“The best way to avoid customer churn is to know your customers.”

Welcome to the last episode of this year’s Content Pie! In this post, we will look at the topic of customer churn.

What is customer churn?

Customer churn, also known as customer attrition, occurs when customers stop doing business with a company. Churn can happen for a variety of reasons, such as: 

• poor customer service, 
• high prices,
• poor product improvement. 

Whatever the reason, customer churn is costly for businesses because it means lost revenue.

Why is reducing customer churn important?

Reducing customer churn is important because it helps businesses keep their revenue stream flowing. In addition, acquiring new customers costs five times more than retaining existing ones, so reducing customer attrition can also help save on marketing and advertising expenses.

What is the churn rate?

The churn rate is a metric that measures the percentage of customers who cancel their subscription or service within a given period of time. It’s an important metric for companies to track because it can give them insights into customer satisfaction and retention. 

Ebook tip:

In purpose to avoid customer churn, track customers’ intentions with the right questions.

The most valuable part of any survey is often not the score you receive. It’s the “why” behind the score that provides the most insight.

So we’ve rounded up a list of survey questions, including follow-up questions you can use in your next customer-facing survey to supercharge your results and drive impactful changes.

Recommended articles:

• Churn Rate: 7 Tips For Keeping Your Churn Rate Low

• Ignore the Haters: Why You Should Focus on your NPS Passives Instead of your Detractors

• What Types of Metrics Measure Customer Satisfaction?

• Top Customer Retention Tools for SaaS Businesses to Keep Customers Hooked

• 7 Ways to Measure the Effectiveness of your User Onboarding

• How to Reduce Customer Churn with a Person to Person Etiquette in Business

Podcast tip:

Customer Experience Leaders Chat is where we talk to support professionals from all over the world and discuss what’s behind their team’s success. 

Listen as Matt from SevenRooms outlines a unique approach to motivation and something all support leaders can apply to their teams today.

The post Content Pie#10: All You Need to Know about Customer Churn appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

“Do more with less” –  is one of the challenges of the upcoming year. How to use AI effectively while maintaining a human touch?

Welcome to the new episode of Content Pie. The best excerpts on important topics! In this episode, we chose a trend that is getting stronger every year. Yes, the power of artificial intelligence influences many fields of our lives, not only the customer service world.

In today’s episode, we’ll look at our most useful pieces focused on AI, chatbots, and automation written on Nicereply’s blog to date. But let’s start with basic definitions. 

What can AI do?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the ability of a computer or robot to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as natural language understanding or decision-making. 

What is AI good for?

Artificial intelligence and chatbots can help to automate repetitive tasks, so as to free up your customer support team to focus on more complex issues.

Reasons why AI and chatbots are so practical to implement:

messaging applications and their rise in popularity,

they need to be set up only once (but properly),

when they’re set up well, they will save you operation costs,

they can work 24/7.

A few examples of using artificial intelligence in customer service:

chat responses,

personalized recommendations in autoresponders,

social media responses.

Discover more ways how to get the most out of AI and automation here:

Recommended articles:

• Effective Tips for Managing Chatbots in Customer Support
• How AI can benefit your customer service in 2022
• The Pitfalls of AI Automation in Customer Service and How to Avoid Them
• 7 Low-hanging Ways to Reduce Customer Effort

Podcast tip:

Customer Experience Leaders Chat is where we talk to support professionals from all over the world.

In this episode, we talk to Lance Conzett, Business Operations Manager at Postmates – an on-demand food delivery platform that gives customers access to restaurants and retailers. 
Listen as Lance from Postmates outlines why companies should maximize leadership effectiveness through support operations.

The post Content Pie #9: How AI can boost your support appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

Holidays can easily become a stressful time of the year. Learn how to communicate reduced service hours while keeping your CSAT as high as possible.

Ahead of us is one of the most beautiful seasons of the year, but also one of the busiest. Before you sit down with your family at the table, make sure your customer support representatives, as well as your customers, will enjoy the same peace and well-being.

In this episode of Content Pie, we’ve gathered the best blogs on how to communicate reduced service hours. We also have practical resource tips and a podcast you will enjoy listening to.

Welcome to Content Pie #8!

The reasons why the last quarter of the year can be the best one, yet still turn into a wave of customer dissatisfaction are pretty clear:

• It’s the period of the year when your customer hunts for the best shopping deals. It might (naturally) increase the number of new support tickets.
• Your customer support agents are still humans. In addition to work issues, they face a lot of personal challenges as well. Holidays aren’t a good time for improvisations, so make sure you have a good plan for them.
• It is common to hire more people during the rush holiday season. Despite your busy schedule, don’t ignore proper onboarding. Get yourself and your team on the right track with processes that are verified and work.

FREE RESOURCE

11 Templates to Communicate Reduced Service Hours over the Holidays

• Live Chat Template
• Social Media Template
• Email Signature Template
• Help Center Notice Template
• Autoreply Template
• Phone Recordings Template

Prepare yourself with powerful templates that work. Keep your customers happy during your time away. Download our free templates now and nothing will surprise you later.

Dig into the topic with recommended blogs:

Please keep in mind, that even though the holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas are mentioned, feel free to use the following templates anytime.

• 9 Tips For Handling Customer Service During The Holiday Rush
• Winter is Coming: Prepare For Your Seasonal Rush Now (yes, now)
• 5 Tricks to Increase Customer Satisfaction during the Holiday Season
• How the Grinch stole CSAT During the Holiday Rush

Podcast tip

Customer Experience Leaders Chat is where we talk to support professionals from all over the world.

Listen as Andrew from Automattic highlights their hiring process, as well as tips on removing some of the pain of interviewing and hiring more effectively.

The post Content Pie#8: How to Communicate Reduced Service Hours appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

Are you considering a career as a customer service representative? There is no better time than now!

Believe it or not, the summer season is a great time for finding a new job. Companies aren’t so busy and you have a lot of time to take some rest and prepare for an interview.

Almost 50% of American employees are considering a change of job and remote work is getting more attractive than ever before. Moreover, a career in customer service can be very rewarding if you are looking for a meaningful job and you love to help other people.

We dedicated this episode of Content Pie to the best tips on how to find a new job as a Customer Service Representative. Look at our ebook tip, recommended articles, and podcast you should listen to.

What does a customer representative do?

There are several tasks that customer service representatives do, but one of the most repetitive duties is:

• Answering customers’ questions (about a product, a company, or services) and solving their complaints.
• Directing customers to the relevant department if it’s necessary.
• Reviewing and analyzing customers’ feedback.
• Handling reclamations and returns.

FREE Ebook Tip

In this resource you will find:

• Essential skills for the support role.
• Technical terms you should know.
• What to expect from a customer support job interview.
• The components and pitfalls of a great customer service resume.
• Places to look for your new job.
• Resources to master your skills.

Recommended articles

• Why You Should Treat Your Support Job Like Your Yoga Practice
• 9 Places to Look for Your New Dream Job
• How three Heads of Support got their job
• 11 Best Practices for Managing Customer Feedback

Podcast tip

The topic of burnout was already heard before Covid-19, but the pandemic time has strengthened the negative effects of burnout even more. Burnout prevention is one of the best things you can do.

Listen as Jenny from FruitStand shares incredible insight about burnout to help us better support ourselves and our teams.

The post Content Pie#6: How to Get a Job as a Customer Service Representative appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

Everything you need to know about Customer Effort Score – why is so important and how to measure it.

A new month, a new topic! Let’s talk about a popular survey type known as the Customer Effort Score (CES) and discuss what it is; when to use it; and why it’s so important for your brand.

What is the Customer Effort Score (CES)?

Customer Effort Score is a metric used to evaluate how easy customers thought it was to get a resolution to their recent contact.

What is the idea behind the Customer Effort Score (CES)?

Customers prefer doing business with companies that are easy to work with. Do your clients have to work hard to get what they want? Then, there is a high probability (94%) that they won’t be loyal to your brand.

When should I use the Customer Effort Score?

Measure CES by surveying customers after the resolution of their conversation, finishing a call, fulfilling an order, ending a chat, or closing a deal.

By default, your survey is sent after 24 hours since resolving a ticket. However, the biggest advantage of Nicereply’s surveys is that you can customize the time when your surveys are sent. Don’t overwhelm your customers with survey emails and use over surveying protection. Choose after how many days can a customer receive another survey email.

How is the CES measured?

Customer Effort Score survey questions ask whether customers agree with the following statement:

“XY COMPANY” made it easy for me to handle my issue.

On a 1 (low) – 7 (high) scale they indicate whether they agree or disagree with the statement.

How do you calculate a CES?

You can calculate your CES by subtracting the percentage of people who responded positively from the percentage of respondents who offered a negative response. The neutral responses are normally ignored.

Recommended articles:

• The Ultimate Guide to Customer Effort Score
• Using Customer Effort Insights to Build Experiences People Love
• Benchmarking Customer Effort Score: How do your CES results stack up?
• How To Use NPS Feedback To Reduce Customer Effort

Podcast tip:

Listen to our special episode with Scott Rothman, Market Director at Challenger Inc. – a global leader in training, technology, and consulting to win today’s complex sale.

Together with Craig Stoss, they discuss how can your company benefit from CES & how to train your agents to provide an effortless experience.

The post Content Pie#5: What is Customer Effort Score? appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

Stars, smileys, or thumbs? Can’t decide? Read on to find the answer.

Welcome to the next episode of Content Pie! In today’s piece, we will look at different types of Nicereply’s CSAT survey scales. If you are considering using Nicereply, one of the first steps in setting up your survey will be the selection of the survey scale.

CSAT surveys are among the most widely used metrics. Not only because they tell you a lot about your customers’ opinions, but because CSAT surveys can be very flexible. Let’s have a look at their pros and cons.

Types of CSAT survey scales

2-Point Scale

Pros:
• There is nothing that you could misunderstand about the 2-Point Scale.
• You have an accurate answer to how the customer evaluates the experience with your agent or company.
Cons: 
• You don’t give the customer the opportunity to express a neutral opinion.

3-Point Scale

Pros:
• The customer can express a neutral opinion.

Cons:  
• Unless the customer leaves you more detailed feedback (or comment) you won’t gain many insights from that kind of data.

5-Star Scale

We’ve introduced a lot of exciting updates lately, but the biggest news is definitely our 5-Star Scale for CSAT surveys!

Pros: 
• A 5-star survey is one of the most popular ways to gather customer feedback.
• This type of scale is suitable for wide audiences since the idea of a 5-star rating is universal.
• It’s an intuitive system that is easy to analyze and interpret. The 5 stars represent the positive upper limit, while the 1 star represents the negative customer experience.
• You can change the sentiment of the scale if you want to.

Cons: 
• If you are an existing customer and you want to use the 5-Star Scale, you need to create a new survey.

Haven’t you tried our surveys yet? All you need to do is just sign up for a free trial and enjoy all advantages it delivers.

10-Stars Scale

Pros: 
• It’s the widest scale you can use. You’ll give your customers the opportunity to express a variety of emotions.

Cons: 
• There is no significant disadvantage. However, keep in mind that you can throw your customers into the so-called paradox of choice – the more options they have to choose from, the worse they decide.

Reading Tips

Now, when you have an overview of what each scale can offer, read more about the most popular metrics. Each has different benefits and with the right combination you’ll get the most out of your surveys:

• Benchmarking CSAT, NPS, and CES: What’s a Good Score to Have?
• Measure Your Customer Loyalty by Combining NPS and CSAT Score
• The Ultimate Guide to Net Promoter Score 

Podcast Tip

After reading our blog tips jump into the art of collecting and analyzing data! Looking for some inspiration? Listen to Customer Experience Leaders Chat where we talk to support professionals from all over the world.

In this episode, we talk to Tom Ronen, Head of Customer Success at Monday.com. Find out how they work with data to help customers succeed.

The post Content Pie #4: Overview of Nicereply’s CSAT Survey Scales  [Pros and Cons] appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

In 67% of cases, a poor customer experience is the main reason for customer churn.

We often deploy powerful tools such as CSAT surveys to measure Customer Experience. It is no surprise at all – CSAT surveys can tell us many things about customers’ thoughts. The goal of this article is to help you write better survey questions, along with some customer satisfaction (CSAT) survey examples.

How do you write a customer satisfaction survey question?

One of the most common questions you can use in your CSAT survey is “How nice was my reply?”. But there are other possibilities for how to ask the same thing creatively.

Other customer satisfaction survey examples:

• Are you satisfied with the service you received?
• Did we answer your question today?
• How likely are you to recommend our service to other customers?
• Did we make it easy to get the help you needed?

How do you write customer satisfaction follow-up questions?

Imagine the scenario where a customer answered your survey. However, you see that the rating didn’t meet your expectations and is lower than you wished. Never leave negative feedback or low-rating feedback without an action.

You can use one of these follow-up examples to discover the reason for your customer’s reaction:

• Is there anything we can do better next time?
• How can we improve the service you received?
• Tell us more about your experience.

Some other effective customer satisfaction survey questions to ask:

• On a scale from 1-10, how would you rate our speed of service?
• What features do you find the most useful in our product?
• If we could improve one thing, what would you like to see happen?

Reading recommendations

For more customer satisfaction survey examples don’t hesitate and have a look at the following articles.

They are full of practical tips that are worth reading:

• The ultimate guide to Customer Satisfaction Score
• 5 Customer Service Email Examples For Tough Situations
• Best Questions for Customer Satisfaction Survey
• 15 Ideas to Bring Little Acts of Love Into Your Customer

Podcast tip

HelpScout is a help desk software that lets you create stronger customer relationships, save time, and increase team productivity.

Listen as Mat from HelpScout talks about how you can make writing a pivotal piece of your support team to engage with your customers.

Conlusion

The ability to write perfect surveys and emails should be a natural “superpower” of your support agents. However, no one is born perfect and writing is one of the skills you can master easily.

Follow us for more Customer Support tips!

The post Content Pie #3: Customer Satisfaction Survey Examples appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

The most commonly used metric is NPS.

Even though it doesn’t seem like it, the NPS metric is important to many companies. Here is a brief overview of what NPS means, how is NPS calculated, and what is a good NPS score to achieve.

What does NPS mean?

The NPS means Net Promoter Score and it’s a metric specifically developed to measure customer loyalty, judging by a customer’s likelihood to recommend a product to others.

What is NPS and why is it important?

The NPS survey is specifically centered around the question:

“How likely is it that you would recommend Company to a friend or colleague?”

Customers can then respond on a scale from 1 (very unlikely) to 10 (very likely). Those responses separate customers into three categories:

How is NPS calculated?

The total NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters.

What is a good NPS?

Customers who answer lower than 6 are detractors, while those who respond with a 9 or higher are promoters. Customers responding 7-8 are passives.

Reading recommendations

• What is a Good Net Promoter Score & What Should We be Aiming for?
• Measure Your Customer Loyalty by Combining NPS and CSAT Score
• 25 Support Emails To Generate Trust and Loyalty Resource

Podcast tip

If you want to achieve high NPS you must not only provide excellent customers service but also delight or surprise your clients (of course, in a good way!).

“The key for us is never losing some kind of human connection.”

Listen in as Marc from Koala highlights some tips & tricks on how you can perpetually delight your customers.

Conclusion

Thanks to NPS you can measure how loyal is your customer to your brand and your business. Remember, there are two “things” you should always take care of – your clients and your NPS. We are here to help you with both of them.

Follow us for more Customer Support tips!

The post Content Pie #2: How is NPS calculated? appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

Get back on track without absurd New Year’s resolutions!

Welcome to our first edition of Content Pie. Content Pie from Nicereply is content in short form that offers value and actionable tips on the spot.

Today we will go through 12 things to do to improve your customer support in 2022. Rather than focusing on everything all at once, we’ve curated a list of tips that you can focus on monthly. Each month, choose a new focus and commit to integrating it within your support team.

Enjoy!

12 things to do to improve your customer support

Develop a positive attitude

Blog tip: 3 Customer Service Skills for Handling Difficult Conversations

Close conversations properly

Blog tip: 6 Tips for Writing Satisfying Customer Service Responses

Take notice of customer complaints

Blog tip: How to Answer Customer Complaints to Keep Them Coming Back

Use the same language as your customers

Blog tip: 5 Effective Tips For Approaching Difficult Customer Conversations

Help customers to help themselves

Blog tip: 5 Practices For Creating A Customer Service Knowledge Base

Collect feedback from your customers regularly

Blog tip: What Do Customer Satisfaction Metrics Really Measure?

Show empathy for your customers

Blog tip: Customer Love Letters to Warm Your Heart

Focus on first contact resolutions over speed

Blog tip: 5 Ways to Reduce Average Handle Time Without Sacrificing Quality

Send personalized messages to customers

Blog tip: Using Customer Effort Insights to Build Experiences People Love

Give your customers personal contact

Blog tip: Building Trust with Your Customers for Lifelong Relationships

A whole team approach to customer support

Blog tip: Using CSAT Scores for Better Cross-Functional CX Collaboration

Hire outstanding people

Blog tip: Hiring Support Agents: 6 Stories for Aspiring Support Agents

Get back on track without absurd New Year’s resolutions! Instead, focus on creating a plan to reach your customer support goals in 2022.

The post Content Pie #1: Set Yourself Up for the Year 2022 appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.