relevant to the COVID-19 crisis and how Amazon would function during the pandemic.
#2 Chick-fil-A: Appreciate customers to improve customer satisfaction
Chick-fil-A, America’s fast food restaurant chain, is known for going the extra mile in providing exceptional hospitality to its customers and employees. The brand is committed to providing services not common in a quick-service restaurant. Their staff doesn’t hesitate to carry heavy trays for mothers with small children or to offer fresh pepper to the customers dining in, making everyone feel welcome.
Chick-fil-A even allows its franchise operators to get creative in surprising their customers with a little something extra, like a free bag of nuggets for their pet. [1]
#3 The Ritz-Carlton: Technology makes it easier to adapt to customer needs
The Ritz-Carlton is a hotel chain renowned for its bespoke luxury and incredible hospitality experiences. Hotel staff and customers both have access to technology to make lives easier.
While the hotel staff uses chatbots to request customer feedback and offer personalized services, customers also have access to smartphone-connected rooms and services that also remember guests’ preferences.
#4 Freshworks: Investing in customer relationships improves customer lifecycle
Freshworks offers intuitive customer experience SaaS solutions. The company is also known for the technical competence of its support teams and customer success managers, thereby improving the customer lifecycle value.
Customer-facing teams at Freshworks go all out to fulfill customization requests and take on complex technical requirements with grace, even after the sale has been completed. Freshworks helps its clients redefine customer service with the technological capabilities they may need. Watch a few customer stories highlighting how Freshworks plays an integral role in the success of its customers.
Here’s some customer feedback that reflects Freshworks’ commitment to delivering stellar customer service.
#5 Trader Joe’s: Happy employees ensure happy customers
Customers who frequent Trader Joe’s supermarkets feel that it’s where they’ve seen the happiest employees. The work culture of Trader Joe’s encourages employees to bring their authentic selves to work and prioritize customer happiness over everything else.
Every employee tries to cultivate close customer relationships by remembering things about them and their preferences. This infectious energy rubs off on the customers who want to keep coming back for the empathetic customer service experiences they get. To get a gist of why Trader Joe’s customers remain most loyal to them, watch this video where their employees break into a dance gig to entertain a kid throwing tantrums at one of their stores.
#6 Ikea: Latest technology and seamless customer service go hand in hand
Boasting over 75 years of loyal customers and patronage, world-renowned furniture brand Ikea keeps reinventing itself. Not just to keep up with customer expectations but also to define them with an integrated customer experience.
Cafes and recreation areas inside their sprawling showrooms make customers feel at home. But it doesn’t stop there. Ikea updated its mobile app with augmented reality so that customers could see how the furniture would fit into their home spaces. The AR also makes furniture recommendations based on the look and feel of your home.
#7 Starbucks: Personalized customer experiences encourage customer loyalty
Starbucks delivers hyper-personalized experiences on its mobile app, making it a personal favorite for customers.
What elevated my existing love for Starbucks was how they had my usual order ready before I reached the outlet. I flipped my mobile screen as I entered Starbucks to notice that I had received an “order ready” notification sometime before I reached. Even the reward points are catered to the drinks and snacks I usually treat myself to. With data and human touch, Starbucks continues to sweep me and many other fans off our feet.
#8 Virgin Atlantic: Customer feedback is the secret to delivering the best customer service
Virgin Atlantic’s curry story is quite popular. When a customer wrote a witty, disgruntled review about the quality of food served on their Heathrow to Mumbai flight, no one would have guessed that the passenger would end up on Virgin Atlantic’s food advisory board!
Here’s a picture of the underwhelming curry mentioned in the tongue-in-cheek feedback.
This was only possible because, instead of giving out a templatized, appeasing response, Richard Branson sought the help of the passenger and F&B experts to improve their menu across different flight routes.
Key takeaways from the best customer service companies
Thoughtful gestures or single moments of delight translate into great customer service stories. However, the key takeaway is that customer service is an always-on effort.
The best customer service companies are all about building a service culture with an underlying principle of unifying all teams towards the common goal of enhancing customer service with well-informed, customer-first decisions.
If you want to be recognized for the customer service you deliver, here are some tips to get you started:
- Focus on empathy and product expertise: Train your employees to develop compassion and a deeper understanding of customer problems right from onboarding. Maintain a knowledge library and host product walkthroughs to make your support agents technically competent in providing effective resolutions to your customers.
- Respond to customers like clockwork: Leverage workflow automation and service level agreements to get your support processes operating like a well-oiled machine. With streamlined internal processes, agents can continually respond to and resolve customer issues assigned to them on time.
- Offer self-service: Empower customers to find readily available answers for simple queries. 76% of consumers globally prefer to try first to solve issues on their own before contacting support. So, your company needs to empower customers with a comprehensive knowledge base, an AI-enabled chatbot, and user communities. Self-service can even take some workload off your support agents.
- Provide omnichannel customer service: Make omnichannel support available by bringing all the customer engagement channels, including social media, live chat, and messaging apps, into a single, unified inbox. This way, support agents can easily offer contextual assistance by accessing the consolidated view of customer service interactions across channels.
- Work as a team to resolve customer issues: Create a work culture that encourages team collaboration. It increases accountability by indulging all teams in the customer support process. Most great customer service examples are backed by support team members working towards a common goal of delighting customers.
Lastly, but most importantly, the secret sauce common across the best customer service companies is the customer service software that allows them to interact with and resolve issues for their customers.
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