How to Improve Customer Service: 10 Practical Tips

At the heart of every successful business is a high standard of service that leaves customers feeling valued through efficient responses and practical answers to their problems or concerns. With a market size of £2.5 billion in 2022, according to IBIS World, the call centre industry is an essential customer service tool that requires agents to exceed high consumer expectations.

However, increased call volume and staffing issues present a significant barrier for call centres resulting in increased complaints, abandoned calls and lost revenue.

So, what’s the solution?

Having practical, implementable customer service tips at your disposal is one way to make a difference. In our article, we will explore our top ten recommendations to help you level up your agent-to-customer interactions.

1. Understanding and empathising with customers

According to The Institute of Customer Service, the number of customers who “prefer to pay more for excellent service has grown.” Zendesk’s survey corroborates this: "61% of customers say they would switch to a new brand after one bad experience." That’s why nailing that first customer interaction is vital. Customers hate feeling like a number and don’t want to talk to an agent reading from a script. They want to be understood, empathised with and have a genuine discussion with their call agent. They want to feel that their question or issue was handled and resolved effectively.

Customers want:

• Low effort resolutions
• Understanding of the context around their situation
• Personalised empathy
• Efficient conversations
• Knowledgeable agents
• Quick solutions

That’s why having a Quality Assurance, and Improvement platform like Evaluagent at your fingertips is vital. Your QA team can analyse typical customer interaction issues from the data generated by our AI-powered conversation intelligence to provide front-line call agents with targeted guidance and support on how to optimise customer conversations.

2. Seek and promote feedback

An automated, actionable and regular assessment and feedback cycle can make all the difference to the standard of customer service your business provides. It should form the basis of a proactive business improvement strategy with clear, actionable steps and uninterrupted workflows.

Call agents and line managers must be aware of the mistakes, strengths and weaknesses of both themselves and their team to create permanent change through accountability and visibility. Additionally, there needs to be evidence of an integrated reward system that celebrates victories, boosts morale and motivates staff through friendly competition.

An AI-powered conversation intelligence platform that collects and analyses call centre data like Evaluagent is critical to creating an automated and comprehensive feedback cycle. By recording, transcribing, assessing and scoring every conversation against customisable scorecards, our platform presents a complete image of the successes and problems of every conversation.

3. Set and communicate clear service standards

Your agents can’t provide high-quality customer service without a clear outline of expectations and the actions they need to take to achieve them. That’s why increased visibility, uninterrupted workflows, and frequent communication of changes are vital—coupled with an accurate assessment of call agents’ understanding that allows for targeted reminders and training in line with your business’s policy.

4. Exceed expectations

According to Salesforce Research, 78% of customers will continue to use the company after a mistake if a company's customer service is excellent. The key is being proactive rather than reactive with how your business deals with its customers.

Encouraging and motivating call agents to go that step further requires a cohesive and consistent customer service vision that your QA and call centre team believe in.

5. Analyse complaints

According to The Guardian, customer service complaints have reached “their highest level on record,” costing “more than £9bn a month in lost staff time.” That’s why preventative, corrective action is required to combat and improve customer service, reversing the impact on businesses. Analysing complaints to pinpoint problems is central to this development strategy.

6. Set measurable objectives

Every business needs a combination of clear, attainable and measurable short-term goals that contribute to the overall long-term vision of the company. The objectives you set need to be informed by call centre analytics and conversation data that supports your understanding of customer satisfaction, agent experience and evaluator consistency.

7. Invest in training

To provide a high standard of customer service, agents will need access to targeted 1-1 coaching, training and e-learning resources. As part of their development, they will need to have up-to-date product knowledge and a comprehensive understanding of customer service policy and to have acquired critical customer service skills.

8. Know your products and services

Customers' expectations are high, and the minimum they expect is to speak to an agent who is knowledgeable, competent and up-to-date with the services and products provided. They want to talk to someone with expertise who can handle their issue in one call without being transferred or called back.

9. Communicate clearly

Finally, cohesive, transparent and consistent communication between management, team leaders, agents and customers is the foundation of any successful business. Clear communication lines result in better collaboration, efficient call times and a consistent customer and employee experience.

10. Improve customer service with Evaluagent

At Evaluagent, we know that an excellent employee experience creates an outstanding customer experience. Using our AI-driven system, you can evaluate conversations four times faster, automate workflows, generate contextualised data and engage with agents using leaderboards, appeals, automatic alerts, and personalised feedback.

Just look at our work with Atos, who found in just a three-month trial period that they achieved a 10% reduction in average handle time and increased their CSAT score by 3% just by using our software.