Business Practices | | Published October 08, 2015

Emotional Engagement with Customers is Key in Customer Support

Customer support isn't usually thought of as emotional, but having a connection with your customers that's about more than just the product can help strengthen ties and build long-lasting relationships. This is highly-important for B2B customer service, and a good help desk support software solution will help you create this emotional connection with customers.

What is an emotional connection?
An emotional connection pertains to how a customer feels about your company. Do your customers feel appreciated and valued? Do they feel pride in the fact that they use your products and services? You want them to feel strongly about your business. According to Communico, an emotional connection to your customers is one that captures their hearts and minds. You want them to feel good when they think of you.

How to use emotion in your customer service
Korn Ferry reported that Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, said any call from a customer is an opportunity to make an emotional connection. While this is true, it can also be extended to emails or even customer self-service. High-quality B2B customer support software can help achieve emotional engagement with customers in several different ways.

Collaboration

Taking a collaborative approach to tickets can help customers build trust in you. When they see that you're really working hard and bringing in additional people to get the best possible answer for them, they learn to appreciate your business and the support you provide.

Listen

Another way to help customers feel that they are valued is to make sure customer service reps really listen to the customer's needs. Reps should let customers talk as much as they want. By making it clear that they're really there to listen and help, your reps are opening the door to let customers vent about their problems. From there, they can work to help alleviate the points of pain. Also, all of that information can be recorded into the customer support software and used to help provide better service in the future. 

Go above and beyond customer expectations

Every customer has an expectation of what will occur when they interact with your business. You need to not only meet those expectations, but exceed them. According to Denise Lee Yohn, a brand-building expert, speaker, writer and contributor to Forbes, companies who exceed customer expectations will win their hearts, which is highly valuable. A good way to do that is to make recommendations and share experiences with customers. These experiences and insights will show that your business really cares.

Create quality self service

It might seem strange to create an emotional connection through customer self-service, but with the right customer support software it is possible. When it comes to self-service, it's all about the customer having faith that the answers needed are available. Having a searchable central repository for information will help customers build an idea in their mind of your business's reliability. This paired with positive experience on the phone and email can have a drastic effect on how customers truly feel about your customer service, and therefore your business as a whole.

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