4 Ways To Improve Your Team's Customer Service Skills Customer service has become a key differentiation in today's competitive world.

One of the best ways to grow your business is by providing great customer service. Satisfied customers refer your business to their peers, and it is by far the best way to grow your business in the long run.

In fact, a 2013 study conducted by Dimensional Research shows that 62% of B2B and 42% of B2C customers made more purchases when they got better customer service.

The above statistics clearly show that in today's world, it's absolutely important to create a positive experience for your customers, and to achieve this, your customer service team has to constantly keep getting better.

Here are some suggestions that can help elevate your service offering.

1 Make the most of social media

Social media has changed the way we communicate, so it's no surprise that companies are looking to tap into this growing power of social media by having a presence on popular sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. The advantage with social media is that you give customers more channels to communicate with your brand, so they are more likely to stay engaged.

This constant engagement can also help you learn more about your customers and their needs, so that you can change or even introduce a new line of products for greater economic benefit. Additionally, these different channels help address complaints, questions and problems faster, so the burden on your call center is greatly reduced.

However, to make the most of these benefits, you need a dedicated team that knows how to reach out to customers and engage with them on social media. You should be sure to equip your team with all the important tools including a fast and reliable Internet plan to facilitate the process. Also, a formal training on social media and etiquette helps.

2 Encourage Innovation

Give your customer service employees the freedom to innovate and come up with new ways to create a positive experience for your customers. Talk to your team regularly and make sure they are happy and motivated to work harder and smarter.

Many companies are providing an entrepreneurial environment and the necessary support needed for their employees to innovate and become successful, and such support is evident in both the satisfaction levels of customers and the low attrition rate of employees.

Other companies like Rural Telecom work with its employees to identify gaps in their customer service process. With these inputs, the management formulates a plan to fill these gaps with the right technological tools or adapts its existing processes to make it simpler and more effective.

Such innovations in the form of technological tools and supportive environments go a long way in encouraging employees to think out-of-the-box, and provide excellent service every single time.

3. Get personal

Technological tools like big data help you learn more about customers, including their interests and preferences. Using these systems, encourage your customer service team to indentify shared interests as it helps create an instant bond with customers.

Further, it improves the confidence a customer has in an employee, so the chances for a conflict is greatly minimized. At the end of the interaction, both the customer and your employee are sure to feel nice thereby creating a positive environment for everyone.

4 Feedback

One good way to know if your company is headed in the right direction is to get feedback from customers about their experience.

Create a phone survey at the end of a service call and encourage customers to give feedback about that call, or send an email to the customer and request for a feedback. Sometimes, you can even give the customer a small incentive in the form of loyalty points for every feedback they give.

Regardless of whether the feedback is good or bad, use it identify your team's weaknesses and strengths and take steps to address the same. Do everything you can to bring your customers and employees closer, so that your company as a whole benefits from future customer interactions.

In short, customer service has become a key differentiator in today's competitive world, as excellent service directly translates to a larger customer base. Hence, identifying gaps and constantly improving on them helps provide a proactive and top-notch customer experience.