There are numerous ways to stay in touch with clients and customers in the customer service sector. Emails, phone calls, social media, and even self-service are all options. Each of them may be regarded as a different sort of customer service, but a company can only provide two types of customer service: proactive and reactive.
Let me explain the difference between proactive and reactive customer service before we move on to our main topic.
Proactive and Reactive Customer Service:
- Proactive Customer Service – This term refers to firms’ proactive approaches to avoiding customer service issues, in which they seek to foresee potential problems before they occur. Facebook, Netflix, Tesco Mobile, Amazon, Hootsuite, Virgin Media, and others are among the brands that provide proactive customer service.
- Reactive Customer Service – In this service, reactive is the total opposite of proactive; often, reactive lack preventative methods, and customers will contact the agent first before resolving the issue. To put it another way, it needs the client to initiate contact. For example, if a consumer sends an email or calls the customer service line and describes his or her concern, the agent will investigate it and come up with a solution.
Now that you’ve learned the difference between proactive and reactive customer service, you’re ready to get started. Let’s get to the meat of our discussion: the numerous sorts of customer service, from diverse support channels to proactive and reactive customer care.
5 TYPES OF CUSTOMER SERVICE (AND THEIR PROS AND CONS):
1. Customer Service on the Spot (Walk-in or Traditional Customer Service)
Do you recall going to departments or stores to contact your brand’s customer care division to return a product you previously purchased?
You’ll have a personal interaction with your consumer in traditional customer service. You’ll be able to have a better dialogue with your customer and receive real-time feedback. However, you may confront upset clients during this in-person connection with your customer, putting you in a position to find a solution immediately away, or the situation may worsen, wasting a lot of your time.
Pros of Walk-in Customer Service include:
- You’ll have the chance to promote other similar products and boost sales.
- In-person engagement with customers and a deeper knowledge of their challenges.
- You’ll pick up on nonverbal signs from your consumers, such as gestures, eye contact, and facial expressions, which will help you get to know them better.
Cons of Walk-in Customer Service include:
- Having simply a physical customer service area renders your company outdated.
- Separate client service in-house can be time-consuming and costly.
- More space in the customer care section could be used to market more products instead.
2. Customer Service via email
Customers can send their issues via email, and it won’t cost them a lot. The agent can gain more time to answer with this type of service, and they can even employ email templates for faster responses. Even while keeping track of every single email is a major problem, businesses may still use customer email management software to convert the client’s email into tickets, ensuring that it never falls between the lines.
Pros of Email Customer Service include:
- Customers can be notified about the status of their issues via an automated email notice.
- The customer conversation can be documented and recorded throughout time.
- Attach relevant pictures, Docs, videos, and other assets with ease.
Cons of Email Customer Service include:
- When you receive hundreds of emails every day, keeping track of them might be difficult.
- Customers may become frustrated and disappointed if email responses are delayed.
- Lack of face-to-face engagement with clients in real-time.
3. Customer Service via Live Chat
Live chat has grown in popularity among businesses and customers across all media. Live chat provides the fastest response compared to other channels, and they can speak with the agent while continuing to do their daily duties.
It can also provide proactive customer support, such as sending proactive chat messages to customers who have added products to their shopping cart but have not yet made a purchase, respectfully asking if they require any assistance with that item.
Pros of Live Chat Customer Service include:
- Easily integrate a chat window on your website and customize it to your liking.
- Multiple consumer chats can be handled by agents at the same time.
- Assist consumers while they buy online in real-time.
Cons of Live Chat Customer Service include:
- It can be difficult for an agent to read their customers’ emotions.
- Customers’ chat responses are frequently robotic or scripted.
- You must provide the customer with a solution nearly instantly.
4. Customer Service via Phone Calls
This is the type of channel you’ll typically see on Call Center Agents, which is why this service is still popular today.
However, while any client contact can now be conducted via digital channels such as social media or live chat, a responsive human voice can make a huge difference in providing excellent customer service.
Pros of Phone Calls Customer Service include:
- Customers can communicate with an agent in real-time and receive the best answer to their problems.
- Provide each customer with a personalized experience.
- Can provide an automated callback service for customers to connect with at their leisure.
Cons of Phone Calls Customer Service include:
- It entails rigorous agent training.
- Customer service representatives are unable to handle many calls at once.
- Customers may find international calls to be prohibitively pricey.
5. Customer Self-Service
It is a proactive customer service that offers assistance to clients who desire to solve their own difficulties. Customers use self-service alternatives to explore and troubleshoot a problem on their own in this service.
Furthermore, it is one of the routes via which customers can obtain quick and convenient solutions. FAQ pages, Blue Diamond’s website chatbots, Knowledge base or help center content, Product guides, Community forum, Video tutorials, and so on are all instances of customer self-service.
Pros of Customer Self-Service include:
- Customers are empowered to identify solutions on their own.
- Easily accessible to both current and potential clients.
- Customers should be able to get solutions quickly and easily.
Cons of Customer Self-Service include:
- There isn’t enough human interaction.
- Needs to be updated on a regular basis.
- Customers can be frustrated by poorly implemented self-service customer assistance.
All of these channels can assist the firm and its clients, but keep in mind that each sort of customer care has its own set of downsides. Knowing its upsides and downsides will help you decide what is best for your company.
If you’d like to learn more about the many types of customer service. Here’s a link to a page where you can learn about and comprehend not only the five types of services I mentioned earlier.
Page Source: https://www.proprofsdesk.com/blog/types-of-customer-service/
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