In the 21st century, providing unparalleled customer service has gone from being a nice perk to being an absolute necessity. Providing excellent customer service is crucial for retaining current customers, acquiring new consumers through positive word of mouth, and building a superb reputation for your brand.
If your goal is to enhance customer service, you might wonder where to begin. Fortunately, plenty of companies offer exceptional customer service experiences that can help inspire and educate you. Keep reading to learn more about seven great businesses that have prioritized their customer service experiences to great effect.
1. West Community Credit Union
West Community Credit Union (WCCU), a Missouri-based credit union that’s been in business for more than 80 years, managed to increase their total asset holdings by over 50% during the past three years—just by providing better customer service. How? They improved their customer experience by implementing a Capacity AI-powered chatbot that offered customers and potential customers instant answers to their questions without having to wait on hold. Allowing customers to receive more accurate answers to their questions in a shorter amount of time made them better informed, which allowed them to move further down the membership acquisition pipeline. WCCU’s use of Capacity is a great example of the benefits that can come from implementing new tools to streamline customer service and engage customers.
2. Zappos
Anyone who’s done business with Zappos, the online shoe and clothing retailer, knows that providing a stellar customer service experience is one of their main priorities. Zappos puts their customers first by giving customers a year to make returns, always providing free shipping, and training their phone representatives to be as kind and friendly as possible. This above-and-beyond customer service is one of the main reasons for Zappos’s immense popularity and the reason why it was able to be sold for nearly $1 billion to Amazon in 2009. Zappos’s business model just goes to show that sometimes, nice companies finish first.
3. Trader Joe’s
Trader Joe’s provides its customers with high-quality customer service that relies on using incredibly friendly and outgoing employees, as well as convenient layouts and a relaxing atmosphere, to make its customers feel engaged and excited to come back again. Do you run a business and want to emulate Trader Joe’s customer service strategy by allowing your customers to engage with real, enthusiastic humans? Consider employing an AI-powered chatbot that offers seamless escalation through human-in-the-loop (HITL) technology, which allows customers to connect with a real human when the chatbot doesn’t know the answer to their question. By using the unbeatable combination of super-smart technology and the human kindness for which Trader Joe’s is famous, your customers will be satisfied enough to keep coming back for more.
4. Rackspace
Rackspace, a cloud infrastructure company, prides itself on offering “fanatical” customer support. The leaders at Rackspace understand that the key to happy customers is happy employees, and they’ve made sure to design the Rackspace headquarters to be as immersive and fun as possible. But their approach doesn’t stop there: Rackspace is committed to being fanatical about supporting their customers, whether that means ordering them a pizza during a troubleshooting session or earning rave reviews from companies such as Wyndham Hotels & Resorts and Aeromexico. Anyone who’s seeking to ramp up their own customer service experience would do well to let Rackspace serve as a reminder that you can never be too fanatical!
5. Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines has made it the company’s mission to fly the friendly skies by featuring outstanding customer service. Its happy employees are trained to provide the warm, friendly service that is so important to the company—it’s literally part of its mission statement. To match this people-first philosophy in your own business, consider Capacity’s Guided Conversations, a tool that guides customers through a series of questions to provide them with specific information. The Guided Conversations feature makes it easy for customers to receive the help they need without experiencing any of the stress of staying on hold for hours waiting to be connected with the correct representative. Whether your customers are trying to reschedule a missed flight or need help with something else entirely, take a page out of Southwest’s book and try to make solving stressful problems as painless and easy as possible for your customers.
6. Costco
There’s no reason why a large, industrial warehouse should be known for providing a relaxing shopping experience. However, Costco routinely tops the lists of companies known for having flawless customer service. Costco makes it a point to keep its employees happy and well-trained. It also allows them to speak openly and transparently with customers, who appreciate being treated with respect. What’s more, Costco doesn’t advertise heavily. Instead, they spend money to keep current customers happy instead of making a concerted effort to attract new shoppers. While customers may have to track down an employee at the Costco warehouse instead of being able to, say, quickly speak to a chatbot, once they do, they’re guaranteed to receive a sublime customer support experience that makes them excited to return.
7. Ritz-Carlton
Customer service is incredibly important in the hospitality industry, and perhaps nowhere is it taken as seriously as it is at the Ritz-Carlton. Employees at the Ritz-Carlton are trained to be so warm, generous, and inviting that they form an emotional bond that makes it hard for customers to consider staying anywhere else. On top of that emotional bond is Ritz-Carlton’s famous dedication, as their employees are willing to do anything it takes to make their customers happy. Going above and beyond to ensure customer satisfaction doesn’t mean needing to fly across the world to make one customer happy. Instead, it could mean using machine learning to develop customer service tools that are optimized to provide your customers with the best service possible. The positive reactions to the Ritz-Carlton’s customer service represent a valuable reminder that customers value dedication and loyalty.
Key takeaway.
Are you interested in learning more about how to provide your customers with an unforgettable customer service experience? Let us show you how Capacity can boost revenue, increase productivity, and ensure customer loyalty.